Native GPU video rendering, no browser in the loop
Most code-to-video tools open a web page in headless Chrome, take a screenshot per frame and pipe it to FFmpeg. AgentFX owns the whole path: a Rust renderer, GPU compute for heavy effects and hardware encoders at the end.
| Step | Browser-based renderers | AgentFX |
|---|---|---|
| Draw a frame | Lay out and paint a web page in headless Chrome | Native vector raster (CPU) or GPU compute |
| Per frame work | Full page screenshot | Only the regions that changed |
| Simulations | JavaScript or WebGL libraries you add yourself | Built in: fluid, rigid bodies, fracture, particles |
| Time effects | Each frame is captured on its own | Frame history: slit-scan, echo, time displacement, shutter motion blur |
| Encode | FFmpeg after capture | x264, NVENC or VAAPI straight from the renderer |
| Repeatability | Depends on browser and fonts | Deterministic, seeded, diffable |
CPU first
A fast vector rasterizer renders motion graphics on an ordinary office CPU. No GPU, no cloud account, no browser install needed.
GPU compute when available
Fluid solvers, blurs, glow and looks run as wgpu compute shaders on Vulkan. In our tests a 2016 GTX 1050 Ti made effect-heavy shots 2 to 3 times faster.
Hardware encoders
NVENC on NVIDIA, VAAPI on Intel and AMD, x264 everywhere. Alpha output as ProRes 4444 or VP9.
Planner, not screenshots
The renderer knows the whole film in advance: what moves when, which layers are static and which effects need frame history. It schedules work by interval instead of redrawing everything.
Why it matters for agents
An agent iterates: write, check, change one line, render again. A renderer that redraws only what changed and gives identical frames for identical input makes that loop cheap and testable. The agent can render a single frame, compare two versions and only then render the full film.
FAQ
Does AgentFX use a browser to render?
No. The direct mode compiles the script to a scene description and renders it with a native Rust renderer. Headless Chrome is only used for an optional HTML import mode.
Which GPUs are supported?
Today: any GPU with a Vulkan driver on Linux for compute effects, NVENC on NVIDIA and VAAPI on Intel and AMD for encoding. Metal for Apple GPUs comes with the macOS build. Without a GPU everything runs on the CPU.
Can I render on another machine?
Yes. Renders can be sent to a second machine on your network, and a render dashboard shows jobs, progress and outputs.
Is the output identical on CPU and GPU?
Each path is deterministic: the same script renders the same frames on the same path. Agents use this to re-render and diff after a change.
Put an effects engine in your agent's hands.
AgentFX is open source under Apache 2.0. Clone it, build it, give the skill to your agent. Questions, ideas and effect requests are welcome on GitHub.