Ouros is a rudimentary 3D rendering application built with C++ utilizing the Vulkan API for blazing fast rasterization and shading. This is mainly for tinkering around, so don't expect the most performant and clean code. I will be using the amazing Sascha Willems's https://howtovulkan.com/ guide as a platform.

Some design philosphies:

Cross platform (Windown & Linux, Debian in my case)
Minimal external libraries. Some libraries are unavoidable, especially for a project with a large scope. Libraries for window creation, matrix math, and device interfacing are inevitable, but dependency complexity is usually a problem.
Compartmentalization: units should be separated a part from each other as mushc as possible to reduce codebase complexity. eg, the renderer should be completely separate from a keyboard interface.
Performance tracking: since Vulkan is absurdly configurable, different options need to be able to be profiled to determine the best option
Configurability: being able to change things without a rebuild is in general good practice. I like yaml
Fun: if its a pain to maintain then you're doing it wrong
shmunguss

Roadmap

Below is some steps to organize development plan and future goals, mostly following Sascha's guide. Might change once I know what I'm doing (I won't).

Repo setup
Hello world application
Window creation (~~glfw~~ or sdl)
Vulkan installation
Hello Vulkan: instance creation
Device/GPU Setup
Graphics pipeline -> swapchain
Shaders
Hello triangle
3D
Texture loader
Model Loader
Mouse/Keyboard inputs

Below is beyond Sascha's guide, but available elsewhere on his github. These are more long term ideas.

Lighting
Shadows (via Shadow Mapping)
Compute Shading
Raytracing
Graphical User Interfacing
Post-Processing Effects
Procedural Generation
Particles

Build instructions

Dependencies:

CMake (im using 4.0.0)
C++20 compatible compiler (I use g++12 or MSVC++17) (probably works with mingw but I haven't tested it myself)
Vulkan compatible gpu drivers (tested with an RTX3070 and an R9700)
Vulkan SDK (https://vulkan.lunarg.com/sdk/home)
SDL3*
VOC*
GLM*
Will add more as the project grows

*packaged with the Vulkan SDK

Clone respository:

$ git clone https://git.vxbard.net/homeburger/ouros.git --recursive

Configure and build project:

$ cmake -S . -B build \
  -DVULKAN_PATH="${VULKAN_INSTALL_PATH}" # either set this variable or substitute it in
$ cmake --build build -j

Execute application:

$ ./build/ouros
# or on windows:
.\build\Debug\ouros.exe

For control on debugging:

$ ./build/ouros --debug=0b00111111

where each bit in the mask corresponds to a debug level, in order: unused, unused, fatal, trace, error, warning, notice, and info. 0b1111111 enables all debug messages.

Additional Resources

https://howtovulkan.com/, primary guide, most up-to-date (2026, Vulkan v1.4)
https://vkguide.dev/, Vulkan v1.3, but provides a lot of guidance on a more robustly architectured Vulkan app
Will add more as I use them