Novolis Docs
novolis-rendering / materials-and-backends.md

Materials and ray tracing backends

Compile-time friendly rendering

dotnetgraphicsrenderingnovolis

Normative API reference for novolis-rendering. Host display (Raylib, Silk.NET) is out of scope here — see roadmap-raytracing.md.

Two worlds

AuthoringRuntime
`Scene`, `IMaterial`, `MeshInstance``CompiledScene`
Human-friendly records`GpuTriangle`, `GpuMaterial`, `GpuLight`, `BvhNode`
`Materials.Metal(...)` presetsFixed-size blittable structs

Backends consume only CompiledScene + CameraSnapshot.

Materials

IMaterial is a marker. Concrete models are independent records (no inheritance):

  • StandardMaterial — PBR baseline (base color, roughness, metallic, emission)
  • GlassMaterial — transmission / IOR
  • SkinMaterial — approximate subsurface
  • EmissiveMaterial — mesh lights

MaterialCompiler.Compile(IMaterial) → GpuMaterial with MaterialModel + three Vector4 lanes.

Backend contract

public interface IRayTracingBackend
{
    ValueTask ResizeAsync(int width, int height, CancellationToken ct = default);
    ValueTask UploadSceneAsync(CompiledScene scene, CancellationToken ct = default);
    ValueTask RenderAsync(CameraSnapshot camera, int sampleIndex, CancellationToken ct = default);
    IRenderOutput Output { get; }
    int SampleCount { get; }
    void ResetAccumulation();
}

Progressive rendering: accumulate samples; display = average.

Presentation (separate packages)

IFramePresenter.PresentCpuFrame(ReadOnlySpan<Rgba32>, width, height) — implemented in Novolis.Rendering.Presentation.Raylib or Novolis.Rendering.Presentation.Silk. No scene types in host presenter packages.

Boundaries

  • Rendering must not reference Novolis.Raylib.* or Novolis.Simulation.*.
  • novolis-raylib must not reference any Novolis.Rendering.* package.
  • Only Novolis.Rendering.Presentation.Raylib may reference Novolis.Raylib.Runtime.