iam-engine

A handmade, cross-platform, minimalistic game engine for experiments using C++, SDL3, OpenGL, and Bullet Physics.

Engine Features

• Hybrid Actor/Entity Component System
  • Iterate over system components horizontally or per actor vertically.
• Mesh Component Auto-Instancing
  • Duplicated meshes are collected into an attribute buffer and drawn with a single instanced call.
• Bullet Physics BVH and Raycasting
  • Utilize Bullet Physics with Bounding Volume Hierarchy (BVH) and efficient raycasting.
• Mesh Collision Auto-Generation
  • Generate collisions for any imported 3D mesh (GLTF, FBX, OBJ, etc.).
• Debug Tools
  • Integrated ImGUI interfaces for debugging.

Game Features

• Declarative Level Design
  • Define levels using JSON (e.g., Array<{ ...Actor, components: Array<Component> }>).
• Player Movement Physics
• Health and Gun/Projectile Components

Samples:

DescentLike

DescentLike is a prototype inspired by the feel of Descent (1994)—a gravity-free, orientation-challenging shooter with drone-like movement.

Screenshots

Controls

• WASD - Move
• QE - Up/Down
• Mouse - Look Around
• Shift + MouseX - Roll
• Space - Shoot
• Tab - Boost Movement
• H - Toggle Debug Menu

Installation, Build, and Run

Prerequisites

• Windows: VCPKG
  • Run vcpkg integrate install and then vcpkg install in the project folder.
• MacOS: Homebrew
  • Run brew install bullet assimp.
• CMake
• VS Code (optional)

Build Steps

cd build
cmake ..
./bin/iam-engine