dcat

A 3d model viewer for the terminal

preview.mp4

Controls

• q - Quit
• m - Toggle wireframe
• Animation controls:
  • p - Play/Pause animation
  • 1 - Previous animation
  • 2 - Next animation
• When FPS controls are enabled:
  • w/a/s/d - Move forward/left/backward/right
  • i/j/k/l - Look around
  • Space - Move up
  • Shift - Move down
  • v - Slow down
  • b - Speed up
• When FPS controls are disabled
  • w/a/s/d - Rotate the camera around the model
  • e/r - Zoom in and out

Character rendering option

• --hash-characters makes character modes (--truecolor-characters, --palette-characters, --block-characters) render with # instead of half-block glyphs.
• In this mode, vertical detail is halved (one source pixel row per terminal row).

Build

Linux/macOS:

cmake -S . -B build -G Ninja -D CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -D USE_BUNDLED=OFF -D USE_SANITIZERS=OFF
cmake --build build --config Release

Debug build with sanitizers:

cmake -S . -B build-debug -G Ninja -D CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug -D USE_BUNDLED=OFF -D USE_SANITIZERS=ON
cmake --build build-debug --config Debug

Windows (MSVC, recommended):

# Run these in a Visual Studio Developer PowerShell (x64)
cmake -S cmake.deps -B .deps -G Ninja -D CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -D DCAT_VCPKG_TRIPLET=x64-windows
cmake --build .deps --config Release
cmake -S . -B build -G Ninja -D CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -D USE_BUNDLED=ON -D DEPS_PREFIX="$PWD\.deps\vcpkg_installed\x64-windows" -D USE_SANITIZERS=OFF
cmake --build build --config Release

Build bundled dependencies only (Windows/MSVC)

cmake -S cmake.deps -B .deps -G Ninja -D CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -D DCAT_VCPKG_TRIPLET=x64-windows
cmake --build .deps --config Release

If your vcpkg revision does not provide a vips/libvips port, cmake.deps automatically downloads the official vips-dev-x64-all bundle from libvips/build-win64-mxe and places it under .deps\vcpkg_installed\x64-windows.

Then configure the main project with:

cmake -S . -B build -G Ninja -D CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -D USE_BUNDLED=ON -D DEPS_PREFIX="$PWD\.deps\vcpkg_installed\x64-windows"
cmake --build build --config Release

Windows notes:

• --kitty, --kitty-direct, and --sixel are not supported in native Windows mode.
• Auto output mode falls back to character rendering modes on Windows.
• glslc must still be available on PATH (for example from the Vulkan SDK).

Install:

cmake --install build