https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckTkvcWkIyo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyaxprJn2Hs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOSf8ziy5gs

Vulcan 3D Engine from scratch

This Repo is my attempt to build a 3D game engine written in C++, using Vulkan as a Low Level graphics card API and GLFW as a window manager.

Reminders and things to look out for

• Apparently Metal has some kind of internal setup which causes Vulkan with MoltenVK to not be able to render more than the display refresh rate, that means that I am capped to 60fps rendering.
  • This seems to be a well known issue, Path of Exile seems to have the same issue from what I saw.
• I use a studio display, which has a "retina" display. What it does concretely it renders things at 5k and then downscales it to (in my case 2880x1620, i.e. with a 2x downscaling factor for width and height). Default scale is 2560x1440.
• (Currently not implemented) Be careful whether you are compiling with DEBUG flag set or not
• (Currently always on) The runtime sanitizers in compilation settings are VERY slow, active during debug, if things are slow should try to disable those first.
• Regarding MacOS Specific Workarounds
  • https://registry.khronos.org/vulkan/specs/1.3-extensions/man/html/VK_KHR_portability_enumeration.html
  • ocornut/imgui#6101 (comment)
  • https://stackoverflow.com/questions/72374316/validation-error-on-device-extension-on-m1-mac
  • https://stackoverflow.com/questions/66659907/vulkan-validation-warning-catch-22-about-vk-khr-portability-subset-on-moltenvk/66660106#66660106
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Sp7waWUXOc

Setup

I'm using AppleClang 15.0.0.15000309 as my compiler and CMake to generate my make files. The project can be rebuild by using the clean_and_recompile.sh script (Warning: This wipes all build information and so can be quite slow. Although I don't build my dependencies from scratch so it shouldn't be too bad. Might build vulcan from source later on, but currently I just use the SDK directly.)

If you want to compile the project you can either use the compile_and_run.sh (just comment out the last line if you don't want to run after building)

You can download the newest Vulkan SDK [here](https://vulkan.lunarg.com/sdk/home) 

I'm using version 1.3.290.0 (23-Jul-2024) which has the following SHA256 checksum:

a14f3026290c2ef0a9fc96af3f6b75135018d145748543a644107a36f1d65a71

Add the following to your RC file (I'm using the ZSH shell so it's at `~/.zshrc` for me).
# Vulkan
export VULKAN_SDK=/Users/danielsinkin/VulkanSDK/1.3.290.0/macOS
export GLSC=$VULKAN_SDK/bin/glsc
export PATH=$VULKAN_SDK/bin:$PATH
export DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH=$VULKAN_SDK/lib:/usr/local/lib:$DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH
export VK_LAYER_PATH=$VULKAN_SDK/share/vulkan/explicit_layer.d
# export VK_INSTANCE_LAYERS="VK_LAYER_LUNARG_api_dump:VK_LAYER_KHRONOS_validation"
export VK_INSTANCE_LAYERS="VK_LAYER_KHRONOS_validation"
export VK_ICD_FILENAMES=/Users/danielsinkin/VulkanSDK/1.3.290.0/macOS/share/vulkan/icd.d/MoltenVK_icd.json

My Dev Specs

system_profiler
    Software
        System Version: macOS 14.6.1 (23G93)
        Kernel Version: Darwin 23.6.0
    Hardware
        Model Name: MacBook Air
        Model Identifier: Mac14,2
        Model Number: MN703D/A
        Chip: Apple M2
        Total Number of Cores: 8 (4 performance and 4 efficiency)
        Memory: 16 GB
        System Firmware Version: 10151.140.19
        OS Loader Version: 10151.140.19
        Serial Number (system): *
        Hardware UUID: *
        Provisioning UDID: *
        Activation Lock Status: *
    Graphics/Displays:
        Chipset Model: Apple M2
        Type: GPU
        Bus: Built-In
        Total Number of Cores: 10
        Vendor: Apple (0x106b)
        Metal Support: Metal 3
        Displays:
            Studio Display:
                Display Type: Retina LCD
                Resolution: 5120 x 2880 Retina
                Display Serial Number: *
                Display Firmware Version: Version 17.0 (Build 21A329)
                Main Display: Yes
                Mirror: Off
                Online: Yes
                Automatically Adjust Brightness: No

Credits and Attributions

• Models used
  • "Viking Room" (https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/viking-room-a49f1b8e4f5c4ecf9e1fe7d81915ad38) by nigelgoh
    • I'm using the clean up version made by Vulkan-Tutorial.com, found here..
  • "Nicole" (https://skfb.ly/pqvTX) by Voon Hong Liang is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
  • "Suzanne" the famous monkey, from here
• Textures used
  • https://polyhaven.com/a/painted_plaster_wall
  • Metal texture from this group https://www.textures.com/category/metal/169
• Fonts
  • Merriweather
  • https://github.com/githubnext/monaspace/

References

• Dependencies
  • VulkanSDK
    • MacOS on the new Apple Silicon chips does not support Vulkan natively for that we use MoltenVK which is included in the SDK
      • For more detaisl see this the following:
        • https://developer.apple.com/documentation/apple-silicon/porting-your-macos-apps-to-apple-silicon
        • https://support.apple.com/en-ca/101525
  • GLFW
  • STB
    • Image, Image Write and Truetype
  • tinyobjloader
• Documentation
  • CPPReference
    • Hash
  • Vulkan
  • GLFW
    • Vulkan Integration
• Educational Resources
  • Books
    • Physically Based Rendering: From Theory to Implementation
    • Data-Oriented Design
    • Ray Tracing in one Weekend
    • Computer Graphics from Scratch
    • The Art of writing Efficient Programs
  • Repositories
    • tinyraytracer
    • https://github.com/SaschaWillems/Vulkan
    • Unity Engine Bloom Implementation
  • Blogs
    • The Essential Resources for Vulkan development
    • Nvidia's GPU Gems series
    • A trip through the Graphics Pipeline 2011: Index
    • Learning Modern 3D Graphics Programming
    • Intel: API without secrets: Introduction to Vulkan
    • Writing an efficient Vulkan renderer
    • https://edw.is/learning-vulkan/
  • Tutorials
    • Vulkan Tutorial
    • Learn OpenGL
      • Advanced Lighting
        • Noteably introduces the (Blinn-)Phong reflection model we use.
    • VulkanGuide
  • YouTube
    • MollyRocket
      • Handmade Hero Series
        • Rendering Playlist
        • Lighting Playlist
        • Optimization Playlist
        • Multithreading Playlist
      • Performanc-Aware Programming Playlist
    • Acerola
      • Post-Processing with Shaders
    • GetIntoGameDev's Vulkan 2024 Series ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGSSUSeaLgA)
    • Interactive Computer Graphics
    • GSN Compose
      • Shaders Monthly Series
    • Game Engine Series (that's the name of the channel)
      • Game Engine Programming Series
  • Conferences
    • SIGGRAPH
      • 2014
    • Vulkanised
      • 2024
        • Common Mistakes When Learning Vulkan - Charles Giessen
    • CppCon
      • 2021
        • Back to Basics Series
    • C++Now
      • 2024
        • [Unlocking Modern CPU Power - Next-Gen C++ Optimization Techniques - Fedor G Pikus - C++Now 2024

Appendix A: YouTube Links to the recorded videos

TODO: Put them all in a single playlist and link that one

• https://youtu.be/afF579Obqlw (Not in the screencaps folder)
• https://youtu.be/JDX6OLH_uUA (Not in the screencaps folder)
• https://youtu.be/Sk9cLoi_Vtk
• https://youtu.be/5Q_WZqeqGG0
• https://youtu.be/tLEBiCrzxFk