A simple engine

Modern C++23 OpenGL4.6 engine that can be used as a starting point for more complex engines or games. It focuses on clarity and a small feature set while keeping modern practices.

Engine Features

• OpenGL forward renderer with static instancing (mesh/material batching), frustum culling and post-processing.
• Diffuse lighting with multiple light sources.
• Third-person and first-person camera controllers.
• Fixed-step gameplay update loop for consistent movement, animation, and root motion.
• Skeletal animation with clip blending and optional grounded root motion.
• Basic stats display.
• Simple event system for input handling and window events.
• Asset manager with caching using lightweight handles.
• Configuration system using TOML files.

For a more detailed look at the engine’s architecture, check out the game-engine blog section and the architecture.

Build & Run

• Configure: make configure
• Build: make build
• Run: make run
• RenderDoc: make renderdoc
• Static analysis: make tidy
• Format: make format

See the build instructions for detailed steps on how to build and run the engine.

Demo Sponza scene

A demo scene is included with the Sponza model and an animated fox as the player character.

Controls

• WASD: Move
• Left Shift: Run
• Mouse: Look
• V: Toggle camera mode (first/third person)
• F3: Wireframe toggle
• F4: Cycle post-process effect (none, tone map, inversion, grayscale, sharpen, blur, edge detect)
• F5: Cycle stats mode (basic/timing averages)
• F6: Cycle material debug view (lit, normals, albedo, NdotL, roughness, metallic, occlusion, normal map, linear depth, material ID, OIT revealage, emissive, shadow placeholder)
• F12: Toggle fullscreen
• Esc: Quit

Runtime Config

Settings live in config.toml and are grouped by subsystem:

• window: title, size, position, vsync, mode
• player: spawn position
• characterController: walk/run speeds, mouse sensitivity/smoothing, turn responsiveness, root motion enable flag
• camera: projection settings (FOV, near/far)
• cameraController: third-person follow and first-person eye parameters
• render: MSAA sample count and anisotropy level
• postProcess: exposure
• stats: enable flag and update interval

Sponza model

Animated fox model