sdslabs / rootex

An advanced C++ 3D game engine powering an in-production game yet to be announced

Rootex

Contents

• What is Rootex?
• Why is Rootex?
• How do I use Rootex?
• How can I contribute?
• License

What is Rootex?

Rootex is an advanced C++ 3D game engine powering an in-production game yet to be announced. The game will finally ship on Windows and use DirectX 11.

Find the upcoming features and the game's public Trello board here!

Features

• Based on the popular Entity-Component-System architecture
  • Allows performance benefits due to better CPU cache usage. However over-optimizations are not the goal
  • Uses an impure ECS where components can have functions
• Full editor GUI implemented in ImGui
  • Similar interface as other popular game engine editors for added familiarity and ease of use
  • Readable asset files (100% JSON)
• 3D DirectX 11 renderer
  • Dynamic and static Phong-model lighting
  • High resolution textures for Diffuse, Normal, Specular and Light mapping
  • Post processing effects like gaussian blur, bloom, Adaptive SSAO, FXAA, including ad-hoc sepia, black-and-white, tonemapping
  • Mildly configurable CPU based particle effects
  • Effekseer Particle effects integration available for high quality VFX
  • Environment effects like Sky sphere, sky reflections, refractions and depth fog
  • Supports basic transform and skeletal animations
  • Automatic LOD (level-of-detail) generation for 3D models and animations
  • Custom materials using custom HLSL shaders
  • And few more things...
• RmlUi integration which allows writing/debugging UI overlays in an HTML/CSS-like language and Lua
• Physics engine powered by Bullet Physics 3, allows an easy-to-work-with interface for making physics simulations
• OpenAL-Soft based audio engine supporting 3D attenuation and stereo sound
• Lua scripting engine with functionality exposed for easy game curation
  • Uses an object-oriented approach with Lua scripting for making intuitive scope declarations and reducing garbage generation
  • Lua debugger integration
  • Equipped with a tweening API provided by flux
• Applies the event-based programming paradigm for better maitainability of game code
• Being developed for an actual game
  • Some game-specific features are also present like the Inky Lua runtime integration which allows writing dialogue in the Ink language and running them inside Rootex.
• Documentation

Why is Rootex?

Rootex is the direct successor of Rubeus, our 2D Game Engine. Rubeus Engine is not being maintained and is being preserved. Newer features will only be planned for Rootex. The game being developed will be announced soon as well.

How do I use Rootex?

Rootex runs only on Windows and there are no plans to port it to other platforms.

1. Install Visual Studio 2022 or Visual Studio 2019, CMake build system.
2. Install Visual Studio Desktop C++ development pack (or anything similar, since C++ is no longer a default language since at least Visual Studio 19)
3. Run generate_cache.bat /22 for VS 2022 or generate_cache.bat /19 for VS 2019.
4. Use build.bat to build Rootex.

Assets Workflow :

1. Assets are stored in separate repositories and added as git submodules. The testing assets are stored at https://gitlab.com/sdslabs/rootex-assets while the assets for the game are stored at https://gitlab.com/sdslabs/rootex-game.
2. The assets.bat script has two subcommands to make switching of the submodules between the testing and game repository easier. Use assets.bat assets-test to switch to the test repository and assets.bat assets-game to switch to the game repository. The submodule will have two remote urls set. The origin points to the HTTPS url while upstream points to the SSH url.
3. You can also add your own repository as an assets submodule. Use assets.bat assets-custom <url> for that. If setting a custom url, use an HTTPS url here and then set an SSH remote afterwards.

WARNING : Running assets.bat will delete the game/assets/ folder. Be sure to backup any unsaved progress before running it.

Now you can start reading the documentation and build games on Rootex!

NOTE: If you get the error dxgidebug.dll not loaded while opening the Rootex Editor, install Graphics Tools by following this guide.

How can I contribute?

Read here to know our contribution guidelines. Join our Discord server or optionally ping us at chat.sdslabs.co to get guidance. You can start with setting up Rootex on your Windows machine and try solving a few bugs listed here: https://github.com/sdslabs/Rootex/issues

License

This project is under the MIT license. See THIRDPARTY.md for thirdparty license notices.

rootex's Issues

OBJ file loading issue

This renders as this-

again stolen from @IronicallySerious
Please leave the obj and level files here

Make Audio System an actual ECS System

Audio systems should, in turn, depend upon Audio Components. Prefer shifting AudioSystem to framework/ and put audio sources inside AudioComponents

Link to OpenAL dynamically instead of statically

Rootex/rootex/vendor/OpenAL/CMakeLists.txt

Line 12 in 3747be3

add_library(OpenAL STATIC stub.cpp)

OpenAL should be linked dynamically because of licensing issues with OpenAL.

Add functionality to Camera

Input systems are developed enough to add camera controls.
related- #73

OBJLoader is not handling certain objects well

Try loading this: https://free3d.com/3d-model/alien-animal-update-in-blender-28x-953251.html
This is how it looks in Rootex

This is how it should look like:

Add physics components and physics system using Bullet 3D internally

RootHierarchyComponent should override removeChild() to also remove the child from its specific render pass

Rootex/rootex/framework/components/root_hierarchy_component.h

Line 7 in c5e82fa

class RootHierarchyComponent : public HierarchyComponent

Add an override to replace renderChild() to make it also remove the child from the render pass subtrees.

Add phong lighting visual components

Undestructed objects left during shutdown

Several DXGI objects are left in an non-destructed state at shutdown. We should pin these down and clean things up. ComPtr would be a valid consideration for this. Initially, ComPtr was discouraged from use to keep out dependency stack as flat as possible.

Shutdown logs from Debug output:

The thread 0x3bd0 has exited with code 0 (0x0).
The thread 0x3a48 has exited with code 0 (0x0).
The thread 0x3e1c has exited with code 0 (0x0).
The thread 0xa7c has exited with code 0 (0x0).
The thread 0x37c0 has exited with code 0 (0x0).
The thread 0x1574 has exited with code 0 (0x0).
D3D11 WARNING: Process is terminating. Using simple reporting. Please call ReportLiveObjects() at runtime for standard reporting. [ STATE_CREATION WARNING #0: UNKNOWN]
D3D11 WARNING: Live Producer at 0x000001F62C0EA190, Refcount: 3. [ STATE_CREATION WARNING #0: UNKNOWN]
D3D11 WARNING: 	Live Object at 0x000001F62C0EC0E0, Refcount: 0. [ STATE_CREATION WARNING #0: UNKNOWN]
D3D11 WARNING: 	Live Object at 0x000001F6312A0FD0, Refcount: 0. [ STATE_CREATION WARNING #0: UNKNOWN]
D3D11 WARNING: 	Live Object at 0x000001F62C0A2E00, Refcount: 0. [ STATE_CREATION WARNING #0: UNKNOWN]
D3D11 WARNING: 	Live Object at 0x000001F62C0E3790, Refcount: 201. [ STATE_CREATION WARNING #0: UNKNOWN]
D3D11 WARNING: 	Live Object at 0x000001F62C109720, Refcount: 0. [ STATE_CREATION WARNING #0: UNKNOWN]
D3D11 WARNING: 	Live Object at 0x000001F62C109990, Refcount: 0. [ STATE_CREATION WARNING #0: UNKNOWN]
D3D11 WARNING: 	Live Object at 0x000001F62C1100E0, Refcount: 0. [ STATE_CREATION WARNING #0: UNKNOWN]
D3D11 WARNING: 	Live Object at 0x000001F62C0D15F0, Refcount: 0. [ STATE_CREATION WARNING #0: UNKNOWN]
D3D11 WARNING: 	Live Object at 0x000001F62C11DDF0, Refcount: 0. [ STATE_CREATION WARNING #0: UNKNOWN]
D3D11 WARNING: 	Live Object at 0x000001F62C11EB40, Refcount: 0. [ STATE_CREATION WARNING #0: UNKNOWN]
D3D11 WARNING: 	Live Object at 0x000001F62C0CC5F0, Refcount: 0. [ STATE_CREATION WARNING #0: UNKNOWN]
D3D11 WARNING: 	Live Object at 0x000001F62C1104A0, Refcount: 0. [ STATE_CREATION WARNING #0: UNKNOWN]
D3D11 WARNING: 	Live Object at 0x000001F62C0CD1E0, Refcount: 0. [ STATE_CREATION WARNING #0: UNKNOWN]
D3D11 WARNING: 	Live Object at 0x000001F62C0D6310, Refcount: 0. [ STATE_CREATION WARNING #0: UNKNOWN]
D3D11 WARNING: 	Live Object at 0x000001F6312D7E20, Refcount: 0. [ STATE_CREATION WARNING #0: UNKNOWN]
D3D11 WARNING: 	Live Object at 0x000001F6312FA970, Refcount: 0. [ STATE_CREATION WARNING #0: UNKNOWN]
D3D11 WARNING: 	Live Object at 0x000001F6312B8E30, Refcount: 0. [ STATE_CREATION WARNING #0: UNKNOWN]
D3D11 WARNING: 	Live Object at 0x000001F6312D4F30, Refcount: 0. [ STATE_CREATION WARNING #0: UNKNOWN]
D3D11 WARNING: 	Live Object at 0x000001F6312CF590, Refcount: 201. [ STATE_CREATION WARNING #0: UNKNOWN]
D3D11 WARNING: 	Live Object at 0x000001F63130E820, Refcount: 0. [ STATE_CREATION WARNING #0: UNKNOWN]
D3D11 WARNING: 	Live Object at 0x000001F6312D5780, Refcount: 0. [ STATE_CREATION WARNING #0: UNKNOWN]
D3D11 WARNING: 	Live Object at 0x000001F6312E5B50, Refcount: 0. [ STATE_CREATION WARNING #0: UNKNOWN]
D3D11 WARNING: 	Live Object at 0x000001F63130B770, Refcount: 0. [ STATE_CREATION WARNING #0: UNKNOWN]
D3D11 WARNING: 	Live Object at 0x000001F63130BFC0, Refcount: 0. [ STATE_CREATION WARNING #0: UNKNOWN]
D3D11 WARNING: Live                         Object :     24 [ STATE_CREATION WARNING #0: UNKNOWN]
DXGI WARNING: Live Producer at 0x000001F62C0C48A8, Refcount: 4. [ STATE_CREATION WARNING #0: ]
DXGI WARNING: 	Live Object at 0x000001F62C0D8E60, Refcount: 2. [ STATE_CREATION WARNING #0: ]
DXGI WARNING: Live                         Object :      1 [ STATE_CREATION WARNING #0: ]
The program '[300] Game.exe' has exited with code 0 (0x0).

change rendering code to use ComPtr

Old code uses raw pointers at a lot of places, shift then to ComPtr

Undefined CMake variables on CMake build

1> Working directory: D:\CPP Projects\Rootex\out\build\x64-Debug
1> [CMake] -- Configuring done
1> [CMake] CMake Error: Error required internal CMake variable not set, cmake may not be built correctly.
1> [CMake] Missing variable is:
1> [CMake] CMAKE_C_COMPILE_OBJECT
1> [CMake] CMake Error: Error required internal CMake variable not set, cmake may not be built correctly.
1> [CMake] Missing variable is:
1> [CMake] CMAKE_C_ARCHIVE_CREATE
1> [CMake] CMake Error: Error required internal CMake variable not set, cmake may not be built correctly.
1> [CMake] Missing variable is:
1> [CMake] CMAKE_C_ARCHIVE_FINISH
1> [CMake] -- Generating done
1> [CMake] CMake Generate step failed.  Build files cannot be regenerated correctly.
1> [CMake] 
1> cmd.exe /c ""C:\PROGRAM FILES (X86)\MICROSOFT VISUAL STUDIO\2019\COMMUNITY\COMMON7\IDE\COMMONEXTENSIONS\MICROSOFT\CMAKE\CMake\bin\cmake.exe"  -G "Ninja" -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX:PATH="D:\CPP Projects\Rootex\out\install\x64-Debug" -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER:FILEPATH="C:/Program Files (x86)/Microsoft Visual Studio/2019/Community/VC/Tools/MSVC/14.23.28105/bin/HostX64/x64/cl.exe" -DCMAKE_C_COMPILER:FILEPATH="C:/Program Files (x86)/Microsoft Visual Studio/2019/Community/VC/Tools/MSVC/14.23.28105/bin/HostX64/x64/cl.exe"  -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE="Debug" -DCMAKE_MAKE_PROGRAM="C:\PROGRAM FILES (X86)\MICROSOFT VISUAL STUDIO\2019\COMMUNITY\COMMON7\IDE\COMMONEXTENSIONS\MICROSOFT\CMAKE\Ninja\ninja.exe" "D:\CPP Projects\Rootex" 2>&1" returned with exit code: 1

Add serialization

Component data saving and loading is an essential feature for both the editor and the game's saving and loading feature. Use JSON or some other serialization format or a C++ serialization library to save runtime data.

Add support for rendering animated models

Our designers are going to provide us with animated models and we should be ready to deploy them directly into the game when we get them

Fix Camera Hardcode

Camera Position has been hardcoded here
https://github.com/sdslabs/Rootex/blob/master/rootex/framework/components/visual/camera_visual_component.cpp#L14

This shouldn't be so and relevant hardcoded values should be removed from vertex shaders as well.
Possible add naive camera controls.

Add Localisation engine

We are using text string in the editor and soon we will need them in our game. We should create a localization engine that takes care of the organization of different readable strings in different languages.

Add texture loading for DirectX

Integrate imgui for early debug menus

We will eventually need imgui editor menus and very fast this should be tied into the renderer and our visual component graph to implement transform editing gizmos

Add color modifier to DVC

DVC inherits from VC. This means that DVC also has a field named m_Color and we can use it to modify the final image that appears on the face of the DVC. Could also be used as a game mechanic

Rename functions in RenderingDevice to conform to conventional naming strats

Some functions in RenderingDevice are just obscure. They do something else entirely.
E.g.

Rootex/rootex/core/renderer/rendering_device.h

Line 62 in 946a2eb

ID3D11Buffer* initVertexBuffer(D3D11_BUFFER_DESC* vbd, D3D11_SUBRESOURCE_DATA* vsd, const UINT* stride, const UINT* offset);

You cannot init a vertex buffer because we have multiple instances of vertex buffers. Rename to create*
Same with index buffers, pixel shader, and vertex shaders.

Go fullscreen

Add fullscreen settings in window.lua to allow rendering in fullscreen. Consequently, we will also need resolution settings to be made available too

UI appears below world entities

Steps to repro:

1. Add a cube
2. Add another cube, but remove VisualComponent and add a TextVisual2DComponent
3. Set the origin so that the text overlaps with the cube

Profiling

The engine is now slowly starting to become bulky and before our performance falls down to a slog, we need to have at least 1 profiling and performance fixing needed to be done before we start implementing the game.

The thread below will only contain profiling reports collected over time

Shift physics material outside of the PhysicsComponent ctor

Rootex/rootex/framework/components/physics/physics_component.cpp

Line 16 in 946a2eb

LuaInterpreter::GetSingleton()->loadExecuteScript(physicsMaterial);

Finding what physics material a collider is having should not require us to run a complete Lua script every time we do that. Take this outside (probably in the PhysicsSystem)

Add input manager that supports multiple mice

Create logo for project

A logo gives identity to any open source project

Memory leak in Constant Buffers

When constant buffers are created they take new memory space in the graphic card every frame instead of updating the previous one. Could get severe in case of multiple constant buffers being created
Refer- https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/api/d3d11/nf-d3d11-id3d11devicecontext-map

Save isVisible field in VisualComponent JSON

If a VC is set to be not visible, it is not reproduced in the JSON, thus it is not reproduced in the game

Add CPU based 3D particle system

Particle systems are one of the easiest and the nicest effect possible to make and CPU based particles make for a simpler implementation.

This project will involve making a 3D particle handler and a particle generator or similar constructs. They should have support for semi-randomized motion, ability to configure them to display user-defined visuals of the particle systems, and optionally implement collision enabled particle systems.

Reserve threads for physics and render system in task manager

Required for our job based task manager

Add simpler way to select an obj model file in VC menu

Writing the full path is time consuming. User should just click on obj from a list of objects

Move 'Create Entity' option to ToolbarDock

• A list of entity classes to choose from while creating an entity
• A save project button

Editor should ask to save before quitting or opening a new level

Currently, the editor directly quits without asking the user to save progress. Same for when a new level is loaded.
The editor should be asking the user before loading a new level and while quiting, if the current level should be saved

Add class name parameter to PANIC() and WARN()

This will standardize the formats and help triangulate errors down the road. We already report the function full declarations but those can be too verbose.

Add position based attenuation in sound sources

OpenAL provides 3D attenuation based on a 3D position. Use it.

This may require AudioComponent and AudioSystem already made because this will use TransformComponent to get the 3D position

Add Name field to every Entity

And possibly some other fields that prove useful

Add output dock filters and clear button

Add a clear button in the OutputDock to remove all logs
Add a filter option to filter out the errors, warnings from the general wall of logs

Add Anti-aliasing in editor viewport

Anti-aliasing has been added to master, but only for when the game is being run. The anti-aliasing feature should also be tested with the editor for an easier workflow

Fix spelling error....

In os/thread.cpp

	__int32 m_Permisions;
	Vector<__int32> m_Permissions;

what is this...

Double deletion of StreamingAudioBuffer type in AudioSystem

Runtime logs:

D:\CPP Projects\Rootex\rootex\core\audio\audio_system.cpp:deregisterInstance: AudioSystem: Tried to double deregisterInstance a StreamingAudioBuffer. Delete aborted.
D:\CPP Projects\Rootex\rootex\core\audio\audio_system.cpp:deregisterInstance: AudioSystem: Tried to double deregisterInstance a StreamingAudioBuffer. Delete aborted.

Lighting shenanigans

Lighting seems to be affecting non facing vertices
stolen from @IronicallySerious
Please leave level files here

Remove model file name field from DVC::draw()

VC::draw() already displays the model file. We do not need to duplicate the fields.

Add normal map textures

Add DirectX support for normal mapping, which lets us mimic shadow on minute details with relatively less processing power.

Remove all inclusions in header files

Use forward declarations where-ever we can and only include headers in the pch or .cpp files

Add shadow rendering

Shadows are an essential part of 3D graphics realism. We should develop support for some basic shadow mapping

Load streaming audio files as the buffers are queued instead of the entire file at once

Rootex/rootex/core/audio/streaming_audio_buffer.cpp

Line 20 in 946a2eb

m_BufferCursor = m_AudioFile->getData()->getRawData()->data();

Here the entire data has been loaded and provided to the audio card in pieces. This defeats the purpose of streaming audio since this way we end up putting the entire audio file in memory

Add the ability to change the name of an entity

Changing names is very much required because all the entities that the user can make in the game come from entity-classes, which are predefined entities that we have provided. The entity-classes have default names and almost every time they are needed to be changed.

This is clearly a teapot and not a cube

Add update and render multithreading (Double buffering)

The main use of the task manager is going to employed when the render and the physics threads are run independently on separate threads with minimum synchronization.

Memory spike at runtime of about 2:30 minutes

Profile and debug this random memory consumption.

Documentation March 2020

Rootex needs documentation. We are moving quite fast in terms of the amount of code being committed to master every week. With each day we are also forgetting what that code does piece by piece and we cannot notice that happening.

A readthedocs.io page should be set up and reStructured text docs should be written ASAP.

A documentation website has been set up here: https://rootex.readthedocs.io/ \(@^0^@)/

Read the documentation instructions here: https://github.com/sdslabs/Rootex/blob/master/docs/README.md

1. You don't really need to build the documentation yourself to check stuff every time you add doc comments. Just send a PR that adds /// Documentation comments to our source files strictly adhering to the Documentation README linked above.
2. This goes on till the end of the linked Github milestone.

Update vertex buffers instead of making new ones at runtime

Use ID3D11DeviceContext::Map() and ID3D11DeviceContext::Unmap() to update buffers once they have been built.