ContextQMD
Back to Raylib Rs

glam, mint, serde

book/src/ecosystem/glam-mint-serde.md

6.0.03.3 KB
Original Source

glam, mint, serde

raylib-rs 6.0 makes math-ecosystem integration strictly opt-in. The default build ships zero extra math-crate dependencies — native #[repr(C)] types (Vector2, Vector3, Vector4, Matrix, Quaternion) cover every API surface with no third-party crate required.

Enable glam, mint, or serde as Cargo features to unlock From/Into conversions and serialization trait derives on those native types.

API surface

  • --features glam — adds From/Into between:
    • Vector2 ↔ glam::Vec2
    • Vector3 ↔ glam::Vec3
    • Vector4 ↔ glam::Vec4
    • Quaternion ↔ glam::Quat
    • Matrix ↔ glam::Mat4 (column-major round-trip; see Gotchas)
  • --features mint — adds From/Into between:
    • Vector2 ↔ mint::Vector2<f32>
    • Vector3 ↔ mint::Vector3<f32>
    • Vector4 ↔ mint::Vector4<f32>
    • Quaternion ↔ mint::Quaternion<f32>
    • Matrix ↔ mint::ColumnMatrix4<f32>
  • --features serde — adds Serialize/Deserialize derives on the math types (Vector2/Vector3/Vector4/Matrix/Quaternion) and on Color.

Example

full includes glam, so this doctest runs under cargo test --features full and under mdbook test -L target/debug/deps.

rust
# extern crate raylib;
# extern crate glam;
use raylib::math::Vector3;

// Convert to glam for library interop, then convert back.
let rl_v = Vector3::new(1.0, 2.0, 3.0);
let gv: glam::Vec3 = rl_v.into();
assert_eq!(gv, glam::Vec3::new(1.0, 2.0, 3.0));

let round_trip: Vector3 = gv.into();
assert_eq!(round_trip.x, rl_v.x);
assert_eq!(round_trip.y, rl_v.y);
assert_eq!(round_trip.z, rl_v.z);

Gotchas

  • MintVec* / MintMatrix / MintQuat are deprecated. The MintVec2, MintVec3, MintVec4, MintMatrix, and MintQuat type aliases from the 5.x era are still present but carry #[deprecated(since = "6.0.0")]. Replace them with the native types (Vector2, Vector3, Vector4, Matrix, Quaternion) and, if you need mint interop, enable --features mint.
  • glam::Mat4 column-major vs. raylib Matrix row-major. raylib's Matrix is row-major in memory (translation lives in m12/m13/m14; see raymath chapter). glam::Mat4 is column-major in memory. The --features glam adapter handles the field permutation so values round-trip correctly — but if you inspect raw byte layouts side-by-side, m0..m15 will differ from glam's internal storage order.
  • Zero math-crate deps by default. Library crates built on raylib-rs should not enable glam/mint/serde in their own [features] defaults unless they genuinely need them — doing so forces the dependency onto every downstream consumer.

See also