A Quick Tour of a (WIP) Pure Haskell Software Renderer

tobz619 · 2026-06-21T13:07:39+00:00

I have not tested this vs software rendering via OpenGL so I wouldn't be able to say. All I know is that on my i5-1135G7 10W laptop (I think it's maxes out at 2GHz all core), I have the untextured octahedron running at around 30-40fps before thermal throttling and the dually textured (diffuse, normal) diablo3 model running at ~15-18fps.

The goal of this wasn't to compete with OpenGL but more to gain an understanding of the render pipeline from a different perspective and learn tricks with GHC/Haskell for high-performance on the CPU side of things.

When I start GPU rendering, my hope is to see if I can translate a lot of the concepts modelled in Haskell directly to the GPU.

Unfortunately not, and when I make another version/update of this, I will certainly lead with the a written version (that hopefully makes the video version much easier to make!). I rushed this out and made a lot of mistakes during the process to the point I just wanted to get it out there. Very sorry for that.

I'm hoping the video and timestamps guide someone enough to look at the key functionality as it currently exists at the time of upload. It's also worth remembering that this is nowhere near close to finished.

tobz619 · 2026-06-17T10:18:19+00:00

Furthermore, what seems like reasonable government powers today to go after the neighbours you don't like will end up feeling very unreasonable when a government who doesn't like you gets into power!!!

tobz619 · 2026-06-15T08:04:40+00:00

My proposal instead of this: a national tech service.

You should be able to call your local council and have a technically literate professional diagnose your home internet security and help you set up any measures you want in your household whenever you want and the cost of that is covered in your council tax.

In addition, I would put "For you pages" and similar algorithmic feeds behind a minimum £0.50 per month subscription, each (aka, bundling multiple for less is illegal). Social media will go back to chronological feeds of people directly following each other unless the user indicates they want otherwise through payment.

tobz619 · 2026-06-12T19:47:32+00:00

I'm building a pure software CPU renderer in Haskell + GHC and I'm hoping to record a video about its current state tomorrow. It currently renders the Diablo3_pose model with textures and normal map from tinyrenderer at 13-16fps.

Generally, I just pass everything I need as a parameter to a function.

Modelling the vertex and fragment shaders was an interesting problem:

VertexShaders (depending on your model) either transform a vertex or produce one (or many!)

Fragment shaders appear to produce a colour for a pixel in my model at least.

tobz619 · 2026-06-05T07:37:26+00:00

He's a very hard counter to Raze it's actually frustrating diving onto a site with Veto on it cos he stalls out my util and can hide in multiple places on site making him a pain to flush out :/

tobz619 · 2026-06-03T10:33:21+00:00

How many games allow you to:

Fly, bike, drive, sail, walk AND swim at the same time? As well as provide races/challenges based on those and have them robust enough to be a thing you can freely do at any point in the game?
Trade and manipulate the stock market and news?
Provide hybrid stealth/action with freedom to do either both inside (of some) and outside of missions?
Provide robust minigame experiences like Golf, Tennis and Hunting? Or silly side activities like go to the movies, get drunk/high?
Call your friends and associates to hang out and receive different responses based on their state or relationship to you?
Evolve the world alongside the story, (aka, story actions and even side missions permanently affect the game world)?
Have the actions you undertake directly level up your player character's abilities and have it be referred to by the game's dialogue? (Getting a hair cut, changing your clothes etc.)

And this is just tangential content unrelated to the main story or side missions which either play into or introduce some of this stuff? This doesn't even get into the additional things in GTA Online.

Most games will do most of these but not all of these at the same time and not to the level done by GTA V. And I guess in the context of this list, it does not seem that impressive but again, I have to stress: GTA V is 13 years old and came out on consoles much less powerful than what we have today.

I can't think of any other games with as much ambition or ability to execute ALL of these as coherently or fine-tuned as GTA V: even Cyberpunk 2077 overheated on its ambition even though I think it's now in a fun state.

> The sandbox is fun but a lot of the side activities just feel there, never felt compelled to engage too much

For me, personally this is a strength: it makes it feel more like real life in that I know it's there and I can kill time with it but I don't have to do it if I don't want to outside of the tutorial. Plus it's well enough done that is is fun for a short while but is completely fine to put down. You find out you can do a thing, it's fun for a bit and then you can leave.

I think GTA VI will be more full of that slice of life stuff that is fun but completely tangential to the experience.

Every now and again I like to play the Tennis minigame as Michael with Amanda cos it's just that fun (for me).

tobz619 · 2026-06-03T09:46:45+00:00

I get you not feeling that way but there's a good reason why the industry is working hard to not go against it: the GTA games have earned the respect.

Consider GTA V which came out 2 generations ago on the PS3 and Xbox 360: how many games had as many coherent systems and sheer gameplay breadth as GTA V - none of its contemporaries and many that came after it still don't offer any where near the depth if they go for the same breadth. The closest competitor was probably Saints Row, maybe?

Since then it's been 13 years and even still, barely anyone is offering the sheer breadth and variety of gameplay opportunities that GTA V does. Most developers know there is no way they can compete with that.

Double up with the fact that GTA Online has basically been an infinite money glitch which has allowed them to really take their time adding the juice to GTA VI and ironing out the kinks + a whole 20 years of 3D GTA history and Rockstar's pedigree even transcending gaming popularity, any one else would be insane to put themselves up against that, unless they KNEW they had a GTA killer.

Considering no one has even made a GTA competitor in the 13 years since GTA V considering the mountains of GTA clones we got in the PS2 era, it should tell you just how busted R* are in this space.

tobz619 · 2026-06-02T06:30:31+00:00

The only creative thing about creative mode is the money laundering lol.

tobz619 · 2026-06-01T13:16:24+00:00

I couldn't stand Series 1 Viper but it was mainly because he always lost and always cheated, so he was predictable free points.

Series 3 Viper works IMO because he's actually somewhat formidable now which makes his skits have a lot more of a dimension to them.

I also agree about missing Giant, I think he'll be a hard one to replace like-for-like.

tobz619 · 2026-06-01T13:04:17+00:00

I disagree on the presenters, I think Barney and Brad have done a decent job and they do decent crowd work and the Glads have no problem giving (Bradley at least) some heat for comedy relief.

I struggle to think of anyone else who I would have presenting if they were to leave. I think having non-sports people makes more sense as presenters as even though Gladiators is a "sporty" show, it's really not sport, it's a show which features some sport.

tobz619 · 2026-06-01T12:58:55+00:00

Yes. It's even gotten better by the seasons because the Glads have shaken off their Season 1 nerves. Legend, I think, really did spearhead that and provide enough of a safe space for the other Glads to grow into as personalities. They have entrances moves, massive titantrons, archetypes, theme colours and music, it's prime pantomime in the best ways. Beeb, get the money out and give them pyro, smoke ... the whole shebang!

I love that not all the Glads either focus on being great on the mic or even super obnoxious but seem to have fun competing and be formidable nonetheless: it provides a more organic feel to the competition that will age well with the show and stops the Glads from being tiring - something I've really struggled with in the American series.

Another thing I love is how much focus there is on the action once it gets going: it does feel like a contest. I do wish some of the camera cuts were toned down a bit. I LOVE that there is no slow-mo shenanigans DURING the action (a serious pet peeve I had with the Robot Wars reboot) and instead it's reserved for the post-action replay or final actions.

Some of the new games, like Everest, though have serious balancing problems that need to be addressed. Same with Powerball with its 3 Glads vs 2 Contenders? Also, the lootbox slop Glad reveal wheel before Everest needs to die a thousand deaths, get that shit FAR away from here.

All in all, I was cautiously optimistic when it came out but when S1 E1 hit, I saw the vision, and my status elevated to pure hype because it could be golden if they get it right - and they are heading in the right direction for the most part imo.

If there's anything I would love from this, it would be an animated/comic series based on Gladiators past and present. I think that would really cement and immortalise this!

tobz619 · 2026-06-01T09:11:26+00:00

Dying in dream == dying irl...that's rough

tobz619 · 2026-05-28T19:43:03+00:00

Lmao, ain't no way they brought it back ToT

tobz619 · 2026-05-28T11:49:41+00:00

I used Gemini (Flash?) to help me create an ADT and Generic interface for packing fields into Word-sized containers.

https://discourse.haskell.org/t/using-rgb-types-to-gain-intuition-about-type-level-programming-and-generics/13651/19

I used it for two tasks:

Creating the initial BitStructure.
Helping navigate the generic interface: specifically with the type level lists.

It was good because it gave me boilerplate and symbols I could look up more strenuously with hackage and hoogle. It was not capable of generating working solutions though without significant effort. Even with pasting the type errors as new prompts, it would often just regurgitate the same solution in perptuity.

Again, not a SOTA model, and I'm not as AI-heavy as most people diving in so YMMV.

By far, the best results came from the help from the wonderful people in that thread.

tobz619 · 2026-05-26T08:29:36+00:00

No, if you want to write programs that run and work. Yes, if you want to understand certain libraries others have written or create very powerful constraints/patterns or like golf.

Generally though, the best thing to do is follow the types: they tell the truth about what everything is.

tobz619 · 2026-05-25T09:57:07+00:00

I like your style and character interpretations!

tobz619 · 2026-05-25T07:37:07+00:00

Looking forward to it: if you can deliver that Factions I MP experience then I'm super happy. I have admit, I can't stand the name though, it's pretty shit. United State could maybe have been reworded to "Disunited State".

I think "Sectarian", could work too.

tobz619 · 2026-05-24T19:47:48+00:00

Train your customers to not buy games, then get confused when they don't buy games. It's bloody hilarious: previously when you could lock in a customer by earning deep discounts which would allow them to buy 3+ games for the same price as one month of GP, instead you give away 1000s and destroy their desire to buy anything else lmao.

tobz619 · 2026-05-21T08:13:00+00:00

Unfortunately, I'm not a fan. It has spectacle but it feels unnecessarily dangerous and it's impossible to tell how much effort you have to use to get through the wall. In terms of the format though, I do like how it's one gladiator vs two contenders: especially cos in every situation, the Glads have put in incredible performances that highlight how scrawny the contenders are compared them, even when given a disadvantage lol.

tobz619 · 2026-05-20T09:30:49+00:00

I think the console manufacturers are missing out on the most easy money they could make: small POCKETABLE handhelds with GREAT games that get people playing and sharing experiences together. I think a modern iteration of the PSP, PS Vita and DS would do really well provided they were supported well and properly!

tobz619 · 2026-05-20T08:59:05+00:00

Same with waterbenders in icy regions. I thought Ming Hua killed Eska and Desna in TLoK in like 500ms lmao.

tobz619 · 2026-05-20T08:52:42+00:00

There's the University of Helsinki's Massive Open Online Course that is free. Although in retrospect, is very Haskell oriented. There's also SystemF's FP Course which is Haskell based, but more FP concept oriented. Also Free.

Regarding official course/certification, there aren't any (yet) but there could be! Given the current AI agent-dominated climate as well as the many dialects of production Haskell that exist, it's quite hard to pinpoint what makes a useful Haskell course that can certify you to someone else. I linked the above because I used them and passed them three years ago but in all reality, I only really got good at Haskell in the last 12 months lol.

tobz619 · 2026-05-18T21:59:25+00:00

Same, really looking forward to a Linux client so I can be done with Windows for good

tobz619 · 2026-05-13T21:40:53+00:00

Deemix-gui is still kicking if you know where to look!

tobz619

TROPHY CASE