Referencer

Reference desktop app for artists with 2D and 3D viewports. It uses C++20, OpenGL, GLFW, GLAD, Dear ImGui, Assimp, GLM, libcurl, stb_image, and toml11.

Linux

Install a C++ compiler, GNU Make, pkg-config, GLFW, Assimp, libcurl, OpenGL development files, and either Zenity or KDialog for native file dialogs.

Arch Linux:

sudo pacman -S --needed base-devel pkgconf glfw assimp curl mesa zenity

Ubuntu/Debian:

sudo apt install build-essential pkg-config libglfw3-dev libassimp-dev \
  libcurl4-openssl-dev libgl1-mesa-dev zenity

Build and run from the repository root:

make
make run

Use make debug for an unoptimized build with debug symbols. The executable is written to bin/Referencer, and runtime resources are copied to bin/resources.

Referencer prefers X11 (or XWayland in a Wayland session) when DISPLAY is available because Dear ImGui native multi-viewports require global window positioning. On pure Wayland, the app falls back to a single native window and keeps all ImGui viewports inside it.

Windows

The Windows build uses GNU Make and the MinGW64 toolchain from MSYS2. In an MSYS2 MinGW64 shell, install:

pacman -S --needed mingw-w64-x86_64-gcc mingw-w64-x86_64-make \
  mingw-w64-x86_64-pkgconf mingw-w64-x86_64-glfw \
  mingw-w64-x86_64-assimp mingw-w64-x86_64-curl

Build and run:

mingw32-make
mingw32-make run

Create a relocatable artifact directory:

mingw32-make package

This writes dist/Referencer-windows-x64 with Referencer.exe, resources, and all required MinGW runtime DLLs. The executable keeps the Win32 entry point, native dialogs, and embedded icon.