3DEL: API: Own API without 3D HW-support

3D Engines List
API: Own API without 3D HW-support

This list contains 51 rendering engines with own api but without 3d hw-support.

Texture-mapping Engines

22.12.1999 Quesa 22.12.1999

Quesa is a high level 3D graphics library, released as Open Source under the LGPL, which implements Apple's QuickDraw 3D API on top of OpenGL. Quesa was started by Dair Grant (dair@webthing.net), although substantial amounts of code have since been contributed by other developers.

Support for retained and immediate mode rendering
Extensible file format
Hierarchical models
Objectoriented API
Support for MacOS, Linux and Windows - ports to Be and Mac Mac OS X are in progress
Portable ANSI C source

More information, screenshots and links to download the source can be found on the Quesa Homepage

17.07.1999 Open Media Toolkit 17.07.1999

The OMT is an 3D engine and application framework for Mac, PowerPC, Windows 95/NT from Pacific Media WorX.

High performance C++ mix-in architecture
Perspective, shaded texture mapping
Flat and gouraud shading
Multiple colored lights
Translucidity
3D sprites
Three polygon sorting methods and two polygon software rasterizers
2D engine
Network support
Collision detection

More information and documentation can be found on the Pacific Media WorX Homepage.

21.07.1998 Jaw3D 16.12.1996

Jaw3D is a 3d engine by Jawed Karim ( jaw3d@jawed.com ).

Shaded texture mapping.
Lambert flat, gouraud and (fake) phong shading.
Wireframe rendering.
Environment mapping.
Movable light source.
Painter's algorithm: qsorted polygons.
Support for 3 resolutions: 320x200, 640x480, 800x600 .
Converter for POVray smooth trinagles and 3D Studio 3DS to j3d format, direkt support for Quake MDL.
DOS and ix86 linux elf version.
C API.

More information and a demo can be found on the Jaw3D Homepage.

19.03.1998 Amp Game Development System 13.05.1997

The AGDS (formerly Diamond 3D Game Development System) is a complete game development system for Windows 95 from Slam Software.

Perspective shaded, texture mapping.
BSP rendering.
Gouraud shaded, hierarchical 3D characters.
Realistic light sourcing with shadows.
Movable Mirrors.
3D editor.
Collision detection.
Physics model / Particle Model.
Advanced animation system with animation blending
Direct-Sound based audio system.
Client/Server game architecture
8 bit color support, variable resolution.
Coming Soon: Multiplayer support and 3DFx Acceleration.

More information, screenshots and a demo can be found on the Slam Software Homepage.

12.02.1998 CyberGL 12.02.1998

CyberGL is a subset of the OpenGL API for Amiga computers by CyberGraphX.

Gouraud shaded, linear texture mapping.
Z-buffer rendering.
Environment mapping.
Fogging and depth cueing.
User clipping planes.
Support for 68030/68040 and 68060 processors.
Support for 8, 15,16 and 24 bits per pixel.

More information, screenshots, demos and the library can be found on the CyberGL Homepage.

30.01.1998 HiRender 29.10.1996

HiRender is a PC 3D rendering API by Mark Grocki (mgrocki@umd.umich.edu) from Hirise Software.

Gouraud shaded perspective texture mapping.
Bilinear texture mapping.
Depth cueing.
Z-sorting.
Hither and yon clipping.
Load and display 320x200x256 PCX files.
3D objects: load, translate, rotate and display with only a few function calls.
3D entities: use as characters in a game, simulation, etc.
Timing functions: get FPS, lock frame rate, get elapsed time in seconds and 1/100th seconds.
Mouse functions.
Support for Jaw3D files.
Used with DJGPP compiler.

More information, an SDK and a demo are available via the Hirise Homepage.

29.01.1998 Screaming Cabala 16.07.1996

The SC is a graphics library for the Macintosh by Andrew Meggs (meggs@virginia.edu).

Linear and quadratic shaded texture mapping.
Depth cueing.
Transparent and translucent sections on textures.
Support for 8- and 16-bit screens.
Full sprite package.
Freely available for development.
Minimum CPU is a 68040LC (without FPU)

The library and more information can be found on the Screaming Cabala Homepage.

27.10.1997 XGL 21.05.1996

The Solaris XGL Graphics Library is a mature graphics interface, providing foundation-level geometry graphics support for Solaris-based applications from Sun Microsystems.
The XGL Graphics Library is both an Application Program Interface (API) and a geometry foundation library and is just one part of the powerful graphics environment provided as standard with the SUN Solaris 2.x operating system.

Shaded, perspective texture mapping.
Transparency.
Accumulation buffer.
Antialiasing.
Nurbs, meshes, polygons, triangle lists, lines.
Dynamic loadable devices, hardware acelleration.
Support for SPARC and x86 microprocessor architectures.
C++ API.

More information on the XGL Homepage.

16.09.1997 Project SpandeX 01.01.1995

Project SpandeX (previously known as Latex) is a 3D engine from Paul Nettle (midnight@www.grafix3d.tzo.com).

Commercial quality engine, written by commercial game developer.
Open-GL like
Texture-mapping, environment-mapping, bump-mapping, solid-color polygons, Phong shading, Gouraud shading, Lambert.
Perspective correct, and affine texture mapping both supported
Sub-pixel, sub-texel accuracy
Z-buffering and sorting.
Triangles, lines, points, text (mono or proportional).
Up to 100 dynamic light sources.
Material support with Ka, Kd and Ks variables (may change on the fly).
Support for any resolution.
Multiple cameras that can act JUST like 3DS cameras.
Hierarchical database design with forward kinematics and inheritance.
100% Pure C for portability with small inline ASM parts.
Over 250 API calls for maximum flexibility.
Support for DOS and Linux/X11.
Latest version is completely true-color.

More information, screenshots, the source and demos can be found on the Project SpandeX Homepage.

02.09.1997 CyberGL 02.09.1997

CyberGL is a 2D/3D graphics AMIGA shared library whose API is a subset of the OpenGL API from Phase 5 Digital Product.

Shaded perspective texture mapping.
MIP-mapping.
Gouraud and flat shading.
Wireframe rendering.
Anti-aliasing.
Material support.
Spot, point and directional lights.
Support for 8bit or less and 15,16 and 24 bit color.
Support for 68020/30/40/60 and FPU.

More information, screenshots, demos and the library can be found on the CyberGL Homepage.

16.06.1997 Engine Zero 16.06.1997

EZ is a commercial 3D engine for PCs from Engine Studio.

Perspective texture mapping.
Flat shading using surface cache.
Animated textures.
Depth cueing and fogging.
BSP rendering.
SVGA support.
Script based behavior model.
Collision detection.
Sprites.
Network support, client/server system.
Sound support.
BSP compiler with support for 3D Studio 3DS import.

More information and a demo can be found on the Engine Zero Homepage.

09.06.1997 J3D SpaceCrafter 09.06.1997

J3D SpaceCrafter is a high level 3D Graphics and Virtual Reality API for Java from InWorld VR, Inc.

Shaded, perspective texture mapping.
Tested on Intel, Macintosh, Solaris, Javastation, JavaOS and SGI.
Hierarchical objects.
ZSorting and z-buffer.
Collision detection.
Multiple 3D clipping choices.
3D sprites.
Standard 3D objects.
Built in terrain generation and terrain following functions.
Support for 8 bit indexed and 24 bit color modes.
Java API.

More information and screenshots can be found on the J3D SpaceCrafter Homepage .

09.06.1997 IMAA 09.06.1997

The IMAA (Integrated Modeling, Animation & Analysis) toolkits by Hee S. Chung ( Hee@cyberkorea.com ) contain a 3D rendering engine. The IMAA toolkits are available for Windows, DOS and Silicon Graphics IRIX.
IMAGE, IMAA Graphics Environment

Texture mapping.
Gouraud shading.
Z-buffer rendering.

IMAML, IMAA Modeling Library

Low level ( Euler ) level modeling
Sweeping,
3D primitive objects.
Boolean set operation.
NURBS.

More information and demos can be found on the IMAA Homepage.

30.04.1997 MindRender 26.02.1996

BR is a high performance programmer's API for PCs from Themekit Ltd.

DOS and Windows 95 support (planned).
SVGA support.
Support for 3D input and output devices, like gloves and HMDs.
Z-buffer rendering.
BSP support.
Stereo rendering.
Perspective texture mapping.
Wireframe/solid, gouraud shading and optional phong highlights.
Transparent and shaded textures.
Light and shadow mapping.
Unlimited number of colored lights. Spot, point and directional lights.
Movable lightsources, dynamic light parameters, distance cueing, fogging.
Pre-Rendering of static scenes.
Collision detection.
Keyframe animation, morphing.
Sound support.
API interface to high- and low-level routines.

More information and a demo is available on the ThemeKit Homepage.

15.04.1997 TAG 01.10.1996

The TAG (TBA Advanced Graphics engine) is a commercial 3D engine for the Acorn Archimedes from TBA software (tba@tbalond.demon.co.uk).

Gouraud shaded, perspective texture mapping.
2D sprites.
Sound and music support.
Collision detection.
3D editor.
Multiplayer support.
'Virtual machine' for running compiled P-code linked to each object .

More information can be found on the TBA Software Index Homepage. There was also a news from TBA Software in rec.games.programmer that contained a perspective texture mapping scanliner using the TAG library.

08.04.1997 TGMP V2 08.04.1997

TGMP V2 is a commercial real-time rendering system for PCs written in Delphi 2.0 from Graphical Magick Productions Ltd, written by Peter Dove (peterd@graphicalmagick.com).

Shaded linear texture mapping.
Gouraud and flat shading, wireframe and point rendering.
Z-buffer rendering.
Uses DirectX 3 for rendering.
BMP and PPM texture file support.
Cylindrical and spherical texture wrapping.
Loads DirectX X format, convertor available for 3DS to X .
Written in Object Pascal / Delphi 2 (also the api).

More information and a demo can be found on the TGMP V2 Homepage.

17.03.1997 ZEUS (Link Problems!) 11.11.1996

ZEUS is a PC 3D commercial game engine by BRAINSTORM ( brainstorm@ndirect.co.uk).

Gouraud-shaded perspective texture mapping.
MIP-mapping and MIP-texture calculation routines.
Multiple levels of semi transparency.
Wireframe and flatshading.
RGB and RAMP color models, 8 and 16 bit colors.
Multiple colored light sources.
Z clipping , back face culling and polygon sub-division routines.
Depth cueing and fogging.
Multiple level parallaxing routines.
Supports fast spherical blitting (Special sphere primitives that render just as fast as a polygon primitive)
Collision detection.
Direct 3d studio 3DS file support.
LBM/GIF support.
Watcom C, hand optimized for Pentium.
SVGA (VESA 2.0) support, Windows 95 Direct Draw Primitive version.
Map editor and palette remapper utility.
Low level access to primitives.
Cross compatible with Playstation low level libraries allowing games to be converted in virtually no time at all.
High level API, including a system for creating orbital planetery systems.
GUI which supports many comman features such as windows, dlg boxes, requesters, list boxes etc.
8/16 bit MONO/STERO 64 channel DMA support (for in game sound fx).
MIDI music support (for background music).
Multiplayer IPX networking support.
In development: full 3D game editor for worlds, characters etc.

More information and a demo can be found on the BRAINSTORM - ZEUS Homepage.

19.11.1996 Cancun 15.07.1996

Cancun is a commercial 3D engine from Michael Case (mcase@digitald.com), Digital Dialect.

Perspective texture mapping with gouraud shading.
Sloping walls, full 6-degrees of freedom.
MIP-mapping.
Polygonal objects.
Direct3D support, Windows 95/NT.
Environment building tool.
3DS scene and animation support.

More information and a demo on the Digit Dialect Homepage.

12.11.1996 GRAFICA NATURA 20.09.1996

GRAFICA NATURA is a 3-D realtime rendering system which was primarily designed for realistic visualization of natural objects and phenomena, e.g. plants, landscapes, clouds and water. GN is written by Steffen Hauser (stephen@cs.tu-berlin.de).

Linear, shaded polygon texture-mapping.
Support for X11-Windows and DOS.
Primitive objects (e.g. cube, disk, sphere, cone, cylinder, plane, bezier-patch, rotation curve, height field).
Procedural plant models.
Hierarchical object construction.
Lambert and gouraud shaded surfaces.
Unlimited number of light sources.
Wireframe or solid rendering (gouraud shaded and textured surfaces).
Z-buffer rendering.
Transparent surfaces.
Import:
- Objects: 3DS, GEM, NFF, PLG, TRI
- Textures: PPM, TGA
Output:
- Objects: VRML (no materials and textures yet)
- Images: PPM, TGA
Color specification with RGB-, HSV-, HLS- or CMY-format.
Atmospheric effects (e.g. fog, haze).
C++ source.
Simple but powerful stack-based programming language with more than 150 build-in commands for definition of objects, surfaces, textures, camera movements and lightning effects.

The source and more information can be found on the GRAFICA NATURA Homepage.

28.10.1996 3DR 01.01.1995

3DR is Intel's scalable, real-time 3D graphics library which has been optimized for the Pentium(R) processor.

Up to 16 light sources.
Texture mapping, environment mapping, modulated textures.
Sprites and bitmaps.
Atmospheric effects.
Optional z-buffering, antialiasing, transparency, alpha blending.
Windows 3.1, Windows 95 and Windows NT support.
Free of charge, no royalty fee.

Intel announced on the 23 october 1996, that 3DR is no longer supported.

01.10.1996 Virtual laboratory 01.10.1996

The project "Virtual laboratory" is a virtual reality simulation system that implements the concept of a virtual laboratory. It was developped by Marc Bernatchez (mbernat@gel.ulaval.ca) at the Universit� Laval.

Flat shaded, perspective texture mapping.
Simulation system.
3D toolboxes.
Windows 95 and NT support.
16 bit color depth.

More information and a demo can be found on the Project Virtual Laboratory Homepage.

09.09.1996 Genesis 19.06.1995

Genesis is a 3D rendering toolkit for Windows from Steven Woodman (spike@silicond.demon.co.uk).

Perspective texturemapping and gouraud shading.
Enhanced spanline algorithm.
Unlimited light sources.
Specular highlights.
Z-buffer rendering.
Underlying geometry engine can be changed to make use of another renderer.
Windows based object editor with spin tool, primitive creators, boolean CSG operations.
Lightwave file support.

More information and a demo on the Genesis Homepage.

20.08.1996 WordUp Graphics Toolkit 14.06.1995

WGT is a graphics library for PCs by Chris Egerter (egerter@egerter.com). Beside a 3D engine, the 10 libraries offers sprite animation, 3d math, drop-down menus, scrolling engine, joystick commands, FLI/FLC animation routines, file selector, serial communications and a 32-bit protected mode digital sound system for playing music and mixing sound effects real-time.

DOS, VESA SVGA, Windows 95 with DirectX and OS/2 support
Perspective texturemapping with gouraud and phong shading.
Translucent polygons.
Motion blur.
No z-buffer or BSP, only polygon sorting.
Direct 3DS file format support.
400 page printed manual.

A demo of the library can be found on x2ftp.oulu.fi . The wgt directory also contains 3 tutorials with source for linear texturemapped polygons and other interesting stuff like landscape rendering and texturemapped phong shading.
More information, demos and tutorials on the Egerter Software Homepage.

20.08.1996 PSpace 20.08.1996

Possibility Space is a complete development system for real-time 3D rendering by Non-Linear Arts (webmaster@nlarts.com).

Support for DOS and Windows (using WinG).
Perspective texture mapping.
Material textures may contain transparent areas and be of arbitrary size.
Gouraud shading.
Integrated collision detection supports variable collision proximity.
Multiple object instancing.
Hierarchical models.
3DS converter for objects and materials.
Full 32-bit code.

More information and demos is available on the Non-Linear Arts Homepage.

25.07.1996 3d Graphic Tools 25.07.1996

3DGT is a graphics software developer's tool for the Microsoft Visual Basic and Visual C++ environments from Micro System Options ( moptions@concentric.net ).

Windows 95 / NT and 3.1 support.
Procedural textures and picture mapping.
Z-buffer and painters sorting.
Sophisticated lighting using multiple, movable color light sources with optional ambient light, depth cueing and special effects.
Flat and Phong shading.
Flexible, color, translucency and other object level attributes for control of objects'appearance.
3d point, line, wireframe drawing and clipping.
Edge anti-aliasing and image post processing .
Extruded, rotated, swept, lofted, spline and arbitrary curves and surfaces.
Object generators (cube, cylinder, sphere, etc.)
DFX, STL and 3GT file format support.
The Windows C/C++ versions include complete source code.

More information on the Micro System Options Homepage .

19.04.1996 TAGL 01.01.1995

TAGL (Threedee Advanced Graphic Libraryis) a portable 3D C++ class library from Bruno Levy (bruno@ensg.u-nancy.fr).

Linear texturemapping in RGB and colormap mode.
Environment mapping.
Support for 8bpp, 15bpp, 16bpp, 24bpp and 32bpp displays.
Z-buffer rendering.
Gouraud shading and dithering, wireframe and flatshading rending.
RGB emulation in 8bpp mode.
Dynamic linking, to load new drivers at run time.
Multiple output windows or rendering ports inside a single window.
Tested with DOS and under X11-Windows with Linux, SunOs, Solaris, HPUX, OSF1 and IRIX.
C++ design with inheritance, C++ inlining, generic scanliners.
3 layer design (GraphicPort for portable framebuffer access, PolygonEngine for rasterization and GeometryManager for 3D transformation and graphic primitives).
GEOM file object viewer.
C++ API with lots of sample programs,

The full source can be found at sunsite.unc.edu. More information in the TAGL Readme.

26.03.1996 Real-Time Animation Toolkit in C++ 31.08.1995

RTAT is a book ( ISBN: 0471121479) from Rex E.Bradford.

Flat-Shading, linear texturemapping.
VGA and SVGA support.
ARTT Rendering Class.

21.03.1996 Citigrade 3D 21.03.1996

CG3D is a 3D API and editor for PCs from Claude Marais (Claude@wwg3.uovs.ac.za).

Linear, shaded texture mapping.
Wireframe, gouraud and flatshaded rendering.
Z-sorting.
PCX texture support.
Uses WordUp Graphics Toolkit for rendering.
3D object editor.
Animation files.
C++ API for the library.
Currently only single objects are supported.

The library and some tutorials can be found on x2ftp.oulu.fi . More info in the Citigrade 3D Readme.

16.11.1995 Amber (Link Problems!) 16.11.1995

Amber is a set of C++ classes from DIVE Laboratories Inc. Amber enable developers to create complex distributed virtual environments on multiple platforms.

Windows 3.1/95 support (using 3DR or RealityLab ), SGI, DOS/Windows with Creative 3DBlaster and Sun running Solaris with X11-Windows.
File support for NFF, WRL and TGA.
Hardware support for 5DT Glove, VIO HMD.
Physical properties and behavior modeling.
Distributed interactive simulation (DIS) and multi-user system support using windows sockets and TCP/IP.
Add on modules like special fx, atmospheric fx, agents, inverse kinematics, morphing...

More infomation, demos and a shareware version can be found on the Amber Homepage.

06.11.1995 Object3D 01.01.1995

Object 3D is a 3D real time graphic library from Thomas Landspurg (tomsoft@worldnet.net).

Linear texturemapping, animated texture maps.
Light sourcing and gouraud shading.
Transparency.
Sphere-primitive.
Windows (uses WinG), DOS and maybe soon on X11-Window (Unix).
C++ classes, one can easily add new kind of graphic element by subclassing existing classes.
A Visual Basic VBX allows to add 3D graphics without writing one line of code.

A windows demo is available on x2ftp.oulu.fi , for more information see the Object3D Homepage.

01.01.1995 Virtek 3D Ware 01.01.1995

3D-Ware is a comphrensive 3D graphics library which allows high speed 3D graphics applications to be written using your favourite compiler.

DOS, C++, based on F29 Retaliator engine
Multiple Viewports
Autoscaling sprites
Motion tracker support
Support for HMDs and flicker glasses.

More info and a demo on the Virtek Homepage.
3D Ware demo: ftp.cs.tu-berlin.de

01.01.1995 Dore 01.01.1995

Dore' is a powerful 3D graphics subroutine library, made freely available by the Kubota Graphics Corp. It provides a comprehensive set of tools for creating graphics applications. It is also easy to use, portable, and extendable. This version has interfaces/drivers to X11-Windows, PEX, IrisGL, OpenGL, Postscript and more. It has been ported onto most Unix systems, including Linux, NetBSD, and FreeBSD. It has also been ported to Windows NT 3.5. Dore is available on the Dore FTP Server

01.01.1995 Cyberspace Development Kit 01.01.1995

The CDK is a library to create VR application under Windows 3.1 or Windows NT. CDK is from Autodesk Inc.

C++ class library.
Color dithering.
Support for many I/O devices.
Support for graphics hardware.
Physical simulation classes.

More info and a demo on the CDK 2.0 Homepage. A newer version of the 3ds/dxf/ast viewer for windows can be found on the Johnny Mnemonic VR Player Homepage.
Some info is found the CDK Viewer Helpfile.

01.01.1995 Purple 01.01.1995

Purple is an evaluation kit for fast 3D engines and virtual reality I/O devices from Karsten Isakovic (ki@cs.tu-berlin.de).

ANSI C, runs on X11-Windows, Mac, Windows, OSF and TOS. There is also a simple C++ interface.
Hierarchical, movable BSP subscenes with level of detail management for the objects, object grouping.
System-primitive rendering for wire/flat shading, z-buffer, framebuffer only or z-only rendering, direct 3D hardware support (for DEC Kubota)
Flat or gouraud shading in combination with dithering, transparency and texture-mapping.
Unlimited colored, movable lightsources (distant, point and spotlights).
Material constants (ambient, diffuse, specular).
File I/O: rib,asc,rwx,plg,fig,geo,geom,scn,tri,ply. Texture I/O: tga,tiff,gif
Multiple cameras with stereo-support that render into windows or textures.
Simulated virtual person, all elements are controllable with I/O devices like Bird-sensor, Logitech 3D mouse, K1 glove, Powerglove, Sega Activator, Flightstick or 2D Mouse.
Internal task concept, all actions run as purple tasks.
2D sprites, 2D and 3D text, overlay and underlay text, backdrop images, fog/distance cueing.
Environment mapping and mirrors.
Portal rendering with 3D frustrum clipping.
Stereo rendering for red/blue glasses or for CyberMaxx HMD.
Work in progress:
- MIP-mapping and animation for textures.
- Fast shadows with shadow mapping.
- Phong and bump-mapping.
- Anti-aliasing, 2D effects like lens-flares and fire.
- Distributes object visualisation, networked worlds.

Gouraud-shading Engines

30.06.1997 Scorpion 30.06.1997

Scorpion is a 3D engine for the Acorn Platform from Stuart Lovegrove ( stu@scs.leeds.ac.uk ).

Gouraud, flat and wireframe rendering.
Transparency.
Multiple moving point light sources.
Support for 16 and 24 bit color.
3D primtive objects.
Resolution independant.
Motion blurr.
Written in C++/Assembler, C++ api.

More information and a demo can be found on the Scorpion Homepage.

02.05.1997 3D with Hoops: Build Interactive 3D Graphics into your C++ Applications 02.05.1997

3DWH is a book (ISBN: 0-201-87025-8) from Wm Leler and Jim Merry that contains a CD rom with the HOOPS library for all supported platforms ( Windows 3.1/NT, Mac, X11-Windows on Silicon Graphics, HP, IBM RS/6000, Sun Sparc and DEC OSF/1).

07.03.1996 Free3d (Link Problem!) 07.03.1996

F3D is a portable, object-oriented real-time 3d rendering library from Brandon Van Every (vanevery@blarg.net).

Gouraud and flat shading, texture mapping is planned.
Painters sorting.
X11-Windows support.
C++ source code.

More information and the source can be found on the Free3d Homepage.

15.01.1996 LibRaum (Link Problems!) 15.01.1996

LR is a commerical 3D API from Bitblox (hedu@ipn.uni-kiel.de).

X11-Windows running under HPUX and Linux.
Wireframe, flat and gouraud shading.
Multiple camera support.
Multiple lights, point and spotlights.
Painters sorting and z-buffering.
RAD scene language, builtin shapes.
C++ API.

More info and demos on the libRaum Homepage.

11.12.1995 HOOPS 06.11.1995

HOOPS is a commerical 3D API from Ithaca Software, which was bought by Autodesc Inc a few years back.

Windows 3.1/NT, Mac, X11-Windows on Silicon Graphics, HP, IBM RS/6000, Sun Sparc and DEC OSF/1 .
Flat, gouraud, phong and silhoutte mode.
Fast software z-buffer.
Display, printer and plotter support.
Support for hardware acceleration boards.
Object database management.
HDI (Heidi, Hoops Device Interface) is used for 3D Studio Max under Windows NT and in AutoCAD R13c3.
Easy to programm.

Contact:1001 Marina Village Parkway, Alemeda, CA 94501
More info on the Hoops Homepage of Tech Soft.

01.11.1995 Avril 01.01.1995

AVRIL is A Virtual Reality Interface Library, written entirely in ANSI C, except for the very low-level routines that actually write to the display. AVRIL was written by Bernie Roehl (broehl@sunee.uwaterloo.ca).

Support for HMDs and many input devices
Simpler and better API than REND386
Full documentation

Source: Official AVRIL site sunee.uwaterloo.ca or at ftp.cs.tu-berlin.de
More info on the Avril Homepage or in the Avril Readme.
There is also a Internet Virtual Reality project from Lepton Incorporated that uses the AVRIL rendering engine.

Doom/Wolfenstein Engines

02.05.1997 4DX 06.07.1995

The 4DX Rendering Engine is a commercial doom/heretic game engine from Jaimi McEntire (jaimimc@aol.com) from Eldermage Corp.

Animated sky mapping.
Non rectangular walls with different height.
Looking up/down is done via y-shearing (as in Heretic, Dark Forces etc).
Animated sprite objects.
Transparent textures.
Interactive level and texture editor.
2D effects like snow.
Sound support.
DOS and Windows libraries available.
4DX is a C++ Library and requires Watcom C++ v 10.0, 4DX is fully 32bit.
Doom WAD file importer.
Available as Delphi 2.0 VCL, as ActiveX control for Visual Basic, as Linkable Library for Visual C++ or as DLL.
Map editor.

More information and a demo can be found on the Eldermage Homepage.
An older demo can be found on x2ftp.oulu.fi . More info in the 4DX Readme.

Flat-shading Engines

21.04.1997 Perspectives 01.10.1996

Perspectives is a virtual reality graphics interface for PCs by Pierre Barthe (pbarthe@www.mns.fr) in association with Un Autre Monde for PBA Softwares.

Flat shaded polygons.
World system build on spheres and not infinite planes.
Windows 3.1/95 and NT support.
Support for VRML 1.0/2.0 (retreives objects geometry).
API for Borland C++4.0 up to Borland C++5.0.

More information and a demo version can be found on the PBA Software Homepage.

24.02.1997 Mirage 22.01.1997

Mirage is a unix port and followup of VR386 from Christophe Maurel ( maurel@electech.polymtl.ca ).

Hierarchical linked figures.
Animation state machine.
Support for WorldToolKit NFF, AutoCad DXF and VR386/Render386 PLG and WLD files.
Support for X11-Windows on SGI, SunOs and Linux.
Tcl/Tk interface.
Portable C source.

More information and the source can be found on the Mirage Homepage.

19.04.1996 WatRend 19.04.1996

WR is portable scanline-based 3D rendering engine from Gavriel State (gav@mag1.magmacom.com).

Support for Macintoshes, SGI machines, X11-Windows, x86 DOS and Linux.
Fixed-point and floating-point math.
Based on Rend386 and Avril.
Active edge table scanlining.
PLG file support.

More information and the source on Gav's Homepage.

21.03.1996 XYZ++ 01.01.1995

XYZ++ is a commercial 3D graphics class library for PCs from Glacier Point Software (gp@glacierpoint.com).

C++ Interface
Output is done via BGI interface
Fixed point and float math

You find some demos and more information on the Glacier Point Software Homepage.

01.09.1995 REND386 01.01.1995

A 3-D Polygon Rendering Package for the 386 and 486 written by Dave Stampe (dstampe@sunee.uwaterloo.ca) and Bernie Roehl (broehl@sunee.uwaterloo.ca).

Hierarchical linked figures
Animation state machine
Support of external io-device and display drivers
No longer supported.

Source: sunee.uwaterloo.ca or at ftp.cs.tu-berlin.de. More info in the REND386 Readme.

10.07.1995 VR386 01.01.1995

VR386 is the other followup to REND386, it was written by Dave Stampe (dstampe@sunee.uwaterloo.ca).

better timebase for timing and control
simplified programmer interface
EMM386 for up to 4 megabytes of memory for object storage

Source: psych.utoronto.ca or at ftp.cs.tu-berlin.de

Wireframe Engines

12.06.1995 VOGLE 12.06.1995

VOGLE (very ordinary graphics learning environment) is a device portable graphics library that is loosely based on the Silicon Graphics Iris GL. VOGL was done by Eric H. Echidna (echidna@munnari.OZ.AU).

C source.
Drivers for postscript, sun workstation, apollo workstations, X11-Windows (R4 & R5), tektronix (401x), hpgl, dxy, and the ibm pc cards: hercules mono, cga, ega, vga and sigma, Windows and HP graphics terminals..
Bezier patches, polygons, arcs, lines and hershey font 2D text support.
Flat and wireframe rendering (no shading!)

The source can be found on munnari.oz.au .

12.06.1995 VOGL 12.06.1995

VOGL (very ordinary GL Like Library) is a device portable graphics library that tries to be Silicon Graphics Iris GL compatible. The intention is that any VOGL program will compile unchanged on a machine running SGI GL (the examples do). VOGL is based entirely on the other graphics library VOGLE. VOGL was done by Eric H. Echidna (echidna@munnari.OZ.AU).

C source.
Drivers for postcript, sun workstation, apollo workstations, X11-Windows (R2, R3 & R4), tektronix (401x), hpgl, dxy, and the ibm pc cards: hercules mono, cga, ega, vga and sigma.
Bezier patches, polygons, arcs, lines and hershey font 2D text support.
Flat and wireframe rendering (no shading!)

The source can be found on munnari.oz.au .

Non-realtime Engines

19.09.1995 RenderLib 19.09.1995

RL is a 3D graphics dynamic link library for Windows 3.0 from buitenhu@cs.rug.nl .

Written 1991 for Windows 3.0 and 386 PCs.
8 bit display support.
Wireframe, no-shading, flat- ,gouraud- and phong-shading.
Polygon and polyline rendering.
Hierarchical transformation matrices, grouping.
NFF file support.
Multiple viewports.
Unlimited number of coloured lightsources. Ambient-, directional-, point- and spot- lights.

The demo can be found on micros.hensa.ac.uk. More info in the RenderLib Readme.

12.06.1995 SIPP 12.06.1995

SIPP (SImple Polygon Processor) is a scanline z-buffer rendering library from Equivalent Software HB. the authors are Jonas Yngvesson (jonas-y@isy.liu.se) and Inge Wallin (ingwa@isy.liu.se).

Phong, gouraud or flat shading.
Texture, opacity and bump mapping.
Bezier patches and polygons and object primitives.
Procedural texure shaders.
Arbitrary number of light sources.
Z-buffer rendering.
Simple anti-aliasing through oversampling.
Output to Portable Pixmap format (ppm) or user-supplied functions.
C source and good documentation.

The source can be found on isy.liu.se . There is also a version with TCL interface available at ftp.uu.net.

3D Engines List API: Own API without 3D HW-support

This list contains 51 rendering engines with own api but without 3d hw-support.