Incinerator Engine

A 3D game engine built with Zig, SDL3, Jolt Physics, and ImGui.

Tech Stack

Component	Library	Purpose
Language	Zig 0.15.2+	Systems programming
Windowing/Input	SDL3	Cross-platform window, input, GPU API
Physics	Jolt (zphysics)	3D physics simulation
Debug UI	ImGui (zgui)	Developer tools and overlays

Developer Environment Setup (macOS)

Prerequisites

1. Zig Compiler

brew install zig

Verify installation:

zig version  # Should be 0.15.2 or later

2. Shader Compilation Tools

The engine uses GLSL shaders compiled to platform-native formats (Metal on macOS).

# GLSL to SPIR-V compiler
brew install shaderc

# SPIR-V to Metal/HLSL cross-compiler
brew install spirv-cross

Verify installation:

glslc --version
spirv-cross --version

Building

# Build the engine
zig build

# Build and run
zig build run

# Run tests
zig build test

Controls

Key	Action
ESC	Quit
WASD	Movement (placeholder)
Mouse	Look (placeholder)

Architecture

See architectural design review docs in /docs/adr

The engine implements the Canonical Game Loop with fixed timestep simulation:

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Phase 1: INPUT PUMP (Per-Frame)                             │
│ - Poll SDL events, buffer input state                       │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Phase 2: SIMULATION TICK (Fixed 120Hz)                      │
│ - Physics, gameplay logic at deterministic rate             │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Phase 3: PRESENTATION (Interpolated)                        │
│ - GPU rendering with interpolation for smooth visuals       │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

License

TBD