Introduction

Aether3D is an open source game engine focusing on simplicity, robustness, portability and forward-thinking.

Features

• Windows, macOS, iOS and GNU/Linux.
• OpenGL 4.1, Vulkan (WIP) Metal and D3D12 (WIP) renderers.
• Sprite batching.
• Audio support: .wav and .ogg.
• Bitmap fonts using BMFont. Also supports SDF rendering.
• Virtual file system aka .pak archive files for faster loading.
• Custom mesh format, converters included for .obj, .fbx and Blender.
• Shadow mapping from a directional or spot light (no lighting yet)
• Oculus Rift support.
• SIMD optimized math routines on desktop and iOS.
• Scene serialization.
• Scene editor built using Qt and WYSIWYG rendering.
• XBox controller support.

Requirements

Only 64-bit project files/libraries are provided.

Compilation

Grab the sample asset archive and extract it into aether3d_build/Samples after building.

Windows/Visual Studio

You'll need Visual Studio 2015 or newer. Build Engine/VisualStudio_GL45 or Engine/VisualStudio_Vulkan. This creates the library in aether3d_build. You can then build and run Samples/01_OpenWindow. The created executable will be placed in aether3d_build/Samples. You'll need OpenAL32.dll from OpenAL Soft either in your system directory or in the directory used to run samples/editor.

Windows/MinGW

Run mingw32-make in Engine/. Then run mingw32-make in Samples/01_OpenWindow. The created executable will be placed in aether3d_build/Samples.

Windows/Oculus Rift

Compile LibOVR, Logging and LibOVRKernel x64 release versions using VS2015. Copy those folders from Oculus SDK into Engine \ ThirdParty and Open Engine/VisualStudio_GL45 and build target Oculus Release. Open Samples/04_Misc3D and build target Oculus Release.

macOS/Xcode

OpenGL: Build Engine/Aether3D_OSX. Make sure the built library is in aether3d_build. Then build and run Samples/01_OpenWindow, making sure the running folder is set to aether3d_build/Samples.

Metal: Build Engine/Aether3D_OSX_Metal. Make sure the built library is in aether3d_build. Then build and run Samples/MetalSampleOSX, making sure the running folder is set to aether3d_build/Samples.

macOS and GNU/Linux Command Line

Run the Makefile in Engine. Then run the Makefile in Samples/01_OpenWindow. The created executable will be placed in aether3d_build/Samples. On GNU/Linux you need at least the following packages: libopenal-dev libx11-xcb-dev libxcb1-dev libxcb-ewmh-dev libxcb-icccm4-dev libxcb-keysyms1-dev

Bugs

• D3D12: If MSAA is used, render-to-texture doesn't work.
• D3D12: 2D Render textures look weird.
• D3D12: Crash on certain combinations of SpriteRendererComponent and TextRendererComponent.
• Vulkan: Linux support is not complete.
• Metal: Shadow maps don't show.
• Oculus: Mirror texture is broken if SDK initialization fails.

Tools

Editor

Editor is used to create scenes by placing and moving GameObjects, adding components etc. It's built on top of Qt 5 so you'll need to install Qt development files. The .pro project can be opened with QtCreator or other tool. On Windows, you'll need OpenAL32.dll in aether3d

CombineFiles

Aether3D internals almost never read raw files, all file access is abstracted by FileSystem to allow file contents to come from various sources. CombineFiles creates .pak files that contain contents of multiple files. You run it with command CombineFiles inputFile outputFile where inputFile is just a text file containing a list of file paths, each on their own line.

SDF_Generator

Generates a signed-distance field from a texture, useful for high-quality font rendering.