Hephaestus Engine — Devlog v0.1.0

Introduction

Hephaestus v0.1.0 is our first milestone release that moves the engine from “foundation-building” into “usable for real projects.” Since v0.0.5, the focus shifted from stabilizing the core loop to making the engine reliably productive: stronger subsystem integration, clearer tooling, and more predictable iteration times. This release delivers that baseline.

Quick Summary

• Milestone achieved: v0.1.0 stabilization and workflow readiness
• Focus: reliability, better tooling, and full-system integration
• Primary languages: C++ and GLSL
• Status: still private/internal, preparing staged public access

Core Engine Changes

What’s new since v0.0.5:

• Subsystem integration tightened: Rendering, physics, audio, and scene systems now share consistent lifecycle hooks and shutdown ordering. This removes a class of “works in isolation” bugs we hit in v0.0.5.
• Resource lifetime model finalized: The asset/resource manager now has clear ownership and lifetime semantics. This reduces teardown crashes and makes hot-reload safe in more scenarios.
• Threading model refined: The job system and async asset loading were stabilized. We now enforce a predictable thread-safe handoff pattern for GPU-bound resources.

Why it matters: v0.1.0 is the first version where a scene can load, simulate, render, and unload consistently without requiring manual sequencing or custom guards.

Editor Improvements

v0.0.5 had minimal tooling. v0.1.0 introduces the foundation of an actual editor workflow:

• In-engine inspection UI: A lightweight debug/editor layer lets you inspect scene hierarchies, render stats, and component state.
• Scene composition tools: Basic editing operations (selection, transform manipulation, entity toggling) are now stable enough for day-to-day use.
• Improved logging & diagnostics panel: Runtime warnings, errors, and performance markers are now surfaced in a structured view.

Result: you can now iterate inside the engine without constantly switching to the console or external debugging tools.

Rendering & Shader Pipeline

• Shader iteration improved: Shader hot-reload now surfaces compile errors with clear feedback, and avoids silent fallback.
• Material workflow polished: Material updates now propagate cleanly without needing full scene reloads.
• GPU resource tracking: Buffer and texture lifetime tracking is more robust, preventing GPU-side leaks and reload artifacts.

This release does not add new major rendering features; instead it makes the existing pipeline reliable and predictable.

Physics & Collision

Physics moved from “baseline integration” to “usable baseline”:

• Deterministic update step: Fixed-timestep updates are now consistent, which stabilizes both simulation and gameplay scripting.
• Collision stability fixes: We addressed jitter and contact instability seen in the v0.0.5 demo scenes.
• Debug visualization: Physics debug overlays were added to help with iteration and tuning.

Audio

We’ve laid the groundwork for audio integration: runtime hooks, asset integration, and a basic mixing/playback framework are in place, but there is not yet a full audio engine. The framework makes it straightforward to add a dedicated audio engine in a future release.

• Runtime hooks & framework: Audio is integrated into the engine lifecycle and resource system.
• Asset pipeline integration: Audio assets load and unload alongside scene resources, enabling prototype playback.

Asset Pipeline

The asset pipeline now behaves like an engine pipeline rather than a loader:

• Dependency tracking expanded: Changes to assets now trigger targeted updates without full reload.
• Import stability improvements: The common importer crash cases from v0.0.5 are resolved.
• Cache behavior refined: Caching is now predictable and eliminates several memory spikes.

Scripting

Scripting has moved from “experimental” to “usable”:

• Runtime hooks standardized: Scripts now hook into predictable lifecycle events.
• Better error reporting: Script errors are surfaced with file/line context.
• Controller scripts validated: Input-driven controllers now operate consistently across test scenes.

Performance & Profiling

v0.1.0 introduces the first pass of performance instrumentation:

• Lightweight profiling hooks: Frame timing and subsystem duration stats are now available.
• Bottleneck visibility: Hotspots in asset streaming and shader compilation are measurable instead of guesswork.

Stability & Bug Fixes

This milestone includes dozens of fixes with an emphasis on reliability:

• Shutdown crashes removed caused by late asset destruction
• Thread contention issues resolved in async loading
• Memory leak fixes in renderer and resource containers
• Editor selection & transform glitches fixed
• Improved startup resilience when configuration is incomplete or missing

Documentation & Sample Content

v0.1.0 is the first release with documentation that matches the actual engine behavior:

• “Getting started” flow updated for the new toolchain
• Expanded internal docs for module layout, asset pipeline, and scene format
• Demo scene delivered covering rendering, physics, and audio

What’s Next

v0.1.0 establishes a stable baseline. The next phase is about expanding capabilities, not just maintaining stability:

• Editor polish: Better UX and more layout customization
• Asset tooling: Improved importers and asset inspectors
• Rendering features: lighting improvements, shadows, and material authoring tools
• Public access planning: staged beta and licensing details

Closing

v0.1.0 marks the transition from “foundation project” to “usable engine.” It’s not feature-complete, but it’s reliable enough to build real content without fighting instability. The next milestone focuses on experience and feature depth rather than survival fixes.

Thanks to everyone testing internal builds and submitting detailed reports—this milestone is the result of that feedback.