Quantik v1.0.0 - A Molecule 3D Viewer with no 3D engine

What is this ?

Quantik is a Molecule 3D Viewer built in Rust. You open a .sdf file (or pick a built-in molecule), and you can rotate it, zoom, pan, and hover every atom to see its info.
And the fun part: there is no 3D engine and no GPU code. Everything (the projection, the depth buffer, the lighting, the triangle filling) is done by hand on the CPU, and the pixels are just sent to a window with minifb ദ്ദി(˵ •̀ ᴗ - ˵ ) ✧

Why ( °ヮ° ) ?

I had 3 reasons: I wanted a 3D molecule viewer that my teacher could use in class, I wanted to really learn how 3D works in depth (so I did it from scratch), and I wanted to use it myself for homework, because most of this kind of software is Windows-only and I use a mac.

Core Features ( ദ്ദി ˙ᗜ˙ )

Viewer

• Atoms as spheres and bonds as cylinders (double and triple bonds are drawn as parallel cylinders)
• CPK colors and real van der Waals radii
• Orbit camera with mouse and keyboard, plus auto rotate
• Hover an atom to see its name, radius and molar mass
• Info panel with the name, formula, number of atoms, number of bonds and total molar mass

Software Renderer

• Depth buffer, back-face culling, key + fill lighting
• SSAA anti-aliasing: low quality while you move the camera, 3x when you stop
• Redraw on demand: the scene is only re-rendered when something changed
• Atom ID buffer: each pixel remembers which atom drew it, that’s how hovering works

Molecule Loading

• Open any .sdf file with a native file dialog
• Built-in examples: Water, Methane, Ammonia, Benzene and Ethanol
• Auto framing: the camera is placed from the size of the molecule

What was challenging ?

Getting the 3D maths right without an engine was the hardest part: projecting the points, filling the triangles, and making the depth correct with perspective. Also, doing everything on the CPU is slow, so I had to be smart: a low quality render while the camera moves, a high quality one when it stops, and only redrawing when something changed. After that I split the whole project into modules (render, mesh, camera, molecule, ui…) because it was getting hard to read ദ്ദി(˵ •̀ ᴗ - ˵ ) ✧

What are you proud of ?

I’m proud that the whole 3D pipeline is mine, and that it is actually useful: my teacher can use it in class, and it runs on macOS, Windows and Linux without any 3D engine or GPU.

What should people know so they can test your project ?

• Go to the GitHub Release and download the version for your OS
• macOS: the app is not signed (I don’t have an Apple Developer account 🥲), so run xattr -cr /Applications/Quantik.app in the Terminal after you put it in Applications
• Windows: SmartScreen may warn you, click More info then Run anyway
• Launch Quantik, then use File > Open... (Cmd/Ctrl+O) to load an .sdf file, or Examples > Show list (Cmd/Ctrl+E) and press 1-9

Things to try

• Load the Water example
• Hover an atom to see its info
• Press Space to make the molecule spin, then - / = to change the speed
• Rotate the camera and stop: watch the image get smoother
• Download a molecule as .sdf (for example the Caffeine one from PubChem) and open it

Thank you

Just a little thank you ❤️
(Everything you need is probably in the README.md)

DMGTile v2 - GPUI Rewrite

This version is a full rewrite of the UI (and some other functionality) with GPUI (the framework that Zed use).

I kept every feature from the v1, 128-tile projects, undo/redo, copy/paste/cut, .dmgtile save/load, .bin and .c export, all the drawing tools.

And rebuilt the interface from scratch with a pixel-art aesthetic: pixelated corner on every panel, a pixel font, and cached GPU textures for thumbnails and previews.

What I added in this version ?

• Toast notifications for save, export, and error feedback
• Native macOS menu bar with File / Edit / Help, plus a matching in-window bar on Windows and Linux
• Real app icon
• Optimized tile list that only renders visible tiles, so scrolling stays smooth

I also added the toast notification (compared to V1)

The app is now more macOS compliant, I was able to add the top bar with the classic : File, Edit, View, Help etc… I was also able to put a icon !

What can I do now ?

Everything you need to know is in the README.md or in the GitHub Release

This might sound like a little update but the rewrite took me around 17 hour so…… thank you for reading ❤️

(I even made a cute little icon :D )

What is this ?

DMGTile is a Gameboy Tile Editor/Designer build in Rust. Basically it’s a drawing program for Gameboy game.

Why ( °ヮ° ) ?

The idea for this project came from GBTD (Gameboy Tile Designer), who is Windows only and kinda old… So I recreated it from-scratch in Rust, so it can run on Linux, Windows & macOS without Wine (or equivalent). And all of this with the same features as GBTD.

Core Features ( ദ്ദി ˙ᗜ˙ )

Editor

• Pixel Painting: Use the mouse to paint ദ്ദി(˵ •̀ ᴗ - ˵ ) ✧
• Bucket Fill: A classic flood-fill tool
• Transform Tools: You can flip, rotate, move the active tile
• Live Previews: A little 4x4 grid to preview the active tile in a pattern (e.g: a background)
• Cached Texture Rendering: Tile textures are cached and only rebuilt when a tile is modified

Project Management

• Multi-Tile Support: You can draw up to 128 tiles per project file (you can scroll the list on the right of the screen to change tile)
• Undo/Redo: Each action is store in a stack, so you are able to undo or redo an action !
• Copy/Paste/Cut: Duplicate or move tile data between slots (in the same project)
• File Format: Each project is saved in .dmgtile (JSON), storing only the modified tiles while preseving the tiles ID
• Keyboard Shortcut: Full Cmd/Ctrl support for New Project, Open, Save, Undo, Redo, etc… Even the tools have there own shortcut

Export

• .bin Export: Exports all the modified tiles into the Gameboy’s native 2bpp format
• .c Export: Exports all the modified tiles as a C array, with configurable array name (Can be used with GBDK)
• Selective export: Only the modified tiles are written out

Okay… but how to test it ?

There is multiple way to test DMGTile but the easiest is to go to the Github Release and download the program for your OS ദ്ദി(˵ •̀ ᴗ - ˵ ) ✧

Then you can launch it and start drawing ! You can also try the export part to a .bin or .c file (you can see the note.md file on github, it’s my personal note when I was building DMGTile)

Thank you

Just a little thank you ❤️

(Every things you need is probably in the README.md)
(I even made a cute little icon :D )