ASCII Renderer

A small C++ library that draws shapes (triangles, squares, circles, cubes) into a grid of characters and outputs them as text. It uses only the C++ standard library: no graphics or math dependencies. You get wireframe shapes in the terminal with support for 2D transforms (translate, rotate) and a simple 3D cube with depth-style rendering.

What it does

• 2D shapes: Triangle (3 vertices), square (4 vertices), circle (center + radius). All use normalized coordinates 0–1.
• 3D cube: 8 vertices, 12 edges; back edges and front edges can use different characters so it reads as 3D.
• Transforms: Translation and rotation via a stateful renderer; you set state, supply vertices, call draw().
• Output: A Framebuffer holds a width×height grid of chars; you clear it, draw into it via the renderer, then call toString() and print (e.g. to the terminal).

Everything lives in the ascii namespace. See docs/Overview.md for how the pieces fit together.

Build

Option 1: Build scripts (recommended)

From the project root:

Script	Unix / Linux / macOS	Windows
Build (configure, build, run tests)	./scripts/build/build.sh	scripts\build\build.bat
Clean (remove build/ and bin/)	./scripts/build/clean.sh	scripts\build\clean.bat
Rebuild (clean then build)	./scripts/build/rebuild.sh	scripts\build\rebuild.bat

• build — Creates build/ if needed, runs CMake, compiles, then runs ./bin/ascii_tests. You can run from the repo root or from any directory; the script switches to the repo root automatically.
• clean — Deletes the build/ and bin/ directories so the next build is from scratch.
• rebuild — Runs clean then build. Use after changing CMake options or when the build is in a bad state.

On Unix, make the scripts executable once if needed: chmod +x scripts/build/*.sh

Option 2: Manual

From the project root:

mkdir -p build && cd build
cmake ..
cmake --build .

Binaries are produced in the project bin directory (e.g. bin/ at the repo root when you run from build/).

Run

Examples:

./bin/rotating_cube    # 3D cube rotating on X/Y/Z; Ctrl+C to stop
./bin/moving_square    # Square moving horizontally, looping

Tests:

./bin/ascii_tests

Navigate the repo

Path	Purpose
include/	Public headers. math/ (Vec2, Vec3, Mat2, Mat3), framebuffer/, renderer/.
src/	Implementation. One subfolder per area: math/, framebuffer/, renderer/.
examples/	Standalone programs. rotating_cube.cpp, moving_square.cpp.
tests/	Unit tests. test_main.cpp plus math/mathTest.cpp, renderer/rendererTest.cpp.
scripts/build/	Build scripts: build.sh / build.bat, clean.sh / clean.bat, rebuild.sh / rebuild.bat.
docs/	Detailed docs: Overview, Framebuffer, Renderer, Math, Entrypoint.

Where to start reading:

• Use the renderer — examples/rotating_cube.cpp or moving_square.cpp: create a Framebuffer, create a Renderer with it, set RenderState, build vertices, call draw(), print fb.toString().
• Understand the pipeline — docs/Overview.md and docs/Renderer.md.
• Understand the buffer — include/framebuffer/framebuffer.h and docs/Framebuffer.md.
• Understand the math — include/math/*.h and docs/Math.md.

CI: .github/workflows/build.yml runs on push/PR to main and master: configure, build, then run ./bin/ascii_tests.

Requirements

• CMake 3.25+
• C++23 compiler
• No external libraries