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libnoisemaker

Run Noisemaker programs on the GPU from C++ and C.

This library is under construction. Nothing here is ready to use yet.

What is this?

Noisemaker is a procedural visual engine. You write short text programs, chains of effects, and it renders live, animated GPU textures:

search synth, filter
noise(scaleX: 60).bloom().write(o0)
render(o0)

That language is Noisemaker's DSL. The original engine runs in the browser at noisedeck.app.

libnoisemaker is a native C++ library, with a C API, that runs Noisemaker programs on the GPU through Dawn. It tracks Noisemaker 1.0.288, the version locked in parity/reference.json.

Requirements

CMake 3.22 or later, a C++20 compiler, Python 3.12 or later, Node.js 26, Git and Ninja (or Visual Studio 2026 on Windows).

Building

python3 tools/fetch_dawn.py
cmake -S . -B build -G Ninja -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build build
ctest --test-dir build --output-on-failure

To build only the GPU-free compiler core and host helpers, with no Dawn tree, configure with -DNM_BUILD_GPU=OFF and skip fetch_dawn.py.

To build Dawn once and reuse it in any number of build directories, install it with tools/build_dawn.py and configure with NM_DAWN_PREBUILT_DIR. CI caches one such install per platform.

python3 tools/fetch_dawn.py
python3 tools/build_dawn.py --generator Ninja --prefix .cache/dawn-install/local
cmake -S . -B build -G Ninja -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DNM_DAWN_PREBUILT_DIR=$PWD/.cache/dawn-install/local

Using it from CMake

-DNM_BUILD_SHARED=ON builds noisemaker_core as a shared library that exports only the C API (include/noisemaker/core.h) and the C++ API (core.hpp, value.hpp). Install it and find it as a package:

cmake -S . -B build-shared -G Ninja -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DNM_BUILD_GPU=OFF -DNM_BUILD_SHARED=ON
cmake --build build-shared
cmake --install build-shared --prefix /path/to/prefix

find_package(noisemaker CONFIG REQUIRED COMPONENTS core)
target_link_libraries(app PRIVATE noisemaker::core)

The installed headers need C++17. The C++ API passes standard-library types across the library boundary, so a C++ consumer must use the same compiler and standard library as the build. share/noisemaker/TOOLCHAIN names them, and share/noisemaker/ENGINE names the Noisemaker release the embedded catalog comes from.

Releases are published by the Release workflow: one archive per platform (Linux x64 and arm64, macOS universal for 13.0 and later, Windows x64 and arm64) and a SHA256SUMS file.

Testing

scripts/test builds the GPU-free tree, runs its unit tests and the tool tests, then runs every parity gate (scripts/gates) against the reference engine at the commit locked in parity/reference.json. It needs network access to clone the reference and fetch the catalog.

Contributing

Contributions follow the Noise Factor contributing policy and Code of Conduct.

Repo layout

include/noisemaker/   public C API headers
src/core/             GPU-free core: DSL lexer, parser and compiler, render graph, effect catalog, editing
src/host/             host inputs: audio and MIDI state, OBJ parsing, stroke raster, worm tracer
src/gpu/              Dawn device and the backend's device on it; wgsl/ and backend/, the reference
                      WebGPU backend and pipeline over a device interface, with their WGSL analysis
                      and uniform packing (gated with no GPU)
src/capi/             C API implementation
tests/                C API, core, GPU, host and tool tests
parity/               reference lock, corpus and checks against the reference engine
scripts/              test, gate and reference entry points
tools/                Dawn fetch and build, catalog tools, reference oracles, dump tools and nm-render
cmake/, third_party/  Dawn build integration and its lock

License

MIT (see LICENSE). Dawn and its dependencies carry their own licenses (BSD-3-Clause, Apache-2.0, MIT). Use of the Noisemaker and Noise Factor names in derivative products is subject to the Trademark Policy.

Copyright © 2026 Noise Factor LLC