Jet, developed by CubeCoders, is a compact, dependency-free 3D rasterizer designed for modern microcontrollers such as ESP32 and STM32. Written in C++17, the software runs entirely in software, using only integer arithmetic and 16-bit RGB565 color. It is intended to work with displays such as ST7796 and ILI9488 connected via SPI.
On ESP32-S3, Jet can process approximately 650 on-screen triangles at 60 FPS and 1300 at 30 FPS at a resolution of 480×320. The developers say its performance falls between Sega 32X and Sega Saturn.
Why it matters
Jet’s lack of dependencies and need for hardware acceleration offers an approach that reduces the integration burden for developers looking to use 3D graphics in resource-constrained embedded systems. Its use of integer arithmetic and RGB565 indicates that the project was designed around the resource constraints of microcontrollers and SPI displays rather than desktop graphics quality. The stated triangle counts help assess feasible scenes by illustrating the trade-off between resolution, frame rate, and scene complexity on ESP32-S3. The console comparison also turns raw performance data into a more understandable reference for readers evaluating embedded 3D capabilities. However, because the measurements were provided only for the specified ESP32-S3 setup, it remains unclear whether similar results can be achieved with the STM32 family and other compatible displays.