cargo-pixel

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RustPixel is a 2D game engine & rapid prototyping tools, supporting both text and graphics rendering modes.
It is suitable for creating 2D pixel-style games and developing terminal applications.
It can be compiled into FFI for front-end and back-end use, and into WASM for web projects.

• Text Mode: Built with crossterm, runs in the terminal, and uses ASCII & Unicode Emoji for drawing.
• Graphical Mode (SDL2 & WEB): Built with glow & sdl2, using PETSCII & custom graphics symbols for rendering.

Here is a petscii art painting browser made with rust_pixel. Special thanks to x.com/PETSCIIWORLD for the character painting and the transition shader provided by gltransition. Click here for online demo。

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/8e9e0837-43fd-4f18-a5ad-265a06ddb47e

Features

• Game loops & Model/Render design pattern (game.rs)
• Event/Timer messaging mechanism (event.rs)
• Support text render mode (crossterm) (adapter.rs, cross.rs)
• Unified OpenGL drawing mode supports sdl and wasm (glow & sdl2) (adapter.rs, sdl.rs, web.rs)
• 3 core OpenGl shaders for sdl2 & web graphics mode: (gl/)
  • gl instance rendering shader for draw mainbuffer (render_symbols.rs)
  • gl transition shader for transition effect (render_transition.rs)
  • gl general 2d shader for draw render texture (render_general2d.rs)
• Some common game algorithms (algorithm.rs, algorithm/, util.rs, util/)
• audio & log support (audio.rs, log.rs)
• Demo games: tetris, tower, poker... (games/)
• Demo terminal ui app: palette... (apps/)
• Examples of wrapping core algorithms into FFI and WASM (games/poker/ffi, games/poker/wasm)

Installation Guide

The main steps of the installation process are as follows:

• Install DroidSansMono Nerd Font & setup terminal
• Install dependent libraries and softwares
• Install Rust and Wasm-pack

The detailed steps for each operating system:   MacOS   |   Linux   |   Windows

Next, you should clone RustPixel and deploy cargo-pixel tool:

git clone https://github.com/zipxing/rust_pixel
cd rust_pixel
cargo install --path tools/cargo-pixel --root ~/.cargo

Usage Instructions

cd rust_pixel
cargo pixel run snake term            #Run the snake game in terminal mode
cargo pixel r snake t                 #Run the snake game in terminal mode - shorthand
cargo pixel r tetris s                #Run the Tetris game in SDL window mode
cargo pixel r tower w                 #Run tower in web,visit http://localhost:8080/ in your browser
cargo pixel r tower w --webport 8081  #Change web server port
cargo pixel r tower w -r              #Run with release mode

You can also use cargo pixel to create your own game or app:

cargo pixel c games mygame           #Create mygame in ./games using games/template as a template
cargo pixel c apps myapp             #Create myapp in ./apps using games/template as a template

Creat a standalone app in some directory:

cargo pixel c .. myapp --standalone  #Create a standalone crate in ../myapp 
cd ../myapp 
cargo pixel r myapp t
cargo pixel r myapp s

RustPixel also includes several tools:

1. palette: A terminal-ui tool to generate, analyze, convert and manipulate colors.

cargo pixel r palette t -r

2. tedit: Used to edit character art assets, example:

#term mode
cargo pixel r tedit term assets/screen-shot/tedit.txt

#graphics mode
cargo pixel r tedit sdl assets/screen-shot/tedit.pix 

3. tpetii: Used to convert regular images into PETSCII character art, example:

cargo pixel r tpetii t assets/a.png -r > assets/a.pix
cargo pixel r tedit s assets/a.pix

cargo pixel r tpetii t assets/lion.png 40 40 -r > assets/lion.pix
cargo pixel r tedit s assets/lion.pix

4. Script to automatically convert gif images into PETSCII animations (.ssf)

cargo pixel cg assets/sdq/fire.gif assets/sdq/fire.ssf 40 25 

Demo games

1. snake: A snake game with a cool PETSCII animations

#graphics mode
cargo pixel r snake s -r

#term mode
cargo pixel r snake t -r

#web mode
cargo pixel r snake w -r
#and visit http://localhost:8080/ in your browser

2. tetris: A Tetris game where you can play against AI

#term mode
cargo pixel r tetris t -r

#graphics mode
cargo pixel r tetris s -r

#web mode
cargo pixel r tetris w -r
#and visit http://localhost:8080/ in your browser

3. poker: Includes the core algorithms for Texas Hold'em and Gin Rummy

cargo pixel r poker t -r
cargo pixel r gin_rummy t -r

The poker/ffi directory demo how to wrap Rust algorithms into CFFI for use with other languages, showcasing C++ and Python calling poker_ffi

cd games/poker/ffi
make run

The poker/wasm directory demo how to wrap Rust algorithms into wasm for JS calling

cd games/poker/wasm
make run

4. tower: A tower defense game prototype demonstrating the use of objpool and pixel_sprite for pixel-perfect sprite movement

#graphics mode
cargo pixel r tower s -r

#web mode
cargo pixel r tower w -r
#and visit http://localhost:8080/ in your browser

and so on ... ...