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raymath

raylib-rs 6.0 ships native #[repr(C)] math types directly from raylib-sys: [Vector2], [Vector3], [Vector4], [Matrix], and [Quaternion]. Their arithmetic comes from raylib’s own raymath via a C shim (binding/raymath_shim.c, RAYMATH_IMPLEMENTATION), wrapped as Rust methods and operators. No third-party math crate is needed by default — glam, mint, and serde are opt-in Cargo features.

You’ll land here when you need vector math, matrix transforms, or quaternion rotation without opening a window.

API surface

  • Vector2 — 2D vector with .dot, .cross, .normalize, .length, .length_sqr, .rotate, and operator overloads.
  • Vector3 — 3D vector with .dot, .cross, .normalize, .length, .rotate_by_quaternion, .rotate_by_axis_angle.
  • Vector4 — 4D vector; also the FFI representation of a quaternion on the C side.
  • Matrix — row-major 4×4 matrix (row-major in memory; see Gotchas); constructors Matrix::identity, Matrix::translate, Matrix::rotate, Matrix::rotate_x/y/z, Matrix::rotate_xyz/zyx.
  • Quaternion — distinct #[repr(C)] struct (C aliases it to Vector4). Constructors: Quaternion::identity, Quaternion::from_axis_angle, Quaternion::normalize, Quaternion::length.
  • Ray / BoundingBox — used by the 3D collision and raycasting helpers.
  • lerp — f32 linear interpolation convenience function.
  • rquat — shorthand constructor for Quaternion.

Example

The math types are window-independent — this doctest runs with no GPU context.

#![allow(unused)]
fn main() {
extern crate raylib;
use raylib::math::{Vector3, Matrix};

// Vector operations
let a = Vector3::new(1.0, 0.0, 0.0);
let b = Vector3::new(0.0, 1.0, 0.0);

let d = a.dot(b);
assert_eq!(d, 0.0, "orthogonal vectors have zero dot product");

let c = a.cross(b);
assert!((c.z - 1.0).abs() < 1e-6, "cross product of x and y should be z");

let len = a.normalize().length();
assert!((len - 1.0).abs() < 1e-6, "normalized vector has unit length");

// Matrix identity
let m = Matrix::identity();
// raylib's Matrix is row-major in memory; identity diagonal is m0/m5/m10/m15.
assert_eq!(m.m0, 1.0);
assert_eq!(m.m5, 1.0);
assert_eq!(m.m10, 1.0);
assert_eq!(m.m15, 1.0);
assert_eq!(m.m1, 0.0);

// Translation matrix
let t = Matrix::translate(3.0, 0.0, 0.0);
// m12 is the x-translation entry in raylib's row-major memory layout.
assert_eq!(t.m12, 3.0);
}

Gotchas

  • Quaternion is distinct from Vector4. In C, Quaternion is a typedef for Vector4. raylib-rs uses a distinct #[repr(C)] struct with the same layout for type safety — the compiler will not let you pass a Vector4 where a Quaternion is expected. Use Quaternion::from(v4) / Vector4::from(q) for explicit zero-cost conversion.
  • MintVec* types are deprecated. The MintVec2/MintVec3/MintVec4/MintMatrix/MintQuat type aliases from 5.x are still present but carry #[deprecated(since = "6.0.0")]. Replace them with the native Vector2/Vector3/Vector4/Matrix/Quaternion types. See ecosystem/glam-mint-serde.md for the opt-in integration story.
  • Zero math-crate deps by default. The default build depends only on raylib’s own raymath C implementation. Enable --features glam / --features mint / --features serde for conversions/trait impls. Never assume those features are present in library code.
  • Row-major memory layout, semantic column-major ops. raylib’s Matrix is row-major in memory — the C source (raymath.h) writes translation into m12/m13/m14. The math operations and parameter naming, however, treat the matrix as column-major; the two conventions describe the same data via different access patterns. glam::Mat4 is column-major in memory, so when comparing byte layouts side-by-side they will differ — but the --features glam adapter handles the mapping so values round-trip correctly.

See also

Showcase examples

Showcase examples that exercise this module: