aiden3drenderer 0.1.0

A lightweight 3D wireframe renderer built from scratch using Pygame

Grid Topology Renderer

Features

• Custom 3D projection - Perspective projection without using external 3D libraries
• First-person camera - Full 6-DOF camera movement with mouse look
• 15+ procedural generators - Mountains, cities, fractals, and mathematical surfaces
• Real-time rendering - 60 FPS wireframe rendering
• Animated terrains - Several terrains feature time-based animations

Gallery

Ripple Effect Expanding waves from center

Mandelbulb Slice 3D fractal cross-section

Requirements

pip install pygame

Tested with Python 3.11.9 and Pygame 2.6.1

Controls

Camera Movement

• W/A/S/D - Move forward/left/backward/right
• Space - Move up
• Left Shift - Move down
• Left Ctrl - Speed boost (2x)
• Arrow Keys - Fine pitch/yaw adjustment
• Right Mouse + Drag - Look around (pitch and yaw)

Terrain Selection

• 1 - Mountain terrain
• 2 - Animated sine waves
• 3 - Ripple effect
• 4 - Canyon valley
• 5 - Stepped pyramid
• 6 - Spiral surface
• 7 - Torus (donut)
• 8 - Sphere
• 9 - Möbius strip
• 0 - Megacity (80×80 procedural city)
• Q - Alien landscape
• E - Double helix (DNA-like)
• R - Mandelbulb fractal slice
• T - Klein bottle
• Y - Trefoil knot

Other

• Escape - Quit application

Terrain Descriptions

Static Terrains

Mountain (1) - Smooth parabolic mountain with radial falloff

Canyon (4) - U-shaped valley with sinusoidal variations

Pyramid (5) - Stepped pyramid using Chebyshev distance

Torus (7) - Classic donut shape using parametric equations

Sphere (8) - UV sphere using spherical coordinates

Möbius Strip (9) - Non-orientable surface with a single side

Megacity (0) - 80×80 grid with hundreds of procedurally generated buildings

• Buildings get taller toward the center
• 8×8 block system with roads
• Random antenna towers on some buildings
• Most complex terrain (6400 vertices)

Mandelbulb (R) - 2D slice of 3D Mandelbulb fractal

• Uses power-8 formula
• Height based on iteration count

Klein Bottle (T) - 4D object projected into 3D

• Non-orientable surface
• No inside or outside

Trefoil Knot (Y) - Mathematical knot in 3D space

• Classic topology example
• Tube follows trefoil path

Animated Terrains

Waves (2) - Multiple overlapping sine waves

• Three different wave frequencies
• Constantly flowing motion

Ripple (3) - Expanding ripple from center

• Exponential amplitude decay
• Simulates water drop impact

Spiral (6) - Rotating spiral pattern

• Polar coordinate mathematics
• Hypnotic rotation

Alien Landscape (Q) - Complex multi-feature terrain

• Crater with parabolic profile
• Crystalline spike formations
• Rolling hills
• Procedural "vegetation" spikes
• Pulsating energy field

Double Helix (E) - DNA-like structure

• Two intertwined strands
• 180° phase offset between strands
• Rotates over time

Technical Details

3D Projection Pipeline

1. World coordinates - Raw vertex positions
2. Camera translation - Subtract camera position
3. Camera rotation - Apply yaw, pitch, roll transformations
4. Perspective projection - Divide by Z-depth with FOV
5. Screen mapping - Convert to pixel coordinates

Rotation Matrices

Yaw (Y-axis):

x' = x·cos(θ) + z·sin(θ)
z' = -x·sin(θ) + z·cos(θ)

Pitch (X-axis):

y' = y·cos(φ) - z·sin(φ)
z' = y·sin(φ) + z·cos(φ)

Roll (Z-axis):

x' = x·cos(ψ) - y·sin(ψ)
y' = x·sin(ψ) + y·cos(ψ)

Culling

Points behind the camera (z ≤ 0.1) are set to None to prevent rendering artifacts and negative depth division.

Performance

• 60 FPS stable on most terrains
• Megacity (6400 vertices) - Largest terrain, still maintains 60 FPS
• Wireframe rendering only - no filled polygons for performance

Code Structure

• Generation functions (generate_*) - Procedural terrain generators
• ddd_to_dd() - 3D to 2D projection with camera transformations
• render() - Draw wireframe connections between grid points
• Main loop - Event handling, camera updates, frame rendering

Credits

Procedural generation functions created with AI assistance. All rendering, projection, and camera code written manually.

License

Free to use and modify.