Spectra

Spectra is a C++23 Vulkan 1.4 graphics research workspace for native .spectra scenes and live simulation providers. One shared scene is consumed by an interactive rasterizer and a spectral wavefront path tracer. The Windows build includes the editor, while the same executable also supports headless rendering on Windows and Linux.

Gallery

Cornell Box	Geometry Mapping Garden	Lighting Pavilion
Material Atelier	PBRT Book	Volume Chambers

Build Instruction

Requirements

• CMake 4.4
• C++23 compiler with standard-library module support
• Vulkan SDK 1.4 + Slang

Build

cmake -S . -B build -G Ninja
cmake --build build --parallel

The main executable target is spectra. SPECTRA_BUILD_UI defaults to ON on Windows and OFF elsewhere.

Build the Linux headless image locally with Docker:

docker build -t spectra .

Tagged releases publish ghcr.io/xayah-graphics/spectra:latest. Rendering inside the container still requires access to a compatible host Vulkan device.

Usage

Render a scene headlessly with either renderer:

spectra /path/to/scene.spectra --renderer rasterizer
spectra /path/to/scene.spectra --renderer pathtracer

Open a scene in the editor:

spectra /path/to/scene.spectra --gui