Platforms

BUI runs on Windows, Linux and macOS. Windows and Linux are fully supported; macOS works with a few honest caveats. Here’s the whole picture, so you can tell in one glance whether your setup is covered.

The matrix

	Windows	Linux	macOS
Window	Native (Win32)	Native (X11; Wayland through XWayland)	Native (Cocoa), experimental
Python (pip install)	Works: wheels	Works: wheels	Works: wheels
Rust	Works	Works	Experimental
JavaScript and React	Works: prebuilt on npm	Works: build the addon from source (npm run build)	Headless
C, C++, Dear ImGui	Works	Works	Experimental
Renderer	CPU raster, or GPU (Direct3D 11)	CPU raster, or GPU (OpenGL 3.3)	CPU raster
HiDPI	Per-monitor DPI	Xft.dpi	Retina (backing scale)
Images	All built-in formats; decode threads; GPU atlas	All built-in formats; decode threads; GPU atlas	All built-in formats; decode threads (CPU raster)
Video	Works: Media Foundation (DXVA), tested	Works: GStreamer (VA-API where available), tested under WSL	AVFoundation: written, untested

Works means it works and is tested. Experimental means it’s written and checked by CI, but has had little hands-on testing on real hardware (macOS: one Apple Silicon Mac so far).

Windows

• Window: a native Win32 host, per-monitor DPI aware, with animation paced to the display.
• GPU renderer: Direct3D 11 (feature level 10.0 or newer). Machines without it stay on the CPU raster.
• Compilers: MSVC, or MinGW-w64 GCC. The published Python wheels are built with MinGW (UCRT) and statically linked to the GCC runtime, so they depend only on system DLLs and Python’s. The Rust crate’s default target uses MSVC: install the Visual Studio Build Tools.
• JavaScript: the npm packages ship a prebuilt addon and the bui-runtime for Windows x64.
• Video: Media Foundation, loaded at run time (Windows “N” editions without the Media Feature Pack start normally and report no video). H.264 always; HEVC, VP9 and AV1 with Microsoft’s Store extensions. Tested on Windows 11 (Ryzen 7 5800U, Radeon graphics).

Linux

• Window: a native X11 host. Wayland sessions run it through XWayland.
• No X11 needed to import. libX11 and libGL load when the first window opens, so BUI imports and renders headless on servers and in containers without them. (Rust binaries are the exception: they link libX11 directly.)
• GPU renderer: OpenGL 3.3 core, through GLX for windows and EGL for offscreen rendering. Where OpenGL is missing, BUI falls back to the CPU raster.
• Tested on: the C, Python, window and GPU parity tests pass on Mesa’s software OpenGL and on an NVIDIA GPU. The suites also run under WSLg.
• Building from source needs the X11 headers: libx11-dev (Debian, Ubuntu) or libX11-devel (Fedora). No GL headers are needed.
• JavaScript: no prebuilt npm addon yet. Build it from a clone with npm run build in bindings/node (needs Rust, CMake and a C compiler); windows are native.
• Video: GStreamer 1.x, dlopened (no headers needed to build): install gstreamer1.0-plugins-base and -good, plus gstreamer1.0-libav (or -plugins-bad for openh264/dav1d) for H.264 and friends, and gstreamer1.0-vaapi / the va plugin for hardware decoding. Tested under WSL (Kali, GStreamer 1.24, software decoding); the OpenGL NV12 shader passes the parity test there on Mesa.

macOS Experimental

• Window: a native Cocoa host, ported from Blender’s GHOST code, with Retina scaling. It’s checked by CI and has been tried by hand on one Apple Silicon Mac by Krish Kalaria, who also fixed the bugs he found (issue #3, pull request #4). AppKit only allows windows on the main thread.
• Python fallback: if the native host misbehaves, use the standard Tk window: BUI_HOST=tk. That needs a Python with tkinter (for example from python.org, or brew install python-tk).
• JavaScript is headless. Node runs BUI on its own UI thread, and macOS only allows windows on the main thread.
• Renderer: the CPU raster only.
• Help test it. If you have a Mac, the macOS testing guide lists what to build, what to run and what to report.

Packages

Package	Platforms	Notes
blenderui on PyPI	Windows x86_64, Linux x86_64 (manylinux), macOS arm64 and x86_64	CPython 3.11, 3.12, 3.13 and 3.14. No musllinux or 32-bit wheels. Linux wheels include the native X11 host.
@blender-ui/native, @blender-ui/react on npm	Windows x64	Node.js 18 or newer, or Bun. Elsewhere, build the addon from source.
blenderui on crates.io	Any platform with CMake and a C compiler	cargo add blenderui; the C kit is compiled on first build. Rust 1.88 or newer. blenderui-imgui (Dear ImGui) is published too, next to the smaller crates blenderui builds on (blenderui-sys, -macros, -tailwind, -paint, -table, -vlist).
C and C++ (CMake)	Windows, Linux, macOS	CMake 3.20+, a C11 and C++20 compiler.

Requirements at a glance

You use	You need
Python	CPython 3.11 or newer
Rust	Rust 1.88+, CMake, a C compiler (and the X11 headers on Linux)
JavaScript	Node.js 18+ or Bun
C / C++	CMake 3.20+, a C11 and C++20 compiler (MSVC, GCC or MinGW-w64, Clang); X11 headers on Linux

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