raylib 6.0 release notes

A new raylib release is finally ready and, again, this is the biggest raylib release ever! Thanks to the support of many amazing contributors this release comes packed with many new features and improvements, also thanks to the financial support of NLnet and the NGI Zero Commond Fund that allowed me to work on this project mostly fulltime for the past few months.

Some astonishing numbers for this release:

• +330 closed issues (for a TOTAL of +2150!)
• +2000 commits since previous RELEASE (for a TOTAL of +9760!)
• +20 new functions ADDED to raylib API (for a TOTAL of 600!)
• +70 new examples to learn from (for a TOTAL of +215!)
• +210 new contributors (for a TOTAL of +850!)

Highlights for raylib 6.0:

• NEW Software Renderer - rlsw: The biggest addition of this new release. A new software renderer backend, that allows raylib to run purely on CPU, with no neeed for a GPU. It finally closes the circle of my search for a portable self-contained, with no-external-dependencies, graphics library, able to run on any device providing some CPU-power and some RAM memory. It has been possible thanks to the amazing work of Le Juez Victor (@Bigfoot71), who created rlsw, a single-file header-only library implementing OpenGL 1.1+ specification, tailored to fit into raylib rlgl OpenGL wrapper, and allowing to run raylib seamlessly over CPU with no code changes required on user side. As expected, software rendering is slower than hardware-accelerated rendering but it is still fast enough to run basic application at 30-60 fps. Actually, it already proved it usefulness on a new raylib port for ESP32 microcontroller by Espressif, useful for industrial applications, and opens the door to the upcoming RISC-V powered devices that start arriving to the marked, and many times come with no GPU. Along the new software renderer, some of the existing platform backends have been adapted to support it (SDL, RGFW, DRM) and also new platforms backends have been created to accomodate it (Win32, Emscripten), incluing a new PLATFORM_MEMORY, that allows direct rendering to a memory framebuffer.

• NEW Platform backend: Memory - rcore_memory: This new platform has been added along the software renderer backend, allowing 2d and 3d rendering over a platform-agnostic memory framebuffer, it can run headless and output frames can be directly exported to images. This new backend could also be useful for graphics rendering on servers or process images directly using the memory buffer.

• NEW Platform backend: Win32 - rcore_desktop_win32: A new Windows platform backend and the first step towards a potential replacement/alternative to the platform libraries currently used by raylib (GLFW/SDL/RGFW). This backend follows same API template structure than the other raylib backends, but directly implementing Win32 API calls. It allows initializing OpenGL GPU-accelerated windows and also GDI based windows, useful for the software renderer backend. This new backend approach, following a common template-structure and separating the platform logic by specific OS/Windowing system, will simplify code, improve maintenance, readability and portability for raylib, setting some bases for the future. NOTE: This backend is new and it could require further testing, use it as an experimental backend for now.

• NEW Platform backend: Emscripten - rcore_web_emscripten: In the same line as Win32 backend, this new web backend moves away from libglfw.js and directly implements Emscripten/JS functionality, with no other dependencies, adding support for the new software renderer to draw directly on a non-accelerated 2d canvas but also supporting a WebGL-hardware-accelerated canvas when required. NOTE: This backend is new and it could require further testing, use it as an experimental backend for now.

• REDESIGNED Fullscreen modes and High-DPI content scaling: After many years and many related issues, the full-screen and high-dpi content scaling support has been completely redesigned from scratch. New design prioritizes borderless fullscreen modes and automatically detects current monitor content scaling configuration to scale window and framebuffer accordingly when required. Still, High-DPI support must be requested by user if desired enabling FLAG_WINDOW_HIGHDPI on window creation. This new system has been carefully tested on Windows, Linux (X11, Wayland), macOS with multiple monitors and multiple resolutions, including 4K monitors.

• REDESIGNED Skeletal Animation System: A new animation system for 3d models has been created to support animation blending, between single frames but also between differents frames on different animations, to allow easy timed transitions between animations. This redesign implied reviewing several raylib structures to better accomodate animation data: Model, ModelSkeleton, ModelAnimation, but the API was simplified and support for GPU-skinning was improved with multiple optimizations.

• REDESIGNED Build Config System - config.h: raylib allows lot of customization for specific needs (i.e. disabling modules not needed for specific applications like rmodels or raudio) but previous implementation did not allow easely disabling some features from custom build systems. New design not only allows disabling features with simple -DSUPPORT_FILEFORMAT_OBJ=0 on building command-line but also the full system has been reviewed, removing useless flags and exposing new ones.

• NEW File System API: Along the years, multiple filesystem functions have been added to raylib API as required but it felt somewhat inconsistent with some pieces missing. In this new release, the full filesystem API has beeen reviewed and reorganized, compiling all the functionality single module: rcore, consequently utils module has been removed and build system has been simplified even more; only 6-7 modules (.c) need to be compiled containing the full raylib library. This new filesystem API will allow raylib to be used on the creation of custom build systems, as already demostrated with the new rexm tool for examples management. At the moment raylib includes +40 file system management functions:

// File system management functions
unsigned char *LoadFileData(const char *fileName, int *dataSize); // Load file data as byte array (read)
void UnloadFileData(unsigned char *data);                     // Unload file data allocated by LoadFileData()
bool SaveFileData(const char *fileName, void *data, int dataSize); // Save data to file from byte array (write), returns true on success
bool ExportDataAsCode(const unsigned char *data, int dataSize, const char *fileName); // Export data to code (.h), returns true on success
char *LoadFileText(const char *fileName);                     // Load text data from file (read), returns a '\0' terminated string
void UnloadFileText(char *text);                              // Unload file text data allocated by LoadFileText()
bool SaveFileText(const char *fileName, const char *text);    // Save text data to file (write), string must be '\0' terminated, returns true on success

int FileRename(const char *fileName, const char *fileRename); // Rename file (if exists)
int FileRemove(const char *fileName);                         // Remove file (if exists)
int FileCopy(const char *srcPath, const char *dstPath);       // Copy file from one path to another, dstPath created if it doesn't exist
int FileMove(const char *srcPath, const char *dstPath);       // Move file from one directory to another, dstPath created if it doesn't exist
int FileTextReplace(const char *fileName, const char *search, const char *replacement); // Replace text in an existing file
int FileTextFindIndex(const char *fileName, const char *search); // Find text in existing file
bool FileExists(const char *fileName);                        // Check if file exists
bool DirectoryExists(const char *dirPath);                    // Check if a directory path exists
bool IsFileExtension(const char *fileName, const char *ext);  // Check file extension (recommended include point: .png, .wav)
int GetFileLength(const char *fileName);                      // Get file length in bytes (NOTE: GetFileSize() conflicts with windows.h)
long GetFileModTime(const char *fileName);                    // Get file modification time (last write time)
const char *GetFileExtension(const char *fileName);           // Get pointer to extension for a filename string (includes dot: '.png')
const char *GetFileName(const char *filePath);                // Get pointer to filename for a path string
const char *GetFileNameWithoutExt(const char *filePath);      // Get filename string without extension (uses static string)
const char *GetDirectoryPath(const char *filePath);           // Get full path for a given fileName with path (uses static string)
const char *GetPrevDirectoryPath(const char *dirPath);        // Get previous directory path for a given path (uses static string)
const char *GetWorkingDirectory(void);                        // Get current working directory (uses static string)
const char *GetApplicationDirectory(void);                    // Get the directory of the running application (uses static string)
int MakeDirectory(const char *dirPath);                       // Create directories (including full path requested), returns 0 on success
bool ChangeDirectory(const char *dirPath);                    // Change working directory, return true on success
bool IsPathFile(const char *path);                            // Check if a given path is a file or a directory
bool IsFileNameValid(const char *fileName);                   // Check if fileName is valid for the platform/OS
FilePathList LoadDirectoryFiles(const char *dirPath);         // Load directory filepaths, files and directories, no subdirs scan
FilePathList LoadDirectoryFilesEx(const char *basePath, const char *filter, bool scanSubdirs); // Load directory filepaths with extension filtering and subdir scan; some filters available: "*.*", "FILES*", "DIRS*"
void UnloadDirectoryFiles(FilePathList files);                // Unload filepaths
bool IsFileDropped(void);                                     // Check if a file has been dropped into window
FilePathList LoadDroppedFiles(void);                          // Load dropped filepaths
void UnloadDroppedFiles(FilePathList files);                  // Unload dropped filepaths
unsigned int GetDirectoryFileCount(const char *dirPath);      // Get the file count in a directory
unsigned int GetDirectoryFileCountEx(const char *basePath, const char *filter, bool scanSubdirs); // Get the file count in a directory with extension filtering and recursive directory scan. Use 'DIR' in the filter string to include directories in the result

• NEW Text Management API: Along with the new file system functionality, a new set of text management functions has been added, also very useful for text procesing and also used in custom build systems creation using raylib. At the moment raylib includes +30 text management functions:

// Text strings management functions (no UTF-8 strings, only byte chars)
// WARNING: Most of these functions use a internal static buffer[], it's recommended to store returned data on user-side for re-use
char **LoadTextLines(const char *text, int *count);           // Load text as separate lines ('\n')
void UnloadTextLines(char **text, int lineCount);             // Unload text lines
int TextCopy(char *dst, const char *src);                     // Copy one string to another, returns bytes copied
bool TextIsEqual(const char *text1, const char *text2);       // Check if two text string are equal
unsigned int TextLength(const char *text);                    // Get text length, checks for '\0' ending
const char *TextFormat(const char *text, ...);                // Text formatting with variables (sprintf() style)
const char *TextSubtext(const char *text, int position, int length); // Get a piece of a text string
const char *TextRemoveSpaces(const char *text);               // Remove text spaces, concat words
char *GetTextBetween(const char *text, const char *begin, const char *end); // Get text between two strings
char *TextReplace(const char *text, const char *search, const char *replacement); // Replace text string with new string
char *TextReplaceAlloc(const char *text, const char *search, const char *replacement); // Replace text string with new string, memory must be MemFree()
char *TextReplaceBetween(const char *text, const char *begin, const char *end, const char *replacement); // Replace text between two specific strings
char *TextReplaceBetweenAlloc(const char *text, const char *begin, const char *end, const char *replacement); // Replace text between two specific strings, memory must be MemFree()
char *TextInsert(const char *text, const char *insert, int position); // Insert text in a defined byte position
char *TextInsertAlloc(const char *text, const char *insert, int position); // Insert text in a defined byte position, memory must be MemFree()
char *TextJoin(char **textList, int count, const char *delimiter); // Join text strings with delimiter
char **TextSplit(const char *text, char delimiter, int *count); // Split text into multiple strings, using MAX_TEXTSPLIT_COUNT static strings
void TextAppend(char *text, const char *append, int *position); // Append text at specific position and move cursor
int TextFindIndex(const char *text, const char *search);      // Find first text occurrence within a string, -1 if not found
char *TextToUpper(const char *text);                          // Get upper case version of provided string
char *TextToLower(const char *text);                          // Get lower case version of provided string
char *TextToPascal(const char *text);                         // Get Pascal case notation version of provided string
char *TextToSnake(const char *text);                          // Get Snake case notation version of provided string
char *TextToCamel(const char *text);                          // Get Camel case notation version of provided string
int TextToInteger(const char *text);                          // Get integer value from text
float TextToFloat(const char *text);                          // Get float value from text

• NEW tool: raylib examples manager - rexm: raylib examples collection is huge, with more than 200 examples it was quite difficult to manage: adding, removing, renaming examples was a very costly process involving many files to be modified (including build systems), also the examples did not follow a common header convention neither a structure conventions. For that reason, a new support tool has been created: rexm, a raylib examples manager that allows to easely add/remove/rename examples, automatically fix inconsistencies and even building and automated testing on multiple platforms.

USAGE:
    > rexm <command> <example_name> [<example_rename>]

COMMANDS:
    create <new_example_name>     : Creates an empty example, from internal template
    add <example_name>            : Add existing example to collection
    rename <old_examples_name> <new_example_name> : Rename an existing example
    remove <example_name>         : Remove an existing example from collection
    build <example_name>          : Build example for Desktop and Web platforms
    test <example_name>           : Build and Test example for Desktop and Web platforms
    validate                      : Validate examples collection, generates report
    update                        : Validate and update examples collection, generates report

• NEW +70 new examples: Thanks to rexm and the simplification on examples management, this new raylib release includes +70 new examples to learn from, most of them contributed by community. Multiple examples have also been renamed for consistency and all examples header and structure have been reviewed and unified.

Make sure to check raylib CHANGELOG for a detailed list of changes!

I want to thank all the contributors (+850!) that along the years have greatly improved raylib and pushed it further and better day after day. And many thanks to raylib community and all raylib users for supporting the library along those many years.

Finally, I want to thank puffer.ai and comma.ai for usign raylib and supporting the project as platinum sponsors, along many others individuals that have been sponsoring raylib along the years. Thanks to all of you for allowing me to keep working on this library!

After +12 years of development, raylib 6.0 is today one of the bests libraries to enjoy games/tools/graphic programming!

Enjoy graphics programming with raylib! :)

New Contributors

• @kovidomi made their first contribution in #4510
• @villares made their first contribution in #4512
• @hippietrail made their first contribution in #4515
• @Booklordofthedings made their first contribution in #4514
• @mikeemm made their first contribution in #4496
• @interkosmos made their first contribution in #4518
• @uwiwiow made their first contribution in #4520
• @HaxSam made their first contribution in #4531
• @mobius3 made their first contribution in #4541
• @PieVieRo made their first contribution in #4545
• @Mossieur-Patate made their first contribution in #4544
• @RealDoigt made their first contribution in #4550
• @CalebHeydon made their first contribution in #4539
• @mrjonjonjon made their first contribution in #4556
• @mrryanjohnston made their first contribution in #4559
• @ahmedqarmout2 made their first contribution in #4565
• @legendaryredfox made their first contribution in #4567
• @0riginaln0 made their first contribution in #4585
• @meadiode made their first contribution in #4579
• @hexmaster111 made their first contribution in #4596
• @saxofon made their first contribution in #4603
• @Kirandeep-Singh-Khehra made their first contribution in #4602
• @Fancy2209 made their first contribution in #4621
• @james2doyle made their first contribution in #4633
• @BotRandomness made their first contribution in #4639
• @marionauta made their first contribution in #4640
• @Joonsey made their first contribution in #4620
• @peter15914 made their first contribution in #4649
• @rexept made their first contribution in #4656
• @maiconpintoabreu made their first contribution in #4661
• @pope made their first contribution in #4667
• @Hakunamawatta made their first contribution in #4674
• @mobiuscog made their first contribution in #4675
• @teatwig made their first contribution in #4683
• @anstropleuton made their first contribution in #4699
• @pejorativefox made their first contribution in #4703
• @sleeptightAnsiC made their first contribution in #4707
• @elite0OG made their first contribution in #4727
• @whaleymar made their first contribution in #4742
• @henrikglass made their first contribution in #4745
• @goto40 made their first contribution in #4753
• @mannikim made their first contribution in #4764
• @vict-Yang made their first contribution in #4772
• @deckarep made their first contribution in #4779
• @loftafi made their first contribution in #4787
• @slendidev made their first contribution in #4792
• @Destructor17 made their first contribution in #4364
• @jordan4ibanez made their first contribution in #4793
• @AshishBhattarai made their first contribution in #4811
• @Kaluub made their first contribution in #4812
• @zewenn made their first contribution in #4819
• @10aded made their first contribution in #4827
• @david-vanderson made their first contribution in #4826
• @AmityWilder made their first contribution in #4829
• @NiamhNightglow made their first contribution in #4835
• @MykBamberg made their first contribution in #4833
• @aidonmaster made their first contribution in #4839
• @theundergroundsorcerer made their first contribution in #4843
• @bamless made their first contribution in #4845
• @marler8997 made their first contribution in #4856
• @lumenkeyes made their first contribution in #4870
• @AndrewHamel111 made their first contribution in #4895
• @mUnicorn made their first contribution in #4896
• @ZeanKey made their first contribution in #4907
• @gfaster made their first contribution in #4909
• @rael346 made their first contribution in #4913
• @Servall4 made their first contribution in #4914
• @daniel-abbott made their first contribution in #4916
• @Pivok7 made their first contribution in #4944
• @parzivail made their first contribution in #4948
• @padmadevd made their first contribution in #4947
• @meowstr made their first contribution in #4963
• @garrisonhh made their first contribution in #4981
• @williewillus made their first contribution in #4980
• @LainLayer made their first contribution in #4982
• @hmz-rhl made their first contribution in #4985
• @Marcos-cat made their first contribution in #4993
• @ElDigoXD made their first contribution in #5006
• @Sir-Irk made their first contribution in #5016
• @fosskers made their first contribution in #5014
• @wwderw made their first contribution in #5033
• @jonathandw743 made their first contribution in #5026
• @zedeckj made their first contribution in #5025
• @Emil2010 made their first contribution in #5020
• @vinnyhorgan made their first contribution in #5043
• @RomainPlmg made their first contribution in #5047
• @PanicTitan made their first contribution in #5041
• @katanya04 made their first contribution in #5050
• @didas72 made their first contribution in #5053
• @Joecheong2006 made their first contribution in #5057
• @kariem2k made their first contribution in #5063
• @rob-bits made their first contribution in #4988
• @lepasona made their first contribution in #5068
• @Moros1138 made their first contribution in #4956
• @Luca-coder07 made their first contribution in #5073
• @lpow100 made their first contribution in #5077
• @killerdevildog made their first contribution in #5075
• @Auios made their first contribution in #5090
• @wileyanderssen made their first contribution in #5096
• @JohnnyCena123 made their first contribution in #5099
• @matthijskooijman made their first contribution in #5104
• @lassade made their first contribution in #5108
• @Andersama made their first contribution in #4837
• @jan-beukes made their first contribution in #5119
• @rossberg made their first contribution in #5133
• @alexander-nichols made their first contribution in #5136
• @CashWasabi made their first contribution in #5128
• @feive7 made their first contribution in #5137
• @Siltnamis made their first contribution in #5139
• @annaymone made their first contribution in #5143
• @theavege made their first contribution in #5150
• @maiphi made their first contribution in #5158
• @0stamina made their first contribution in #5164
• @vegerot made their first contribution in #5186
• @ArmanOmmid made their first contribution in #5201
• @keks137 made their first contribution in #5204
• @dog6 made their first contribution in #5205
• @meisei4 made their first contribution in #5207
• @timlittle made their first contribution in #5212
• @zerohorsepower made their first contribution in #5218
• @Jopestpe made their first contribution in #5217
• @RobinsAviary made their first contribution in #5216
• @Teeto44 made their first contribution in #5224
• @pyrokn8 made their first contribution in #5234
• @hugoarnal made their first contribution in #5233
• @Arrangemonk made their first contribution in #5244
• @sakgoyal made their first contribution in #5252
• @Bala050814 made their first contribution in #5246
• @themushroompirates made their first contribution in #5254
• @JordSant made their first contribution in #5260
• @aixiansheng made their first contribution in #5276
• @MULTidll made their first contribution in #5279
• @NimComPoo-04 made their first contribution in #5278
• @diogohartuiqdebarba made their first contribution in #5295
• @alexgb0 made their first contribution in #5291
• @krispy-snacc made their first contribution in #5236
• @adeebshihadeh made their first contribution in #5308
• @cthulhuology made their first contribution in #5319
• @tacf made their first contribution in #5323
• @EDBCREPO made their first contribution in #5324
• @komunre made their first contribution in #5325
• @NoNameAuthenticated made their first contribution in #5332
• @Chakri-fun made their first contribution in #5339
• @und3f made their first contribution in #5358
• @ChocolateChipKookie made their first contribution in #5363
• @MaeBrooks made their first contribution in #5366
• @acquitelol made their first contribution in #5370
• @johnmichaeljimenez made their first contribution in #5373
• @davidbuzatto made their first contribution in #5372
• @XenoMustache made their first contribution in #5383
• @rayumie made their first contribution in #5384
• @Sethbones made their first contribution in #5386
• @spineda2019 made their first contribution in #5390
• @gmitch215 made their first contribution in #5397
• @Marcos-D made their first contribution in #5392
• @olaron made their first contribution in #5410
• @dtasada made their first contribution in #5415
• @caszuu made their first contribution in #5414
• @SabeDoesThings made their first contribution in #5421
• @msmith-codes made their first contribution in #5422
• @KiviTK made their first contribution in #5430
• @Crisspl made their first contribution in #5431
• @kellemar made their first contribution in #5439
• @LeapersEdge made their first contribution in #5444
• @TheLazyIndianTechie made their first contribution in #5445
• @CosmosShell made their first contribution in #5457
• @mcdubhghlas made their first contribution in #5427
• @oneafter made their first contribution in #5450
• @JJLDonley made their first contribution in #5462
• @jackboakes made their first contribution in #5468
• @al13n321 made their first contribution in #5469
• @ssszcmawo made their first contribution in #5470
• @pauldahacker made their first contribution in #5478
• @MarcosTypeAP made their first contribution in #5481
• @Meehai made their first contribution in #5482
• @lucas150670 made their first contribution in #5484
• @jamesmintram made their first contribution in #5486
• @mdm5995 made their first contribution in #5487
• @iisakkirotko made their first contribution in #5490
• @mck1117 made their first contribution in #5494
• @jscaff made their first contribution in #5498
• @noinodev made their first contribution in #5505
• @vdemcak made their first contribution in #5506
• @The4codeblocks made their first contribution in #5508
• @jasoncnm made their first contribution in #5516
• @eloj made their first contribution in #5523
• @alexf91 made their first contribution in #5529
• @bielern made their first contribution in #5531
• @Sumethh made their first contribution in #5534
• @LunaStev made their first contribution in #5539
• @n-s-kiselev made their first contribution in #5540
• @arlez80 made their first contribution in #5548
• @0xPD33 made their first contribution in #5564
• @dmitrii-brand made their first contribution in #5543
• @TheKodeToad made their first contribution in #5574
• @FinnDemonCat made their first contribution in #5585
• @BadRAM made their first contribution in #5587
• @aceiii made their first contribution in #5590
• @ghera made their first contribution in #5589
• @konakona418 made their first contribution in #5602
• @lamweilun made their first contribution in #5613
• @m039 made their first contribution in #5617
• @dodome2k6 made their first contribution in #5620
• @ggrizzly made their first contribution in #5615
• @JoeStrout made their first contribution in #5626
• @victorberdugo1 made their first contribution in #5629
• @SardineMilk made their first contribution in #5635
• @dan-hoang made their first contribution in #5637
• @jtorrestx made their first contribution in #5647
• @Wertual08 made their first contribution in #5645
• @somamizobuchi made their first contribution in #5653
• @0x00650a made their first contribution in #5671
• @devel60-alt made their first contribution in #5672
• @georgik made their first contribution in #5674
• @lvntky made their first contribution in #5682
• @LewisLee26 made their first contribution in #5693
• @bosoni made their first contribution in #5696
• @dotmrjosh made their first contribution in #5702
• @r3g492 made their first contribution in #5708
• @arbipink made their first contribution in #5713
• @angshumankishore made their first contribution in #5727
• @mudhairless made their first contribution in #5755
• @nadav78 made their first contribution in #5763
• @nilsojunior made their first contribution in #5766
• @areynaldo made their first contribution in #5769
• @Monjaris made their first contribution in #5722
• @Itwernme made their first contribution in #5779

Full Changelog: 5.5...6.0