High-speed .NET bindings for OpenGL, Vulkan, DirectX, and other multimedia, graphics, and compute APIs.
Silk.NET is a high-performance .NET bindings library for low-level multimedia, graphics, and compute APIs such as OpenGL, Vulkan, DirectX, OpenAL, and WebGPU. It solves the problem of accessing these native APIs from .NET applications with minimal overhead, enabling developers to create cross-platform applications with advanced graphics, audio, and compute capabilities.
.NET developers building applications that require multimedia, graphics, or compute features, such as game engines, 3D visualization tools, audio processing software, or cross-platform desktop applications.
Developers choose Silk.NET for its exceptional performance, comprehensive API coverage, and cross-platform abstractions that simplify development. Its all-in-one approach and commitment to up-to-date bindings make it a reliable choice for demanding multimedia projects.
The high-speed OpenGL, OpenCL, OpenAL, OpenXR, GLFW, SDL, Vulkan, Assimp, WebGPU, and DirectX bindings library your mother warned you about.
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Optimized by examining generated C# code and JIT assembly, resulting in negligible overhead for low-level API calls like Vulkan and OpenGL.
Bindings are regenerated directly from upstream specifications, ensuring support for the latest versions of multimedia APIs with minimal delay.
Provides platform-agnostic utilities for windowing and input, allowing applications to target multiple operating systems without code changes.
Includes bindings for graphics, compute, audio, input, and windowing in a single library, reducing dependency management for developers.
Silk.NET 2.X updates are released ad-hoc as the team consists of volunteers, leading to potential maintenance gaps and slower bug fixes.
Building from source requires multiple SDKs, workloads, and tools, such as .NET 6/7, Android SDK, and Java JDK, which can be daunting for contributors.
With Silk.NET 3.0 in active development, users of the current version may face future migration challenges and uncertainty during the transition.