64 lines
2.9 KiB
Markdown
64 lines
2.9 KiB
Markdown
# Pathfinder 2
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Pathfinder 2 is a fast, practical, work in progress GPU-based rasterizer for fonts and vector
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graphics using OpenGL and OpenGL ES 2.0+.
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Please note that Pathfinder is under heavy development and is incomplete in various areas.
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The project features:
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* Low setup time. Typical glyph outlines can be prepared for GPU rendering in about 5 microseconds
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each (typically O(n log n) in the number of vertices), making Pathfinder suitable for dynamic
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environments. The setup process is lossless and fully resolution independent; paths need only be
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prepared once and can thereafter be rendered at any zoom level without any loss in quality. For
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static paths such as game assets, the resulting meshes can be saved to disk to avoid having to
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generate them at runtime.
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* High quality antialiasing. Pathfinder can compute exact fractional trapezoidal area coverage on a
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per-pixel basis for crisp antialiasing, provided that either OpenGL 3.0+ or a few common
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extensions are available. Supersampling is available as an alternative for 3D scenes and/or
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lower-end hardware.
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* Fast rendering, even at small pixel sizes. Even on lower-end GPUs, Pathfinder typically matches
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or exceeds the performance of the best CPU rasterizers. The difference is particularly pronouced
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at large sizes, where Pathfinder regularly achieves multi-factor speedups. All shaders have no
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loops and minimal branching.
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* Support for full vector scenes. Pathfinder 2 is designed to efficiently handle workloads that
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consist of many overlapping vector paths, such as those commonly found in SVG and PDF files. It
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makes heavy use of the hardware Z buffer to perform occlusion culling, which often results in
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dramatic performance wins over typical software renderers that use the painter's algorithm.
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* 3D capability. Pathfinder 2 can render fonts and vector paths in 3D environments. Vector meshes
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are rendered just like any other mesh, with a simple shader applied.
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* Portability to most GPUs manufactured in the last decade, including integrated and mobile GPUs.
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Geometry, tessellation, and compute shader functionality is not required.
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## Building
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Pathfinder 2 is a set of modular packages, allowing you to choose which parts of the library you
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need. A WebGL demo is included, so you can try Pathfinder right in your browser. (Please note that,
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like the rest of Pathfinder, it's under heavy development and has known bugs.)
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To run the demo, make sure NPM and nightly Rust are installed, and run the following commands:
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$ cd demo/client
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$ npm install
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$ npm run build
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$ cd ../server
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$ cargo run --release
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Then navigate to http://localhost:8000/.
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## Authors
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The primary author is Patrick Walton (@pcwalton), with contributions from the Servo development
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community.
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Pathfinder abides by the same Code of Conduct as Rust itself.
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## License
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Licensed under the same terms as Rust itself. See `LICENSE-APACHE` and `LICENSE-MIT`.
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