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Getting started

LiteFX is a C++23 rendering engine for Windows with backends for Vulkan and DirectX 12. It is built with CMake, and its dependencies are managed with vcpkg. This section helps you set up a project that uses the engine.

  • Installation

    Install the engine with vcpkg (recommended), build it as part of your project using FetchContent, or install it manually.

    Install LiteFX

  • Project setup

    Create a new CMake project that uses LiteFX, from the vcpkg manifest to the first build.

    Set up a project

  • Your first triangle

    Write a small application that renders a triangle with both backends, and learn the core concepts of the engine along the way.

    Start the tutorial

  • Samples

    Browse the samples, from basic rendering to ray tracing and mesh shaders.

    Samples on GitHub

Work in progress

This guide is developed along the engine and may reflect changes that are not yet available in the current release. For a working reference, please check the project template.

Requirements

To build applications with LiteFX, you need:

  • Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit).
  • A C++23 compiler: Visual C++ from Visual Studio 2022 or newer, or Clang/clang-cl.
  • CMake 3.23 or newer and vcpkg. Both are part of the Desktop development with C++ workload of Visual Studio.
  • A GPU with driver support for Vulkan 1.3 and/or DirectX 12.
  • The Vulkan SDK (only required to target Vulkan).

Starting points

If you want to start right away, use the project template, which contains a ready-to-build project that can be used as a starting point for your own project. For a more complete example, take a look at the sample project.

The guides in this section explain the same setup step by step, which is helpful if you want to integrate the engine into an existing project. They are not a replacement for the CMake documentation and the vcpkg documentation, which cover those tools in depth.