—————– Devlog XXVII —————–

-- Release is out testing time –

To recap, my project is a custom made rendering engine that focuses on diverse rendering options along with high stylistic control (very high-level explanation).

✨ What did I do? ☀️

Not too much has happened, mostly:

• Updated README (resources, gallery, installation & use)
• Updated the landing page (added a tech-stack)
• Created my first release under the 1.3.x alpha title

That big 1.3.x “alpha” release is the big one, as I need some help. If you could just take a bit of time, and you aren’t on linux-arm or apple-intel, could you check out the github releases and try it out, that would be great! I plan to ship tmwr, but I want some testing done first.

Thank You for Reading

So close!!

Github repo: https://github.com/pkncoder/Engine

Project landing page: https://pkncoder.github.io/Engine

—————– Devlog XXVI —————–

-- Almost… there –

To recap, my project is a custom made rendering engine that focuses on diverse rendering options along with high stylistic control (very high-level explanation).

✨ What did I do? ☀️

In order to show the capabilites, I’ve been setting up scenes for my engine to show off, and here are some of the results!

It would be great to get your favorite render of these! For the full 9 renders, check out the scrapbook in the slack, as they will be there w/ a thread.

Thank You for Reading

Hopefully will actually ship tmwr! I’m actually getting kind of sad, I won’t be stopping development by any means, but this has been my summer (although I might not be able to get any stardance tokens, but that’s ok ig…).

If you have any questions, feel free to DM me either here, or at @pkncoder on discord if that’s easier for you!

Github repo: https://github.com/pkncoder/Engine

Project landing page: https://pkncoder.github.io/Engine

—————– Devlog XXV —————–

– New JSON scene file 📁 - SHIP TIMEEEEE –

To recap, my project is a custom made rendering engine that focuses on diverse rendering options along with high stylistic control (very high-level explanation).

✨ What did I do? ☀️

Not that much has happened tbh.

All that has really happened…

• Updated the README a bit more
• Added a new json parser to spawn the scene from that
• Added hot reloading of the scene

So yea, next should be the ship. When updating the README on the github, I was going through the Usage section, and added a new promise for how people could add their own meshes. In this I created the idea of activeScene.json, a JSON file that listed the scene data (crazy, right?).

And so, after I updated the README, I added the new loader, and made the scene reload by pressing the “r” key.

That’s kinda it…

Thank You for Reading

Before shipping, I need to…

• Do another update of the README
• Create the base Releases for Mac, Windows, and Linux
  • And test these
• Do a pass through TODO.md
• Update the landing page

Shouldn’t take too long

Github repo: https://github.com/pkncoder/Engine

Project landing page: https://pkncoder.github.io/Engine

—————– Devlog XXIV —————–

– i HATE shadow maps!!! - Renderer? I hardly know her? –

To recap, my project is a custom made rendering engine that focuses on diverse rendering options along with high stylistic control (very high-level explanation).

✨ What did I do? ☀️

WOAH

A lot has happened. Previously, I had just implemented a new entity system & a new camera system. So what’s new?

I present: The Deferred Renderer!!! Basically, it’s just another way of rendering. HOWEVER, it has some funzies:

• Mostly together render graph, just a little smthin
  • Shadow Pass
  • G-Buffer Pass
  • Lighting Pass
• New point lights (replacing the emmissive texture searching before)
• Looking to add SSAO (hemisphere sampling) in the future!!

Now, along with this, I just tested creating a build for windows and testing it on a friends machine, and it worked (his laptop is crap, so it ran slow, but surprisingly fast). Along with that, I also tried the current build on mac, and it also worked, so that’s also great (I’m supprised)!!

However, the real prize, is the trypophobia horrors made along the way!! That’s right! When trying to get textures to work, I ran into a ton of problems (mostly related to the alpha map & image formats) that caused major headaches. Images and videos, where they are a bit compressed, can be found below.

Thank You for Reading

Almost there, I still need to change up the landing page, rewrite the readme, and merge the main branch, plus try to get a way to change the 3d models for users, but I’m getting there.

Github repo: https://github.com/pkncoder/Engine

Project landing page: https://pkncoder.github.io/Engine

—————– Devlog XXIII —————–

– I NEED TO HURRY UP AAAA - EnTT - Table –

To recap, my project is a custom made rendering engine that focuses on diverse rendering options along with high stylistic control (very high-level explanation).

✨ What did I do? ☀️

In my previous devlog, I stated how I was working on the new RenderGraph. I’ve now realized, that I have like until the end of the week for when I need to ship. So instead, my goal is to get this looking impressive.

To start, here is what I’ve done so far:

• Cleaned up system inits
• Changed how the UUID service works (now you just access it and call generate)
• Implemented a new library, EnTT
• Did some cleanning up
• Added a PointLightComponent for future use (no dev. yet)
• Added and implemented the CameraComponent

Here are the big things:

EnTT

EnTT is an open-source library that handles objects within games, editors, etc. It’s creator is: Michele Caini (skypjack on github).

EnTT is a library that exposes something called an Entity Component System (ECS). Basically, instead of saving a bunch of data directly inside of one struct or class, you define an entity (a unique id) and assign that entity components. The components are what actually gives the entity meaning.

New Camera

If you have ever ued Blender for a bit, you would know that your camera is on the same list as your meshes. This is since, to Blender, they are inherantly the same thing (don’t quote me on that).

Previously, my camera was seperate to all of the rest of the objects. This caused the data to be split, and handling the differences made my architecture a bit weird.

Now that I’ve implemented EnTT, I’ve added a CameraComponent that defines things like rotation, FoV, etc - completely erasing the need for a separate camera, and opening the doors to more flexibility.

Thank You for Reading

New book is great! I won’t get to use too much of it for stardance, but I’m checking out this snowglobe thing that seems like it would be the next area!!

Wish me luck on the ship. I want to get it out by the end of the week so I can hopefully still cache in some stardust. Probally won’t get the computer though (high hopes for a living or smthin idk)

Github repo: https://github.com/pkncoder/Engine

Project landing page: https://pkncoder.github.io/Engine

❓ What’s next? 🛑

• Change my Rasterizer to be a Defered Renderer & implement multiple point lights
• UI??

—————– Devlog XXII —————–

– BrEaKiNg ChaNGeS - 📖 NEW BOOOKKKK –

To recap, my project is a custom made rendering engine that focuses on diverse rendering options along with high stylistic control (very high-level explanation).

✨ What did I do? ☀️

Sadly, I’ve done much coding

Base list

This is what I have done since the last devlog:

• Planned out a bit more on the inner workings from no Renderer->Rendered Image
• Created the new Shader & Program classes
• Updated the workings on RendererManager
• Started work on the new Renderer / IRenderer class
• Current commit is now broken (compiles, doesn’t run

Overview

In my new obsidian vault , I’ve been working on creating the new database on how it all works. Through this, I’ve been using excalidraw (Obsidian) to plan out pipelines & create visuals.

Currently, I have 2 main drawings:

• Shader & Program pipeline
• Renderer Pipeline

The Shader & Program pipeline explains the lifetime and usage of both the Shader and Program (OpenGL program) classes. A program gets created, has shaders attached to it (deleting the shader in the process), and then the program gets linked & binded.

The Renderer Pipeline explains the lifetime and usage of a renderer. Starting from the RendererManager, go through normal rendering stuff, and will end at shutting down the RendererManager.

For the inner workings of the new renderer setup, I’ll leave that for (hopefully next devlog) when I get everything working start to finish of the RendererPipeline.

Thank You for Reading

As for the “New Book I got, I have just purchased “Game Engine Architecture Vol. I” (Jason Gregory) to specialize the program more (most likely after Stardance ends).

Github repo: https://github.com/pkncoder/Engine
Project landing page: https://pkncoder.github.io/Engine

❓ What’s next? 🛑

• Plan out the RenderGraph
• Create the base RenderGraph class
• Create the BlitList
• Create the INodeInput & INodeOutput

—————– Devlog XXI —————–

– My brain hurts 🧠 - Sharp like glass –

To recap, my project is a custom made rendering engine that focuses on diverse rendering options along with high stylistic control (very high-level explanation).

✨ What did I do? ☀️

Sadly, I haven’t done much coding

Instead, I’ve been trying to figure out how I want my Render Graph to work.

To start, what is a render graph? What I am interpreting the render graph as, issss: An API meant to simplify and provide structure to a final renderer.

In the final application, the render graph will be an option for a more advanced final render editor. What I am working on now, is how it will be put together so I don’t have a mess in the future.

Recently, I’ve been using Obsidian to mark everything down. This also starts a little docs. Using a mix of Obsidian and the excalidraw plugin, I’m able to write everything down and create visuals.

Currently, I have a mix of nodes that are the main important ones. These nodes are just the interfaces, so they aren’t specified. They act as a blueprint for any of the full nodes.

• IRenderOutput - Add textures to a list of blitables
• IShaderInput - Base input interface
• IShaderOutput - Base output interface
• IShaderNode - Node representation of shaders
• IShaderPassNode - Base shader interface

Thank You for Reading

I haven’t been home enough to create the “big brain wall” which is sad, but at least my stuff is digital.

Github repo: https://github.com/pkncoder/Engine
Project landing page: https://pkncoder.github.io/Engine

❓ What’s next? 🛑

• Setup current program for Render Graph implementation
• Implement IShader, IGPUTexture, etc.
• Create IRenderGraph for the renderers

—————– Devlog II —————–

This project is a website I was asked to create for my local fire department. For the minimal viable product, it will be a static site, however eventually I will add a couple of webapps for tracking training hours & adding to the site!

✨ What have I done? 💡

I will be completely honest, I haven’t done a single thing on this project in a while. However I did want to come back, make this devlog, and hope I can continue the work on it.

What I did, wassss:

• Created the outline for each page’s html elements
• Used Google Gemini to generate the base of each page
• Made a bunch of changes in each file for personal preference

Thanks for reading!!!!

Github Repo / Source Code: https://github.com/pkncoder/MBIFireDeptWebsite

❓What’s Next? 🛑

1. Standardize css and explore more with colors
2. Add extra html elements that I didn’t add

🥀 Git Commits 🗿

Did some work trying to get index.html working, added a seperate colors.css file, and did fundraisers and donate as well + new excelidraw

All files - officers have templates, I now need to go through, format, style, and comment them

Excalidraw update

Updates

—————– Devlog XX —————–

– 🌟I have the best one liners 🗿– 🥀 Now I have to be smart??? 🧠 –

To recap, my project is a custom made rendering engine that focuses on diverse rendering options along with high stylistic control (very high-level explanation).

✨ What did I do? ☀️

For the quick overview:

• Fixed the shadow map issue (so angry about this, see below)
• Fixed an issue with textures not caching
• Got the very base implementation of Uniform Buffers

To start off, in the previous devlog I mentioned I was re-writing the shadow mapping.

Shadow Mapping - Rendering a 3d model with the light being the eye. Everything that it can see is not in shadow, everything else is. quick explanation

I was having issues with getting the shadows to work correctly. I had ideas for issues, including: (the model matrix, the renderPackets being in a bad order, the far plane). IT TURNS OUT It was none of these.

Whenever I made the code to compile a geometry shader along the vertex & fragment shader, I just copied my old one and spliced in the code.

Turns out I forgot to swap some variables, and I was putting code in places it should NOT be at. No idea why it didn’t crash, but it fixed my shadow issues very quick .

As for UBOs, I’ll talk about them in a future devlog, when I have everything planned out.

Thank You for Reading

As I said with “Planning out” everything, I’m going to set up a whiteboard - I’ll have to move my 🏳️‍🌈 pride flags 🏳️‍⚧️ :( -

Github repo: https://github.com/pkncoder/Engine
Project landing page: https://pkncoder.github.io/Engine

❓ What’s next? 🛑

1. Refactor
2. Build the big brain wall
3. Do some thinking

🥀 Git Commits🗿

Weird position issue

Saving now, I am so angry about this. I was compiling and overwrigting the wrong code :(

Made the testing for shadows a bit better, and changed the rendering a bit

Fixed issue with textures and full models not actually caching

Removed anoying debug line for shadow transform matricies

Working on getting the ubos working’

Got it to push

First test ubos

—————– Devlog XIX —————–

- 🌲 Textuers 🧚‍♀️ - 👩‍💻 Shadoowwsss 💀-

To recap, my project is a custom made rendering engine that focuses on diverse rendering options along with high stylistic control (very high-level explanation).

✨ What did I do? ☀️

To recap on what I did:

• Got the program to launch to black screen
  • I needed to inject the Asset Manager to a class
• Got objects loading correctly without shadows
• Got textures to load
• Started work on fixing the shadow map

Nothing too crazy has been changed, the texture issues were about some compatibility problems and not uploading to the same index.

The shadow values are uploaded to a 3d texture, where to calculate if an object is in sight or not, we commit triangles based on their position. The problem now is about the far plane, and hitting triangles that weren’t in shadow.

I’m not sure what the problem is, but I’m going to do a bit more looking into it.

Thank You for Reading :3-blahaj-spinning

I still have to fix the shadows issue (obviuosly) but then I can move onto formatting the data (putting it into buffers, creating wrappers, etc).!!

Github repo: https://github.com/pkncoder/Engine
Project landing page: https://pkncoder.github.io/Engine

❓ What’s next? 🛑

1. Write the shadow cubemap geometry shader & ad it to the OpaquePass (temp main pass)
2. Make and debug UBOs replacing base uniforms
3. Refactor / clean
4. Create the real Render Graph?

🥀 Git Commits (shortened)🗿

Commits: https://github.com/pkncoder/Engine/commits/Phase-IV/

Most Recent:

Temporary Save

—————– Devlog XVIII —————–

- 🌲 Trees 🧚‍♀️ - 👩‍💻 SO MUCH REWRITING 💀-

To recap, my project is a custom made rendering engine that focuses on diverse rendering options along with high stylistic control (very high-level explanation).

✨ What did I do? ☀️

These last few days, I’ve been working on getting my Rasterizer (drawing triangles of a model on screen and coloring them) working.

The big changes that I did include:

• Fixing an issue with textures not loading
• Updated the Interface for every Renderer.
• Implemented the extract / prepare / dispatch pipeline into the Rasterizer for real now.
• Started working on the base ideas of a “Shader Graph”

The issue with textures was just moving a line like 3 lines lower. I was freeing the image data before saving it (oops).

The updated interface is the IRenderer class. Each Renderer bases off of the class, supplying it with a framework so each Renderer can be talked to the same way. Here are some of those functions:

1. beginFrame - Clear previous frame data and prepare for a new frame
2. extract - Take raw scene data (camera, renderables) and convert it into packets for the next step.
3. prepare - Take each packet from extract and turn them into draw commands for dispatch.
4. dispatch - Take each draw command and send a draw call, along the way binding any textures & uniforms.
5. postProcess - Take the frame and post-process it. This may be removed.
6. present - Take the rendered frame and show it to the screen (blit it).

To do a quick review on what the Shader Graph is - it is a collection of “nodes,” each with their own inputs and outputs that connect together to render out a frame.

I’m still a bit confused, but I’ve been watching presentations on the topic from companies like Unity & Activision.

Thank You for Reading

Yea, I know it’s been a while since my last devlog. I’ve been making some posts in slack about my Path Tracer, since I spent a little time on that.

I’m looking at the timing for everything, the hope is to ship this at the end of Phase-IV and hope that I can get a UI working before too late. I’m hoping I can get enough stardust to pay for a new laptop, but idk that’s a long shot. I still have about 25 more hours if I get a 16x mult (which I can only hope for) before I would hit the mark for the FW 12, which isn’t crazy (the mult is tho).

Github repo: https://github.com/pkncoder/Engine
Project landing page: https://pkncoder.github.io/Engine

❓ What’s next? 🛑

1. Stop the program from crashing to reach a black screen
2. Rewrite shaders to allow for correct models wo/ shadows
3. Write the shadow cubemap geometry shader & ad it to the OpaquePass (temp main pass)
4. Make and debug UBOs replacing base uniforms

🥀 Git Commits (shortened)🗿

https://github.com/pkncoder/Engine/commits/Phase-IV/

—————– Devlog XVII —————–

- Strange Hours -

To recap, my project is a custom made rendering engine that focuses on diverse rendering options along with high stylistic control (very high-level explanation).

✨ What did I do? ☀️

To start off, I did not work directly on my application, but the online demo. It’s like working on the website, but through another editor sometimes.

The goal of the Path Tracer is to eventaully get it clean & quick enough to be real-time. This is the first of the 5 renderers that I will be making.

I was working on my online shadertoy DEMO for the Path Tracer, specifically the denoiser. The name of the denoiser I am using is the “Edge-Avoiding Á Trous Wavelet Transform”.

As a quick overview:

• It applies a blur “with holes” to allow for less to no image distortion
• Fast enough for realtime
• Includes “weights” based on (in my code): Normal, Depth, and Color. The larger the difference between the center pixel and the scanned pixel* (kernel), the more weight is applied, lessening the amount of blur.

This is amazing, however when the camera moves, the denoiser assumes that the current and previous pixel are in the same world postion (when it isn’t). This causes errors when trying to overlay the image and gather data. This is why we track the motion of the camera, creating a vector to get the same world position pixel.

I got this wrong on one of the first attempts, the last attachment (videos are compressed) shows that fun video (warning for those who get motion sick).

With this, I am able to blur the image, and with some more techniques, I can get rid of “ghosting.”

Thank You for Reading

In the videos, I rendered them in fullscreen 4k on my better laptop+GPU, don’t worry about your system being too slow, just don’t fullscreen it <3 (the development was done on my lower end mac).

The hours logged are from refactoring the project after the last devlog, and editing the code when I didn’t do it in shadertoy’s editor.

Github repo: https://github.com/pkncoder/Engine
Project landing page: https://pkncoder.github.io/Engine

🥀 Git Commits 🗿

BREAKING CHANGE - Refactored Buffer & GPUResource managers + IRenderer - Code has been broken for a bit but womp womp

Shadertoy shaders path tracer https://www.shadertoy.com/view/7fBSzR

—————– Devlog XVI —————–

• So long, gay Bowser ⭐️ – IRenderer, hardly know her? -

To recap, my project is a custom made rendering engine that focuses on
diverse rendering options along with high stylistic control (very
high-level explanation).

✨ What did I do? ⭐️

BEFORE ANYTHING - Thanks so much to @AVD for the super star, wasn’t expecting it and I really appreciate it 👏 👏.

Now, for what I did:

• Dealt with an issue in Obsidian, as apparently there was “minor rendering performance improvements.” This is FALSE :( - I just downgraded the version
• Created the new BufferManager to handle UBOs, SSBOs, VBOs, EBOs, etc. + Dynamic, Static, and Stream buffers.
• Integrated the RenderTarget & ShaderPass system from PathTracer straight into IRenderer + added base utilities to it.
• Did some formatting

Overall the two big things that I did was the new Buffer system & the updated IRenderer interface.

For the new Buffers, previously I had UBOs (dynamic values) & SSBOs (big mostly static information blocks) set up in seperate files, that BufferManager returned. Now, every buffer is a single struct called GPUBuffer, and GPUBuffer has a type, and a usage (see attached photo). Now everything is centralized on that.

For the new IRenderer interface, now there are RenderTargets - textures that shaders write to as output - and ShaderPasses - A pass of a shader. These can be added to a registry, keyed by a UUID (big number, in this case).

Thanks for reading

Again, thanks so much to AVD for the super star!

I’m excited for when I can finally start writing my shaders, it’s getting closer & closer!! The fancy Path Tracer will be cool and all, but I have big plans for the Ray Marcher!!

Github repo: https://github.com/pkncoder/Engine
Project landing page: https://pkncoder.github.io/Engine

🥀 Git Commits 🗿

Fixed an obsidian issue I ran into, “Minor rendering performance improvements.” was NOT true, broke almost the entire canvas. Fixed it though + new png

Created the new buffer managegr system, I need to go through and make changes. Also, on launch there was more blacked out sections, different every launch :(

New IRenderer setup for the render targets & render handles

Refactor 1-6

Refactor 7-9 for BufferManager

—————– Devlog XV —————–

– Temp code go brrrrr 🔋 - New term: “Far Landing” –

To recap, my project is a custom made rendering engine that focuses on
diverse rendering options along with high stylistic control (very
high-level explanation).

✨ What did I do? ☀️

I tried getting this out before 4 hours, but it just –wouldn’t__ happen. Weird errors kept popping up (mostly being my fault).

Here’s a list of what I did:

• Figured out generally how I was going to deal with uploading and caching meshes + textures
• Put the new GPUResourceManager class into place to do the previously mentioned job
• Started reworking the renderer pipeline (NOT THE RENDER PIPELINE) on CPU side, and set up the interface class with that
• Patched together the old Rasterizer renderer to work with the new IRenderer pipeline
• Fixed errors throughout
• Split up normal & bump textures
• Planned out how I will deal with all the different textures on the shader side, cutting the checks out at shader compile time

Yea, I know, it’s a lot. It just felt wrong to create a devlog in the middle of everything, since up until after fixing errors I had nothing to show for it. :(

I ran into this errors when fixing those errors, where the entire model (I was using the Sponza scene, check the attached video) was banded, where parts “didn’t exist” and the other bands did. This reminded me a lot of the “Minecraft Farlands” specifically the pocket edition ones.

🔥 What didn’t I do? 💥

To keep this brief:

• Fully split up the SSBO system in the BufferManager
• Reimplement good use cases of UBOs (although I did put in place double buffering)
• Add the more sophicticated data handling in the PathTracer (as I commented it’s existance out so I could complile).
• Figure out how shadow mapping is going to be cleaned up in the Rasterizer.

❤️ Thanks for reading!

These devlogs have been getting more attention, and I’m getting closer to doing a rebrand to finally get my point and final ideas across! :3

Github repo: https://github.com/pkncoder/Engine
Project landing page: https://pkncoder.github.io/Engine

🥀 Git commits 🗿

Patched in the “new” buffer system - Really just to get it to compile before I do anything big. Attempting to run the app to test resources & scene

Well it compiles, runs, and renders. I still need to go through all the models, HOWEVER, I am having an issue with like 3 models in sponza and bump UGH

Well, I checked Phase-III, and the issue with those models are there too, probally some texture coord issue or the bump map is messed up (I’ll check in blender), BUT THEN ON FIRST LOAD THE MODEL FRA LANDED????

—————– Devlog I —————–

Program Start!! 💥 - Hot topics! 🔥

This project is a website I was asked to create for my local fire department. For the minimal viable product, it will be a static site, however eventually I will add a couple of webapps for tracking training hours & adding to the site!

🍎 What have I done? 💡

As I start every new project, I spent time getting the project environment built, this consisted of:

• Docker compose file
• nginx config
• project directory
• base files
• github repo setup

After that, I went through creating each file that would be needed in the final site, since I knew what was wanted. That is what took up the time that I am logging.

The site itself is currently being hosted in a docker container running nginx, eventually will add postgres for database. The html is currently static with jquerry & bootstrap 5.

For the next couple days, I spent planning out how the site will look in a site I found: excalidraw. Those images are attached. The navbar is still getting figured out with color, specifically the small screen one. :/

❤️ Thanks for reading!!!!

Next step is to test out the navbar & color pallettes, then plan out the divs for each site.

Github Repo / Source Code: github.com/pkncoder/MBIFireDeptWebsite

🥀 Git Commits 🗿

initial commit

Added temp files for all dirs to show up

Added the files that will be used + planned out what the site will look like in excelidraw (navbar still in progres)

—————– Devlog XIV —————–

The Planning - The possible NEW NAME??? - The New Project!!

To recap, my project is a custom made rendering engine that focuses on diverse rendering options along with high stylistic control (very high-level explanation).

✨ So What Happened? 📸

I haven’t done much pure coding, HOWEVER, I am getting ready for some large-scale rewrites and additions to the code. For what has happened:

• Fully sectioned the resource - disk - and scene - cpu/logic - directories (folders) so there wasn’t any GPU actions taken place.
• Refactored resource and scene directories
• Re-implemented Application into CMakeLists so I can compile and link that file.
• Did some planning for the huge renderer rewrite that is coming up.

Along with all of that, I came up with a possible name for the application (since, surprisingly, Tempname: Engine is a temp name) I had it when when gazing at the sun through some clouds over a feild. Although it is super basic, so I’m going to have to play with it.

❤️ Thanks for Reading!!!

I might have to take a bit of a break from progress on this project, as I have a website that I’m making for my local fire dept. (look out for a new stardance project)!

I’m also planning on doing some re-marketing / re-branding (idk what to call it) to change the descriptions of the project (ex. the “To recap section on my devlogs, and the landing page). I’ve been getting more questions on it, and my current explanations are a bit too much.

Github repo: https://github.com/pkncoder/Engine
Project landing page: https://pkncoder.github.io/Engine

🗿 Commits 🥀

(top-oldest : bottom-newest)

No more mention of buffer manager or any uploading to gpu in scene
& assets. Meshes are now split up from models in the cache, models
hold refrences to asset handles to meshes.

Refactored and fixed errors in scene and resources. The program won’t work, as only scene and resources are being compiled & linked

Added application back into the mix & fixed the scene loading section.

Did some planning on how a model will go from spawn to render

—————– Devlog XIII —————–

Spent some time off from working on this project, started the beginnings of another one. Finally ended up getting the interest to come back to this one

To recap, my project is a custom made rendering engine that focuses on diverse rendering options along with high stylistic control (very high-level explanation).

💡 Overview

Commit message for this devlog:

BREAKING CHANGE - New asset system, new scene system, renamed SceneLoader to PrefabSpawner, still need to update rest of code with temp fix until reworking for new system.

✨ What did I do?

Previously, the asset manager did still handle caching already loaded assets (models, materials, textures), however the implementation was not professional and temporary:

• Caching based on a string key (slow)
• Broke the “single responsibility principal” many times by uploading to the GPU & constructing Scene objects

Now, I am using AssetHandles (UUIDs) for caching, and I no longer uploading to the GPU in AssetManager.

❌ What didn’t I do?

This new system is a good start for realigning and separating the different parts of the program, but is only about a third of the work. For what I still need to do, this is what follows:

1. Stop uploading to the GPU in the PrefabSpawner (scene)
2. Fix the renderer and find where I will upload the mesh & texture data.
3. Check for compilation and working across the whole project.
4. Change every instance of AssetManager to using AssetHandles.

Once I have these, I can move onto redoing the renderers and FINALLY start working on the “fun stuff”

❤️ Thanks for reading

Github repo: https://github.com/pkncoder/Engine
Project landing page: https://pkncoder.github.io/Engine

—————– Devlog XII —————–

I haven’t done as much programing recently, but yesterday I wanted to finish what I needed to do quickly, as it wouldn’t take that long.

To recap, my project is a custom made rendering engine that focuses on diverse rendering options along with high stylistic control (very high-level explanation).

🎯 UUIDs

For a quick explanation of what a UUID is: UUID stands for Universally Unique Identifier. In practice it is a random alphanumeric (a-z,0-9) ID between 64-128 bits.

For my project, I used an unsigned 64 bit integer (no negative numbers). It isn’t exactly what the standard for a UUID is, as it isn’t alphanumeric, but I think for now 18.4 quintillion ids are just fine.

⬆️ What Next??

Now that I’ve finished this, the next step is to gut & rewrite the entire asset managing system. I need to redo how files are found, how data is stored, how they are retrieved. Basically the CRUD (create, read, update, delete) line and more.

❤️ Thanks for reading

Github repo: https://github.com/pkncoder/Engine
Project landing page: https://pkncoder.github.io/Engine

—————– Devlog XI —————–

I haven’t been programming as much, as marching band 🎺 has started,
so I’ve had less time. But now I can do the really exiting stuff!

To recap, my project is a custom made rendering engine that focuses on
diverse rendering options along with high stylistic control (very
high-level explanation).

What did I Do?

As I mentioned in the last devlog, I have been working on doing a full passthrough of the entire project to get ready for major rewrites. I have completed by refactor checklist, so I have gone through ever cpp file to:

• Fix warnings
• Check object method & attribute visibility
• Check const, static, and inline declarations
• Change the placement and formatting of method
• Going through every line of code to do minor logic changes & change formatting
• Rename methods, attributes, functions, and variables to better names & names w/ personal conventions.
• Add comments everywhere
• Change the placement of the #include statements (main header file, object interfaces, project files, project packages, extra C++ headers)
• Run a full clean, compile, and test of the application

The LIE

Technically I didn’t go through every file, as I left AssetManager & Rasterizer. Since these will be completely rewrote soon I felt like it was a waste.

What next?

Now that I have finished cleaning up the code base, the next projects are to:

1. Move to using UUIDs instead of an entity index in scene
2. Gut AssetManager and rewrite it
3. Change to using metafiles instead of a preditermined path to assets
4. Rework the scene class
5. Extend IRenderer and get ready for the fun part!

Thanks for reading!

I tried to keep this one shorter for y’all. I don’t normally get too much attention to my devlogs, but I would be more than happy to answer any questions, as there is so much more to this project that even the landing page doesn’t cover (WIP).

If you’re curious, feel free to reach out on slack (pkncoder), and here are some extra links about the project:
Github repo: https://github.com/pkncoder/Engine
Project landing page: https://pkncoder.github.io/Engine