1# llimphi
2
3> Native UI framework — 2D **and** 3D: HAL · raster · layout · text · theme · ui · 3D voxel engine — plus widgets and modules.
4
5`llimphi` is a sovereign, retained-mode UI framework with an Elm-style loop (`input → update → view → layout → raster → present`). Declarative pipeline over `vello` 0.9 + `wgpu` 29 + `taffy` 0.12 + `parley` 0.6, with `Dark/Light/Aurora/Sunset/Tawa` themes, AccessKit accessibility and a multi-platform HAL (Wayland · X11 · Win32 · Android · Wawa bare-metal). It powers a full Rust application suite; this repository is the framework extracted to stand on its own.
6
7<p align="center">
8  <img src="docs/showreel.gif" alt="Llimphi showreel — real widgets (switch, slider, progress, segmented control, buttons, radial) animating live, then reflowing across layouts" width="900">
9  <br>
10  <sub>real widgets in motion — rendered headless, frame-by-frame, fully deterministic</sub>
11</p>
12
13<p align="center">
14  <img src="docs/counter.gif" alt="counter example — the full Elm loop in ~124 LOC" width="480">
15  <br>
16  <sub>…and the entire Elm loop in ~124 LOC — <code>cargo run -p llimphi-ui --example counter</code></sub>
17</p>
18
19## Not just 2D — a 3D voxel engine
20
21<p align="center">
22  <img src="docs/llimphi_voxel.gif" alt="Flying over an endless procedural voxel world — rendered by llimphi-3d" width="720">
23  <br>
24  <sub>flying over an endless voxel world — rendered headless by <code>llimphi-3d</code>, frame-by-frame</sub>
25</p>
26
27`llimphi-3d` is a **3D engine** on the same `wgpu`: it composes voxels (a GPU ray-march) and triangle meshes in one shared depth pass, with a keyframed cinema camera. It mounts into the ordinary 2D `View` tree through the GPU paint node (`set_viewport` + scissor), so a 3D viewport can live in a panel next to regular widgets — no second window, same Elm loop.
28
29`llimphi-voxel` adds the *content* layer on top: procedural world-gen (`WorldRecipe`), articulated characters (age + animation clips) and a scripted scene **director**. The GIF above is one such world. (A full voxel **world studio** — edit worlds, cast characters, direct filmed scenes, export to video — is built on these in the wider project.)
30
31**Usage manual:** [MANUAL.md](MANUAL.md) — full reference (Elm loop, `View<Msg>` DSL, the 76 widgets and 11 modules, GPU path, gotchas) for humans and AI. Design rationale and roadmap: [SDD.md](SDD.md).
32
33Philosophy: **widgets aren't designed against mockups; they're designed with what `vello` and `taffy` can do.**
34
35## Quick start
36
37```sh
38git clone https://git.tawasuyu.net/tawasuyu/llimphi.git
39cd llimphi
40cargo run -p llimphi-ui --example counter   # ~124 LOC: the full Elm loop on screen
41```
42
43## Install
44
45From crates.io — the `llimphi` facade re-exports `llimphi-ui`, `llimphi-theme` and `llimphi-3d`:
46
47```sh
48cargo add llimphi
49```
50
51Or crate by crate (widgets are one crate each — pull only what you use):
52
53```toml
54[dependencies]
55llimphi-ui    = "0.1"
56llimphi-theme = "0.1"
57llimphi-widget-button = "0.1"
58```
59
60## Beyond the 2D widget kit
61
62Pieces worth naming because they change what an app can be:
63
64- **Four paths to pixels, one compositor.** `vello` on GPU compute is the main road;
65  `llimphi-cpu` (`vello_cpu`) paints the bare-metal framebuffer; `llimphi-hybrid`
66  (`vello_hybrid`) is CPU+GPU with no compute shaders, for hardware that lacks it
67  (this is the one that runs on a phone's Mali); and `llimphi-wire-escena` serializes
68  a scene so a sandboxed guest can compose it and a host replay it. The same scene
69  tree goes through all of them and the output is diffed **per pixel** — wire vs
70  direct is bit-identical, hybrid vs CPU never differs by more than 1/255.
71- **Text.** `parley` shapes; `llimphi-glifos` rasterizes each glyph once into a
72  shelf-packed coverage atlas (4 subpixel positions per axis) so a line of text is
73  quads instead of outlines — 3.6–5× faster on the direct-GPU path.
74- **Testing.** `llimphi-test` is the headless, deterministic golden-image harness —
75  the reason a UI change can be certified as *text* (pixel-diff counts per threshold)
76  instead of by looking at a screenshot. Where two paths should paint the same thing,
77  the oracle is the other path, not a blessed image.
78- **Animation.** `llimphi-anim` is a Rive-style, clip-agnostic state machine;
79  `llimphi-lottie` and `llimphi-svg` are thin bridges to `velato` and `vello_svg`;
80  `llimphi-mesh` renders deformable meshes with bones and skinning.
81- **Surfaces.** `llimphi-layer` runs an `App` as a `wlr-layer-shell` surface (a bar
82  anchored to a screen edge) rather than a window. `llimphi-term-graphics` covers the
83  terminal graphics protocols.
84
85## Compatibility
86
87- **Linux/Wayland** — primary backend.
88- **Linux/X11** — via XWayland.
89- **macOS / Windows** — `winit` + `wgpu`.
90- **Android** — HAL via `android` crates (`hybrid` is the renderer that works on Mali).
91- **Wawa bare-metal** — alternative framebuffer HAL, over `llimphi-cpu`.
92
93Full crate index (framework · widgets · modules · android) in [MANUAL.md](MANUAL.md) §19.
94
95## Considerations
96
97- **Single API: declarative `View<Msg>`.** No imperative, no foreign vDOM.
98- **Same scene tree on Wayland and Wawa**: HAL abstracts the surface.
99- Widgets are **purely visual**; modules encapsulate state + behavior.