PIXIRenderer

PIXIRenderer is a cross-platform rendering engine designed to serve both interactive visualization and photorealistic rendering workflows. It implements a physically based rendering pipeline with global illumination, path tracing, and real-time ray tracing, while also providing rasterization for fast previews. The project is open-source and aims to be modular, extensible, and suitable for game previsualization, architectural visualization, and research.

Key features include:

- Real-time and offline rendering modes, with a path tracer and rasterization backend

- Multiple backends such as Vulkan, DirectX 12, and Metal, with an optional OpenGL fallback

- A unified physically based rendering material system and texture workflow

- Environment lighting via HDRI support and image-based lighting

- Denoising and temporal stabilization for improved image quality in both real-time and offline modes

- Instancing, animation, and level of detail support, including motion blur

- Scripting and plugin API (Python) and shading compatibility with OSL

- Scene graph, cameras, lights, and import/export support for common formats like glTF, OBJ, and FBX

Architecture and approach center on modularity and extensibility. The core engine delegates rendering tasks to backend backends, keeping materials and shading decoupled from the underlying API. A plugin system allows effects, post-processing, and custom shaders to be added without modifying core code.

Development history and licensing are oriented toward openness. Development began in the late 2010s with public releases advancing through multiple major iterations, adding backends, path tracing capabilities, and denoising improvements. PIXIRenderer is released under a permissive open-source license and maintained by an active community, with documentation and tutorials intended to assist artists, developers, and researchers.