Aegis Engine

C++ render engine developed with Vulkan to explore low level graphics programming

Note

My original Master's Thesis version is archived in the thesis branch or at the thesis tag.

Features

• Physically Based Rendering (PBR) - Realistic lighting and materials
• GLTF & OBJ Loading - Loading of custom 3D models
• Immediate Mode Editor UI - Editor tools using Dear ImGui and ImGuizmo
• Entity Component System (ECS) - Efficient object management using EnTT
• Framegraph - Multipass rendering with automatic renderpass sorting
• Deferred Rendering - Improved lighting performance
• HDR Rendering and Tone Mapping - Enables wider color range for more visible details
• Physically Based Bloom - Realistic glow effect around bright areas created using convolution
• Screen Space Ambient Occlusion (SSAO) - Enhanced depth perception
• Mesh Shaders Pipeline - Modern geometry rendering
• GPU Driven Rendering - Minimize CPU rendering overhead

Prerequisites

Before building ensure you have the following installed:

• Vulkan SDK - Download and install the latest version (at least version 1.3).
• CMake - Used for building the project. Either install it manually or use an IDE with built-in CMake support (like Visual Studio)

Note: The engine currently only targets Windows.

Getting Started

Follow these steps to get started:

1. Clone the repository and its submodules:

   git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/chFleschutz/aegis-engine.git

2. Open the folder in a CMake supported IDE (e.g. Visual Studio) or generate project files using CMake.

3. Build and Run one of the example projects.

Modules and External Libraries

This project is structured into several independent modules:

• aegis-assets - Collection of sample assest
• aegis-gltf - GLTF 3D model loader
• aegis-log - Logging library

The engine relies on the following external libraries:

• entt - Entity component system (ECS)
• glfw - Window management
• glm - Math library
• imgui - Immediate mode UI
• imguizmo - Gizmos
• meshoptimizer - Generating meshlets
• stb - Image loading
• tinyobjloader - OBJ 3D model loader
• Vulkan - Graphics API
• Vulkan Memory Allocator - Vulkan Memory Management
• Volk - Vulkan Function loader

Screenshots

Lumberyard Bistro Scene:

Crytek Sponza Attrium Scene with Editor UI:

Instancing Stress-Test of 1 Million Objects: