---
title: Render Engine
order: 8
---

Chisel ships a custom GPU ray-marching engine. It evaluates SDFs directly per pixel — no triangulation, no LOD, mathematically exact surfaces at any zoom. Settings live in the *Render Properties* panel under the Chisel section.

## Activate the engine

![Pick the Chisel render engine](../assets/rendersetings-pickrenderer.webp)

The render engine is set per scene. In each scene where you want to use Chisel, open *Render Properties* and switch **Render Engine** to **Chisel**, then put the 3D viewport into **Material Preview** shading. The Chisel engine renders SDF objects via raymarching while leaving the rest of Blender's pipeline (overlays, gizmos, grease pencil) untouched.

The first frame after activation pauses while shaders compile — see the [first-run shader compilation note](../index.md#first-run-shader-compilation).

## Topics

- **[Quality](quality.md)** — ray-march steps, hit threshold, max distance, render resolution, brick detail
- **[Performance](performance.md)** — progressive refinement rungs, edge refinement, incremental brick bakes
- **[Matcap](matcap.md)** — built-in matcap library, color tint, specular layer
- **[Display](display.md)** — outline mode, show bounds, render region, proxy mesh for EEVEE/Cycles, mesh-SDF storage
- **[Gizmos](gizmos.md)** — in-viewport gizmo overlay toggles (arcs, modifier dots, Ngon handles)
- **[Baking](baking.md)** — bake normal, height, mask, and diffuse maps directly from SDF
- **[F12 Render](f12-render.md)** — render the SDF scene through the active camera to the Render Result

## Performance tips

- **Use Vulkan.** OpenGL is significantly slower for both compilation and runtime.
- **Lower *Min Resolution*** for buttery orbit on dense scenes — progressive refinement holds your *Target FPS* automatically and climbs back to full quality when you stop.
- **Leave *Edge Refinement* on.** Sharp edges over a cheap base frame is a better trade than raising *Resolution* outright.
- **Increase *Max Steps*** only when silhouettes look chunky; the default is enough for most scenes.
- **Enable the proxy mode** if you need accurate snapping or want EEVEE/Cycles renders alongside Chisel viewports.
- **Reduce *Resolution*** before *Max Steps* — resolution gives you the biggest speedup with the least visible quality loss.