SolEngine

A C++20 game engine built on proven open-source libraries.

Concern	Library
Rendering	bgfx (D3D11 / GL / Vulkan / Metal)
ECS	EnTT
Math	GLM
Physics	Jolt Physics
UI	Dear ImGui
Assets	cgltf (GLB / GLTF)
Window	GLFW
Scenes / JSON	nlohmann/json

Features

• Forward PBR renderer — Cook-Torrance BRDF, metallic/roughness workflow
• Lighting — directional + point + spot lights (up to 8), PCF shadow maps
• HDR pipeline — RGBA16F framebuffer, ACES tonemap, Kawase bloom
• Skybox — equirectangular HDR → cube map
• Scene system — Godot-style node tree (.solscene JSON), runtime loading
• Engine/Game split — engine compiles to sol.exe + sol_engine.dll; games are separate DLLs loaded at runtime
• CLI — all tools via sol.exe sub-commands (run, build, new)

Quick Start (Windows)

First build — configure + compile everything from scratch:

build.bat

Run the model viewer demo:

runDemo.bat

Wipe build outputs:

wipe.bat

First configure clones bgfx, Jolt, EnTT, GLM, GLFW, ImGui, cgltf and nlohmann/json via FetchContent — expect several hundred MB and a slow first build (~10 min).

Bat Files

File	What it does
build.bat	CMake configure + full build (engine + demo)
runDemo.bat	Incremental build then launch the model viewer
wipe.bat	Delete build/ so next build starts clean

Demo Controls

Key / Input	Action
WASD	Fly forward / left / back / right
Q / E	Fly down / up
Left-click	Capture mouse for look
Mouse move	Look around (while captured)
Arrow keys	Look around (keyboard)
Escape	Release mouse
N / P	Next / previous model in demo/models/
Tab	Toggle ImGui HUD

Drop any .glb / .gltf file into demo/models/ and cycle through them with N/P.

Architecture

sol.exe          — engine runtime / CLI launcher
sol_engine.dll   — all engine subsystems (renderer, physics, ECS, scene)
demo.dll         — demo game module (loaded by sol.exe at runtime)

Each game DLL exports one C entry point:

SOL_EXPORT const SolGameApi* sol_get_game_api();

The returned SolGameApi provides on_init / on_update / on_render / on_shutdown callbacks driven by the engine main loop.

Project Layout

engine/
  include/sol/          public engine + game-ABI headers
  src/
    render/             renderer, shaders, HDR/bloom/shadow passes
    scene/              scene manager, node hierarchy, GLTF loader
    physics/            Jolt wrapper
    ecs/                EnTT helpers
    asset/              texture + mesh upload
    ui/                 ImGui integration
    window/             GLFW window
    log/                logging macros
demo/
  src/demo.cpp          model viewer (fly cam, model cycling)
  models/               drop GLBs here — N/P cycles through them
  scenes/               .solscene files
cmake/
  Dependencies.cmake    FetchContent for all third-party libs
  SolGame.cmake         helper for game DLL projects

Roadmap

See review.md for the full roadmap from current state to a production engine with deferred rendering, SSAO, SSR, GI, in-engine editor, Lua scripting, audio, and proper tooling.