Project detail
mrQuixote: Low-Level 3D Rendering Engine
Bypassed commercial high-level engines to architect a custom 3D graphics pipeline from scratch. Programmed in pure C++ and OpenGL, the engine features a hierarchical scene graph, custom GLSL shaders for real-time lighting, and direct raw memory management (VAOs/VBOs).
Computer Graphics • C++ & OpenGL • GLSL Shaders • 3D Math
The Problem: The "Black Box" of Modern Engines
Modern tools like Unity or Unreal Engine are incredibly powerful, but they act as a "black box," abstracting away the fundamental math, memory allocation, and GPU communication. To truly master systems engineering and high-performance computing, I needed to strip away the abstractions and talk directly to the hardware.
The Build: Raw Memory & Hierarchical Graphs This wasn't about assembling assets; it was about building the factory that processes them.
Graphics Pipeline Mastery: Managed raw GPU memory buffers (VAOs, VBOs) in C++ and implemented complex 3D mathematics (Model, View, and Projection matrices) to translate spatial coordinates directly to the screen pixels.
Hierarchical Scene Graph: Architected a node-based ecosystem to manage 3D entities. This allowed for chained, parent-child spatial transformations, enabling complex, synchronized animations of multiple scene elements without performance drops.
The Magic: Bespoke GLSL Shaders & Real-Time Physics
Custom Shader Programming: Authored bespoke Vertex and Fragment shaders in GLSL to calculate dynamic, real-time lighting. Implemented advanced shading models combining Ambient, Diffuse, and Specular light components with precise UV texture mapping.
Real-Time Interactive Loop: Developed a responsive, low-latency event-handling system to process asynchronous keyboard and mouse inputs, allowing fluid navigation of the 3D space and real-time manipulation of the lighting environment at a high frame rate.
