Hey All, I made a header only C++ library (MIT) where line of code inits, then you can start writing to pixels on the screen.

I call it thirteen.h, inspired by the simplicity of the 13h days.

Examples include a mandelbrot viewer and a playable mine sweeper game.

github.com/Atrix256/Thirteen

February 12, 2026 - 03:53 UTC

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I probably know the answer, but I guess this is windows-only?
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Yeah, I only have a windows machine unfortunately.
It would be neat if someone made a vulkan version (would that be enough?) The interface is super simple and logical, and it probably will get no more features or updates cause it seems done.
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If you don't mind using C, you may like this : github.com/anael-seghezzi/CToy
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Where's the ray tracing example?? 😂
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It takes no time to use the week-end code with thirteen.h! 🤣
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This is truly awesome. Fabulous starting point that’s not as hopelessly complex as most!
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I use a lib called minifb alot when i need no fuzz framebuffer.
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github.com/emoon/minifb github.com/emoon/rust_minifb
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13h mode 😍
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I sent you a pull request for the metal backend.
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My god, thank you!
I have my name as author in the header, could you add your name as author of the metal version there?
We should put authors in the readme too, but i can put that there (or feel free to do that if you want to).
A linux version is in the works too.
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fenster.h
minifb.h
...
and now thirteen.h
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I actually use minifb.h currently (because it can handle resizing and supports the web).

The things I would like to have if I made my own lib that minifb does not do:
- provide an emscripten free web build
(yes, that means a callback for the event loop)
- single header
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This is really slick! I have something similar in concept (but not as compact) that I give to my students for certain graphics assignments but I might have to switch to this. Thanks for sharing!
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No problem Chris!
I think you've already seen my gigi project but if not, it's this same kind of spirit, but you make a render graph in an editor and run it in a viewer with hot reloading, debugging and profiling features.
Raytracing, compute, work graphs, etc!
github.com/electronicarts/gigi
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