rust-sdl2 VS OpenFrameworks

I don't think that SDL and WGPU are really comparable. You'd be better off comparing SDL to something like Notan or even the SDL bindings for Rust. That said, SDL will have vastly more learning resources than Wgpu or Notan or any Rust alternative. If you know and like rust you can probably use the resources with the Rust SDL bindings.

Those are 3 very different libraries. Are you looking for something in the middle, or do you want all of the features you described? For what it's worth, there's SLD2 bindings for Rust https://github.com/Rust-SDL2/rust-sdl2

There's already a Rust binding for SDL2. See https://crates.io/crates/sdl2

nope. https://github.com/Rust-SDL2/rust-sdl2/issues/884 emscripten target won't work yet either.

it seems like what you are looking for is sdl2 bindings

Dude. It's literally at most 50 lines of code, the entire project. What kind of documentation do you expect me to write? The library I'm using is this one. I don't know why you'd need to know anything about it since it's purely something that can appear literally anywhere, it's part of the language.

*and* SDL2-sys *and* Rust-SDL2

The SDL2 crate had something like this, and it's an option I'm considering. However, if possible, I'd prefer a different, simpler GUI library, so if there's an input-specialized crate out there that does this, I'd love it.

Not exactly VJ, but could be used for it. https://openframeworks.cc

Since you have C# experience, take this time to learn more about C++ while you continue to look. While yes, it is very easy to write bad code, it's not a huge deal since you just graduated and are just hacking around. Plus there are a lot of helpers these days to make writing bad code a little less likely.A former mentor of mine gifted me "C++ Without Fear" by Brian Overland which I can recommend. It's not too expensive, I think it was $25 or something like that, likely less used. Also comes in E-book form.If you'd like a gentler introduction to C++, may I recommend openFrameworks?

Have you come across openFrameworks (https://openframeworks.cc/) or Cinder (https://libcinder.org/)?

Not sure it checks all your boxes, but check openFrameworks?

I recently heard of openFrameworks which should make it pretty easy to make your game. It handles putting together a bunch of other libraries and window management so you can focus on drawing some shapes on the screen and handling user input. Sounds like love2d but all C++.

let me know if I can help out - also checkout the forum at openframeworks.cc - the people there are very friendly and helpful - especially with people that are completely new to oF...

I mean, https://www.libcinder.org and https://openframeworks.cc have been mainstays of the creative coding industry for a long time now. A Rust take on the problem shouldn't be too surprising.