examples/rust/custom_visualizer/README.md
Example showing how to add a custom visualizer with a custom GPU renderer to the Rerun Viewer.
A custom visualizer has three parts:
A custom archetype (height_field_archetype.rs) defines what data your visualizer operates on. In this example, a HeightField archetype implements the Archetype trait and stores a 2D grid of height values as an image buffer with an optional colormap. Archetypes are collections of components that can be logged via the SDK and queried by the viewer.
A visualizer system (height_field_visualizer.rs) implements the VisualizerSystem trait. Each frame, the viewer calls execute, which queries the data store for entities matching the archetype and produces draw data for the renderer. This is where you go from raw logged data to something renderable.
A custom renderer (height_field_renderer.rs + height_field.wgsl) implements the Renderer trait and handles the GPU side: uploading data to textures and buffers, managing bind groups, and issuing draw calls. The WGSL shader generates the mesh procedurally from a height texture, computes normals via finite differences, and applies a colormap.
The visualizer is registered with the built-in Spatial3DView, so it participates in the existing 3D scene alongside built-in visualizers like points, meshes, and boxes.
The example comes with a built-in recording of animated terrain, and also starts an SDK server which the Python or Rust logging SDK can connect to.
Start it with cargo run -p custom_visualizer.