Getting started

Build it

StarCanopy is tested on Linux; it builds on Windows and macOS, but they are unproven. You need CMake 3.20 or newer, a C++17 compiler, an OpenGL 3.3-capable GPU, and on Linux the development packages for EGL, OpenGL and X11 or Wayland. SDL3 and Dear ImGui come with the source, as submodules.

git clone --recursive https://github.com/chalkwalk/star-canopy.git
cd star-canopy
cmake -B build
cmake --build build -j $(nproc)
ctest --test-dir build --output-on-failure

Make a first sky

./build/starcanopy new night.toml --seed 7     # a project, to edit
./build/starcanopy render night.toml           # writes night/ beside it

night/ then holds the sky in every format the project lists -- HDR faces, a KTX2 cubemap, PNGs -- and night.json with the direction of its key light. Change the seed for a different sky, or move a macro to steer this one:

./build/starcanopy render night.toml --macro open=0.6 --macro luminous=-0.4

A sky at 2048 texels a face takes about a minute on an integrated GPU; add --size 512 for a quick look.