Rapidly prototype a simple 2D game, pixel-based animations, software renderers, or an emulator for your favorite platform. Then add shaders to simulate a CRT or just to spice it up with some nice VFX.
`pixels` is more than just a library to push pixels to a screen, but less than a full framework. You're in charge of managing a window environment, event loop, and input handling.
Starting with [`wgpu` 0.10](https://github.com/gfx-rs/wgpu/blob/06316c1bac8b78ac04d762cfb1a886bd1d453b30/CHANGELOG.md#v010-2021-08-18), the [resolver version](https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/resolver.html#resolver-versions) needs to be set in your `Cargo.toml` to avoid build errors:
Perhaps a better alternative is specifying [`edition = "2021"`](https://doc.rust-lang.org/edition-guide/rust-2021/default-cargo-resolver.html), especially if you are starting a new project with Rust `1.56.0` or later.
requests a low power (aka integrated) GPU by default. If the examples are not working for any reason, you may try setting the `WGPU_POWER_PREF=high` environment variable to see if that addresses the issue on your host machine.
You should also try to keep your graphics drivers up-to-date, especially if you have an old Intel integrated GPU. Keep in mind that some drivers and GPUs are EOL and will not be supported.
You may want to use the `RUST_LOG` environment variable (see [`env_logger`](https://docs.rs/env_logger) for full documentation) to gain additional insight while troubleshooting the examples. `RUST_LOG=trace` will spew all logs to `stderr` on debug builds:
```
$ RUST_LOG=trace cargo run --package minimal-winit
```
And also on release builds when default features are disabled:
The [`minifb`](https://crates.io/crates/minifb) crate shares some similarities with `pixels`; it also allows rapid prototyping of 2D games and emulators. But it requires the use of its own window/GUI management, event loop, and input handling. One of the disadvantages with the `minifb` approach is the lack of hardware acceleration (except on macOS, which uses Metal but is not configurable). An advantage is that it relies on fewer dependencies.
