Gamma

Raytracing Game Engine

Update 9/13/26: I've decided to stop working on this. Too many performance issues I couldn't resolve, mostly because I lack experience with Vulkan. I figured parts of this like the temporal anti-aliasing or material shader implementations may help someone with their engine.

Pinned Dependencies

• SDL3: release-3.4.4
• Dear ImGui: v1.92.6-docking
• ImNodeFlow: 5c93f4822869223cc1abe5ce5fe51e6bee1f5925
• Jolt Physics: v5.3.0
• miniaudio: v0.11.21
• ffmpeg: latest prebuilt

Build The Engine (Windows)

Build Debug (includes debug terminal):

cmake -S . -B build
cmake --build build --config Debug

Build Release:

cmake -S . -B build
cmake --build build --config Release

Clean:

cmake --build build --config Debug --target clean

Run:

.\build\Debug\Gamma.exe

Run Release:

.\build\Release\Gamma.exe

Note: on Windows, the engine Release build is configured without a console window. The CMake target is engine; the produced executable is named from ENGINE_EXE_NAME (Gamma by default).

Releases

.github/workflows/release.yml publishes a Windows x64 zip of the engine to the Releases tab on every push to master.

The version shown in the engine's bottom bar comes from project(Gamma VERSION x.y.z ...) in CMakeLists.txt. Bump major.minor there by hand; CI replaces the patch with the Actions run number so each published build gets a unique, increasing version and a matching vx.y.z tag. Releases therefore start at 0.1.1, and the 0.1.0 in CMakeLists.txt is what a local developer build reports.

Building Your Game

The editor builds the standalone game target when you open Build in the UI.

In Build Settings you can choose:

• Build platform: Windows (MSVC) or Linux (GCC)
• Build type: Debug or Final

The staged output is created in the folder you pick in Build Settings.

Windows Game Builds (MSVC)

Windows game builds use the MSVC toolchain from Visual Studio.

Install prerequisites:

1. Visual Studio 2022 (or Build Tools 2022) with:
   • MSVC v143 - VS 2022 C++ x64/x86 build tools
   • Windows 10/11 SDK
   • C++ CMake tools for Windows
2. Vulkan SDK for Windows (includes glslc)
3. CMake 3.24+
4. Git

Then in the engine build menu:

• Set Build platform to Windows (MSVC)
• Choose Debug or Final
• Queue build

The staged Windows executable will be <game-name>.exe in your chosen output folder.

Linux Game Builds (Via WSL)

Linux builds are executed from Windows through WSL. Install the following dependencies on your linux distro:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y build-essential cmake git libvulkan-dev glslang-tools libx11-dev libxext-dev libxrandr-dev libxcursor-dev libxfixes-dev libxi-dev libxss-dev libxtst-dev libxinerama-dev libxkbcommon-dev libwayland-dev wayland-protocols libdecor-0-dev

Run A Staged Linux Game

If your staged folder is E:/Projects/test2 and executable name is linuxapp, run:

wsl bash -lc "cd /mnt/e/Projects/test2 && chmod +x linuxapp && ./linuxapp"

Path conversion rule:

• C:/... -> /mnt/c/...

Developer API

See docs/developer-api.md for a quick reference of all Lua developer functions, summaries, examples, and package notes. Disclaimer these function are WIP and all subject to change!

Troubleshooting

• glslc was not found Install glslang-tools in WSL, or ensure glslc/glslangValidator is in WSL PATH.

• No such file or directory from gmake / missing Makefile The build cache may be stale. Re-run build from the editor; it auto-recreates incomplete Linux build caches.

• SDL could not find X11 or Wayland development libraries Make sure to install the full dependency list in the Linux section above.