Underneath every specialty on this site is the same thing: real-time 3D graphics. We have been rendering interactive 3D since the 80s and 90s, from early line-drawing hardware to the low-level OpenGL and Vulkan calls up through full scene graphs, and most of what we do is a particular application of that one craft. We do it all. We've worked on virtually every generation of graphics hardware since the Amiga in the mid 80s. Our first commercial product, 3D Nature, grew out of that era: it debuted on the Amiga as World Construction Set in the early 1990s, rendering whole-world terrain from real elevation and GIS data at high precision, before consumer 3D GPUs existed.
Real-time rendering
OpenGL and OpenGL ES and SC, DirectX, Metal, Vulkan, and the scene graphs built on them: OpenSceneGraph and its Vulkan successor VulkanSceneGraph. We write renderers from the pipeline up, profile and optimize the ones that are too slow, and port the ones that stopped building when the platform moved on. If it draws geometry in real time, it is in our wheelhouse. Literally, we worked on a maritime AR training simulator of a ship's bridge.
Unreal Engine
When a project wants a game-engine pipeline, we build in Unreal Engine too: whole-planet terrain with Cesium for Unreal, VR sand tables and simulation, sensor integration, and bridging Unreal to an existing scene-graph or C++ pipeline. See our Unreal Engine development work.
The specialties
Most projects are one of these, and many are several at once:
- OpenSceneGraph and osgEarth, the scene graph and terrain engine at the center of our work.
- Geospatial and terrain, whole-earth rendering, GIS, and the data pipelines behind it.
- Computer vision, where the camera is the sensor and the render is the proof.
- Space domain, orbital and lunar visualization at planetary scale.
- Visual simulation, image generators and trainers.
- VR, AR, and xR, the same scenes in a headset at full frame rate.
- Safety-critical and embedded, graphics that have to certify and fit.
- RISC-V and Linux, the silicon and the operating system underneath.
- Slughorn GPU vector-text library.
- CAD, CNC, and fabrication, from parametric modeling and scan-to-CAD to toolpaths and G-Code.
Why one team
The seams are where projects fail. The renderer, the terrain that has to match the sensor, the headset that needs the frame a millisecond sooner: those are hard parts, and they lurk between the specialties, not inside them. We work across the whole stack, so the seams are ours to get right.
Who works on it
AlphaPixel is a US-owned small business, founded in 2004, with senior developers who each have decades in real-time 3D. DLA DD2345 / ITAR registered. We take closed-source defense work and open source alike, and we do not sell an engine, so our advice is not a sales pitch for one.
Frequently asked questions
What does AlphaPixel's 3D graphics work cover?
Real-time, interactive 3D, from the low-level graphics API up through full scene graphs. We write renderers from the pipeline up, profile and optimize ones that are too slow, and port ones that stopped building when the platform moved on. Most of our specialties, from geospatial to visual simulation to XR, are one application of that same real-time rendering craft.
Which graphics APIs and scene graphs do you work in?
OpenGL, OpenGL ES and SC, DirectX, Metal, and Vulkan, plus the scene graphs built on them: OpenSceneGraph and its Vulkan successor VulkanSceneGraph. When a project wants a game-engine pipeline instead, we also build in Unreal Engine. If it draws geometry in real time, it is in scope.
Can you make a slow 3D application faster?
Yes. Performance profiling, optimization, and tuning of existing renderers and scene graphs is core work for us, and the larger the dataset the more room there usually is. Gains often come from shaders, level of detail, instancing, and smarter data and buffer management.
Do you write new renderers, or only fix existing ones?
Both. We build renderers from scratch when a project needs its own core, extend and optimize existing ones, and rescue codebases that no longer compile after a platform or toolchain change.
Should I use a game engine or a scene graph?
It depends on your constraints. A game engine gives you an editor and asset ecosystem out of the box; a lean, embeddable scene graph gives you a fully owned rendering core with no license entanglements, which safety-critical, embedded, and long-lived programs often need. We build in all of them and do not sell an engine, so the recommendation follows your needs, not a catalog.
Do you do defense and export-controlled 3D work?
Yes. AlphaPixel is a US-owned small business, DLA DD2345 and ITAR registered, and comfortable in closed-source and export-controlled codebases as well as open source.
Why hire one team across the whole 3D stack instead of separate vendors?
Projects fail at the borders: the renderer, the terrain that has to match the sensor, the headset that needs the frame a millisecond sooner. Those hard parts span specialties, not inside any one of them. One team that works across the whole stack owns the seams instead of pointing at another vendor.
How do we engage AlphaPixel for a 3D graphics project?
As a subcontractor, a team-augmentation partner, or the hired specialists for one hard piece. Contact us with the problem and constraints and we will scope it; there is no fixed price sheet because real-time 3D work varies widely by target and dataset.
Talk to us
Tell us what you’re building and where it’s stuck. We’ll tell you straight whether it’s something we can help with, and how we’d approach it.
Or see how we run consulting and software development engagements.
