cub3d

This project has been created as part of the 42 curriculum by maiguna and marfranc.

cub3D

Description

cub3D is a 3D maze exploration project inspired by the game Wolfenstein 3D, one of the first First-Person Shooter games ever made. Our project is build entirely in C using the MiniLibX graphics library, it implements a raycasting engine from scratch to simulate a 3D perspective inside a 2D map.

The goal is to render a navigable 3D environment parsed from a .cub scene file, handling textures for each wall direction (North, South, East, West) and a configurable floor/ceiling color. The player can move and rotate through the maze in real time.

Features

Mandatory

• Raycasting engine rendering walls with different textures per direction (N/S/E/W)
• Smooth player movement and camera rotation
• Scene configuration via .cub file (map, textures, colors)
• Map validation (closed walls, valid characters, etc.)
• Floor and ceiling color rendering

Bonus

• Wall collisions — the player cannot walk through walls
• Minimap system — a top-down minimap overlay showing the player's position

Instructions

• Linux
• gcc compiler
• make
• MiniLibX (included or installable via the system)

Compilation

clone the report of our cub3D (from Github ou git's link Intra V2/V3)
cd cub3D
git clone https:\/\/github.com/42paris/minilibx-linux.git
make or make valgrind to use is with valgrind

Execution

./cub3D maps/map.cub

Key	Action
W / ↑	Move forward
S / ↓	Move backward
A	Strafe left
D	Strafe right
←	Rotate camera left
→	Rotate camera right
ESC / x	Quit the game

Scene File Format (.cub)

NO ./textures/north.xpm
SO ./textures/south.xpm
WE ./textures/west.xpm
EA ./textures/east.xpm

F 220,100,0
C 30,30,200

        1111111
        1000001
        1011101
111111111010001
100000000010001
111111111110001
        100   1
        111111

• NO/SO/WE/EA — paths to XPM wall textures
• F / C — Floor / Ceiling RGB colors
• Map must be surrounded by walls (1), spaces allowed outside

Resources

Documentation, articles and tutorials

• Raycasting and Digital Differential Analyzer (DDA)
  • https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raycasting
  • http://zupi.free.fr/PTuto/index.php?ch=ptuto&p=ray
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYRrGTC7GtA
  • https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/editor/?tutorial=getStarted
  • https://medium.com/@mr.mhdhilali/cub3d-building-a-3d-world-from-a-2d-map-how-raycasting-really-works-9589466edf39
  • https://permadi.com/1996/05/ray-casting-tutorial-1/
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbSee-XM7WA
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5P8GlaEOSI
  • https://perso.esiee.fr/~buzerl/sphinx_IMA/80%20raycast/raycast.html
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_differential_analyzer_(graphics_algorithm)

MiniLibX

• MiniLibX Documentation (42) (https://harm-smits.github.io/42docs/libs/minilibx)
• MiniLibX Linux (https://github.com/42Paris/minilibx-linux)

AI Usage

AI (Claude by Anthropic) was used during this project for the following tasks:

• Debugging — helping identify logic errors in the raycasting loop and texture mapping
• Math explanations — clarifying DDA algorithm steps and vector math for player direction and camera plane
• README writing — generating and structuring this documentation