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Rendering / native interop

Kotlin Display.

A Kotlin graphics and UI project investigating how to build a native, GPU-accelerated rendering backend with access to the underlying graphics APIs.

KotlinKotlin/NativeC interopVulkan targetOpenGL fallbackDirectX target
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The idea

Keep UI code in Kotlin while allowing the rendering layer to work with native GPU APIs. The longer-term direction includes investigating a Compose-derived UI layer rather than requiring all UI work to run through an existing desktop renderer.

Target architecture

Kotlin UINative interopRendering backendGPU

Vulkan, OpenGL and DirectX are rendering targets being developed incrementally.

Technical focus

  • Kotlin/Native and C interoperability across platform boundaries.
  • Vulkan as the preferred rendering direction.
  • OpenGL as a fallback and DirectX support as a Windows-specific target.
  • A rendering abstraction that does not hide native interoperability.

Next steps

Develop the interop and rendering path incrementally, then investigate how a Compose-style UI layer could sit on top of it. Backend availability will depend on actual implementation and testing.