MakeHuman — C++/Qt6

A native C++23 port of MakeHuman, the parametric 3D human generator. Targets macOS (arm64 first), with a Qt6 UI and a Metal-backed renderer replacing the original Python/PyQt5/legacy-OpenGL stack.

Status: core complete, UI not started. The port loads MakeHuman's data, builds a parameterised character with byte-level fidelity to the original, fits proxies, and exports to OBJ, glTF/GLB and FBX.

What works today

Area	State
Mesh, OBJ read, normals, tangents, GPU unweld	✅ parity-tested
Catmull-Clark subdivision	✅ exact parity — 75,008 verts / 73,944 faces
Targets, macro factors, modifiers, Human	✅ parity-tested end to end
.mhm saved models	✅ round-trip parity
Proxies (.mhclo), materials (.mhmat), asset index	✅ parity-tested
Export OBJ · glTF 2.0 / GLB · FBX 7500 binary · Collada · STL · 3MF	✅
Import FBX · glTF · OBJ · Collada · STL	✅ new capability
Skeleton, skinning, pose	⬜ not started
Renderer, UI	⬜ not started

Every ported subsystem is checked against the original Python implementation, which is retained in legacy/python/ purely as a test oracle and is not part of the build. CI enforces that.

Performance

Measured against the Python original on the same machine and data (benchmarks/, release build):

Operation	C++	Python
Load base mesh	5.2 ms	211.8 ms	40×
Catmull-Clark build	6.3 ms	202.3 ms	32×
Subdivided refresh	0.46 ms	28.2 ms	61×
Full character rebuild	0.07 ms	—
Load all 1,280 targets	465 ms	3,226 ms	6.9×

The subdivided-refresh figure is the one that matters: the original needs 28.2 ms per update, which exceeds a 16.6 ms frame budget before anything is drawn. That is why subdivided editing cannot hold 60 fps today.

Design

The interface is specified in memory/design.md, with a rendered visual reference: MakeHuman Interface Kit — the dark dockable workspace, its tokens, controls and icons, built in the tokens it documents.

Building

Requires CMake ≥ 3.28, Ninja, a C++23 compiler, and assimp.

brew install cmake ninja assimp
cmake --preset macos-arm64-release
cmake --build --preset macos-arm64-release -j
ctest --preset macos-arm64-debug --output-on-failure

Presets: macos-arm64-debug, macos-arm64-release, macos-arm64-asan.

Layout

src/{core,io}      C++ implementation   include/makehuman/  public headers
data/              CC0 assets           tests/              unit · golden · regression
benchmarks/        vs. the Python baseline
memory/            project documentation — start with memory/session_start.md
legacy/            the Python original: test oracle only, never built

Licensing

Two licences, deliberately separated so downstream users get real reuse rights. See LICENSING.md — it is the authoritative document.

• mh-core (AGPL-3.0-or-later) — ported from MakeHuman, so copyleft is permanent and cannot be removed.
• mh-io (Apache-2.0) — written from published format specifications, never translated from the original, so it is separately reusable.

Dependency arrows point one way only: AGPL modules may use Apache-2.0 modules, never the reverse. CI checks the SPDX header on every source file.

Assets are CC0. Anything you create with this software is yours, with no conditions. The application's source stays open; a closed-source fork is not permitted.

The Autodesk FBX SDK is not used, despite being free of charge — its licence and AGPL impose contradictory distribution obligations. FBX support comes from assimp (BSD-3), which writes newer FBX than the original did. Reasoning with clause references is in LICENSING.md §5.3.