vork

Overview

vork is a headless 3D and VFX engine built for agents. An agent writes a scene as code, renders it, inspects the result and revises the code. It is written in Rust and Slang and renders on GPUs through Vulkan and Metal. It is source-available and free during the research preview.

Key Features

• Scene programs define materials, cameras, lighting, simulation and compositing, so agents can rewrite behavior such as light propagation or flocking simulations.
• A small kernel provides geometry and ray queries while agents write the rest of the shot as code; getting-started help is about 2,500 tokens and includes a complete first scene.
• Default rendering combines raster visibility with hardware ray-traced lighting, and a path tracer is also available.
• The engine supports compositing against tracked footage using external camera and matte tools plus authored proxy geometry.
• Python and TypeScript SDKs can author scene JSON, and JSON can also be written directly.
• Slang compute programs support GPU simulations such as a liquid simulation and a million-agent flocking scene.

Use Cases

• Agent-driven shot creation: an agent writes, renders, inspects and revises a scene until the look is ready.
• VFX on real footage: composite rendered 3D elements against tracked footage and relight live-action plates.
• Procedural simulation and effects: author GPU simulations, flocking, liquid, and custom light propagation such as a black-hole scene.
• Prototyping and final renders: iterate with standard preview or draft profiles and render final stills or movies with std/final or std/path.

Getting Started

• Install vork using the provided installer; the installer verifies the release and runs vork setup.
• Run vork init my-shot to create a working project, then cd my-shot.
• Render a quick preview with vork render scene.json --profile std/draft --out render.png and open the image.
• Use vork help for the starting scene and concepts; use vork help TOPIC --all and vork help field PATH for details.

Deployment & Requirements

• Runs on Windows x64 (Windows 10/11) and Linux x64 (Ubuntu 22.04+ or glibc 2.35+) with a recent NVIDIA GPU; install the NVIDIA driver first.
• Runs on Apple Silicon with Metal; the bundled Slang toolchain targets macOS 26, and older macOS versions are unqualified.
• Rendering requires Apple Silicon or an NVIDIA GPU with Vulkan ray queries; scene authoring and vork help work without a GPU.
• Cloud rendering can lease a cloud GPU that runs vork, billed by the second from a paid Voyager workspace.

Before You Adopt

• License: Other. Review its terms before using, modifying, or distributing the project.
• vork is a research preview and is source-available and free during the preview.
• Fog and volumes are not implemented yet; heavy interiors can abort on Mac; the path tracer is slower than Cycles in measured cases.
• The bundled Slang toolchain targets macOS 26, and older macOS versions are unqualified.
• Cloud GPU rendering needs a paid Voyager workspace (Starter or above).