Overview

Bitloop is a modular cross-platform CMake project manager tailored toward scientific simulations/visualizations and rapid prototyping.

Web Demo - Example Gallery

For help getting started, view the Wiki:

• Building projects
  • Building from source on Windows / Linux (todo: update)
  • Building with Emscripten (todo: update)
  • Creating a standalone project with the command-line tool (todo: update)
• Tutorials (todo):
  • Creating a simple "Hello World" project
  • Using ImGui to control Scene variables (safely with multithreading)
  • User input and world navigation

Main Features

• Projects are modular and can include each other as dependencies in a tree structure
  • Child projects can be opened and compiled as standalone projects
  • Cross-platform: Windows, Linux, Emscripten
  • Designed for heavy per‑frame computations (e.g. Mandelbrot zoom)
• C++ NanoVG wrapper with integrated 128-bit float support (fdd class)
  • If you have prior experience with HTML Canvas drawing, this should feel second-nature to you
• FFmpeg video recording without blocking the UI (Desktop only)
• WebP snapshots / animations (all platforms).

Design Principles

• Organization
  • Using CMake, you can create an empty bitloop project (e.g. "Science"), and include several subprojects ("Physics", "Biology") where you can create further subprojects
  • You can build any subtree of projects (e.g. just "Biology") in to a single final executable
  • All project data (images, audio, etc) are bundled into the final executable automatically
• Library Management
  • All bitloop projects use vcpkg as a package manager (vcpkg is fetched automatically for the current workspace)
  • Shared binaries - all projects in a workspace will share the same vcpkg instance and binaries to prevent unnecessary rebuilds
    • To create a workspace, simply add a ".bitloop-workspace" file in a project directory.
      • For the root workspace folder, add: "root=TRUE"
      • For child workspaces, add: "root=FALSE"
    • vcpkg will be automatically cloned in to the highest level folder containing a ".bitloop-workspace" file (but not above the root workspace)
  • Bitloop itself is selected automatically:
    • Gallery projects use the checked-out bitloop source tree, even when a child is opened directly.
    • Framework examples use their enclosing Bitloop source tree.
    • A detached project keeps and installs its bitloop vcpkg dependency.
  • Workspace markers select shared tooling and source candidates. Child manifests are merged only through enabled bitloop_add_dependency(...) edges.

Advanced configurations may override automatic selection with BITLOOP_PROVIDER=SOURCE|PACKAGE and BITLOOP_SOURCE_DIR=<path>. Project-local CMake tooling can be checked or refreshed with bitloop tooling sync --check and bitloop tooling sync.

An experimental source-build target, bitloop-core (alias bitloop::core), compiles an explicit subset of simulation and ImGui implementations. See the core build notes for build instructions and current dependency limitations.

Optional WebGPU compute support provides Dawn/Emdawn device and readback helpers through bitloop::webgpu, alongside the existing OpenGL renderer.

Run bitloop new project interactively to choose Guided or Minimal scaffolding, optional AI development files, and—when invoked inside a Git worktree—publication to an existing empty remote plus submodule registration in the nearest enclosing repository. Scripted creation uses bitloop new project <Name> --submodule --remote <RepositoryUrl>. The child repository is committed and pushed; the parent gitlink is staged for review but never committed automatically.

Run bitloop copy project to copy an existing project from the current directory under a new name, or supply both names: bitloop copy project FluidLesson FluidSim. It keeps the source's scaffolding and offers the same Git integration (--submodule, --remote, --no-submodule), without the template questions. Copying requires Git to apply the source's .gitignore files, including nested rules and negations, even when the source is untracked or has no repository. Git metadata is always excluded; enclosing repositories and global ignore rules do not affect the copy.

The copy replaces case-sensitive whole-word project names in UTF-8 text, including CMake, namespaces, includes, and project display strings. Exact <Name>_Project and <Name>_Scene identifiers are also updated; other embedded names and different capitalization are preserved. The top-level <Name>/ source directory and C/C++ source or header files with exactly that stem are renamed; other filenames are preserved. Binary files and symbolic links are copied unchanged. The source is untouched, and existing destinations or rename collisions are rejected.

Layout

By default, projects contain a simple built-in viewport and sidebar for custom ImGui controls, along with a handy collection of tools/libraries.

Development progress

Building

	Windows	Linux
Modular nested projects	✔️	✔️
Standalone projects (with child projects as dependencies)	✔️	✔️
C++23 support	✔️	✔️
Visual Studio	✔️	✔️
Visual Studio Code	partial	partial

Architecture

	Windows	Linux	Web (Emscripten)
Multithreading	✔️	✔️	✔️ (pthreads with COOP/COEP Headers)
128-bit float support (fdd)	✔️	✔️	✔️

Graphics

	Windows	Linux	Web (Emscripten)
High-DPI support	✔️	✔️	✔️
Mulitple Viewports (Split Screen)	✔️	✔️	✔️
2D Viewport (NanoVG wrapper)	✔️	✔️	✔️
3D Viewport	N/A	N/A	N/A

Recording / Image Capture

	Windows	Linux	Web (Emscripten)
Custom-resolution image renders	✔️	✔️	✔️
FFmpeg recording	✔️	✔️	N/A
WEBP animations	✔️	✔️	✔️

Other planned features

	Windows	Linux	Web (Emscripten)
Timeline (keyframed variables, tweens, etc)	N/A	N/A	N/A

Example snapshots / WebP animations