Renzora Engine

A 3D game engine and visual editor built on Bevy 0.18. Currently in alpha — actively developing toward feature parity with Bevy's full capabilities.

Warning: This engine is in early alpha. You will encounter bugs, incomplete features, and unexpected behavior. APIs and file formats may change without notice between versions.

Table of Contents

1. Project Status
2. Documentation
3. Prerequisites
4. Building
5. Testing
6. Cargo Features
7. Supported File Formats
8. Troubleshooting
9. License

Project Status

Alpha — Core systems are functional and the editor is usable for scene composition, scripting, and game export. Not yet recommended for production use.

Documentation

Guide	Description
Engine User Guide	Viewport controls, keyboard shortcuts, transform gizmos, terrain editing, scene management, components, and more
Physics Guide	Rigid bodies, colliders, cloth simulation, debug panels, stress testing, and scripting integration
Scripting API Reference	Full reference for the Rhai scripting API: transforms, input, physics, audio, timers, ECS queries
Plugin Development	Architecture, API reference, UI creation, hot reload, testing, and complete examples
Contributing Guide	Guidelines for submitting issues and pull requests

Prerequisites

1. Install Rust from rustup.rs (this gives you rustup, cargo, and rustc)
2. Windows 10/11, Linux, or macOS
3. Linux only: Wayland dev libraries — sudo apt install libwayland-dev (Debian/Ubuntu)

Solari / Ray Tracing (Optional)

The solari feature enables raytraced global illumination, DLSS Ray Reconstruction, and meshlet virtual geometry. If you don't have the required SDKs or hardware, the engine builds and runs fine without it — just don't enable the solari feature.

Platform compatibility:

	Windows	Linux	macOS
Compile	Yes	Yes	No
Runtime	NVIDIA RTX only	NVIDIA RTX only	No

DLSS is an NVIDIA-proprietary technology — the SDK only provides libraries for Windows and Linux, and requires an RTX GPU at runtime. macOS and AMD/Intel GPU users should build without this feature.

1. Vulkan SDK (1.3.x or newer)

Download from vulkan.lunarg.com and run the installer. Any version with Vulkan 1.3+ headers works.

• Windows: The installer sets the VULKAN_SDK environment variable automatically (e.g. C:\VulkanSDK\1.4.309.0). No extra steps needed.
• Linux: sudo apt install vulkan-sdk or use the LunarG tarball and set VULKAN_SDK to the extracted directory.

Verify it's set:

echo %VULKAN_SDK%          # Windows (cmd)
echo $env:VULKAN_SDK       # Windows (PowerShell)
echo $VULKAN_SDK           # Linux/macOS

The build needs the Include/ (Windows) or include/ (Linux) directory containing vulkan/vulkan.h.

2. DLSS SDK (v310.4.0)

Clone the exact version from NVIDIA's GitHub repo:

Windows:

git clone --branch v310.4.0 https://github.com/NVIDIA/DLSS.git C:\DLSS_SDK
setx DLSS_SDK "C:\DLSS_SDK" /M

Linux:

git clone --branch v310.4.0 https://github.com/NVIDIA/DLSS.git ~/DLSS_SDK
echo 'export DLSS_SDK="$HOME/DLSS_SDK"' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

3. Build with Solari

After both SDKs are installed and environment variables are set, restart your terminal and run:

cargo run --features solari

Faster Linking (Recommended)

Windows:

rustup component add llvm-tools-preview

Linux:

sudo apt install lld clang

Then create .cargo/config.toml:

# Windows
[target.x86_64-pc-windows-msvc]
linker = "rust-lld.exe"

# Linux
[target.x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu]
linker = "clang"
rustflags = ["-C", "link-arg=-fuse-ld=lld"]

Building

Development

cargo run                      # run the editor (default features)
cargo run --features solari    # run with raytraced lighting + DLSS (requires SDKs)

Release

Release builds disable dynamic linking for distributable binaries:

cargo release-editor    # builds static editor (~50MB) → app/release/renzora_editor.exe
cargo release-runtime   # builds static runtime (~50MB) → app/release/renzora_runtime.exe

Copy the runtime for exports:

cp app/release/renzora_runtime.exe runtimes/windows/   # Windows
cp app/release/renzora_runtime runtimes/linux/         # Linux

The dynamic feature (on by default) enables bevy/dynamic_linking for dev builds. Release aliases use --no-default-features and a separate app directory to keep static and dynamic artifacts isolated.

Testing

Run the full test suite:

cargo test

Run tests for a specific module:

cargo test -- blueprint::graph_tests
cargo test -- blueprint::codegen_tests
cargo test -- blueprint::serialization_tests
cargo test -- blueprint::tests
cargo test -- scripting::tests
cargo test -- component_system::tests
cargo test -- commands::tests
cargo test -- shared::tests
cargo test -- project::tests
cargo test -- export::tests
cargo test -- theming::tests
cargo test -- docking
cargo test -- keybindings
cargo test -- file_drop

Cargo Features

Feature	Description
editor	Full editor with UI, asset browser, scene editing
runtime	Minimal runtime for exported games
physics	Avian3D physics engine integration
solari	Raytraced GI, DLSS, and meshlet virtual geometry (requires Vulkan SDK + DLSS SDK)
dynamic	Dynamic linking for faster dev builds
memory-profiling	Memory usage tracking in diagnostics

Default: editor, physics, memory-profiling

Supported File Formats

Format	Type
.glb / .gltf	3D models (meshes, materials, animations, skeletons)
.obj	3D models (meshes)
.fbx	3D models (meshes, skeletons)
.ron	Scene files (Bevy DynamicScene)
.rhai	Script files
.blueprint	Visual script graphs (compile to Rhai)
.material_bp	Material blueprint graphs (compile to WGSL)
.particle	Particle effect definitions
.png / .jpg / .jpeg	Textures
.hdr / .exr	HDR environment maps

Troubleshooting

Runtime crashes immediately

Run from a terminal to see error output:

cd export_folder
./YourGame.exe

Small runtime binary (~1.5MB)

Bevy was compiled with dynamic linking. Use the release alias:

cargo release-runtime

Output at app/release/renzora_runtime.exe (~50MB, statically linked).

Release build fails with "Application Control policy has blocked this file"

If cargo build --release fails with OS error 4551, Windows Smart App Control is blocking build script executables generated during compilation. Debug builds may work because the build scripts get approved on first run and are reused by subsequent release builds.

Fix: Open Windows Security → App & Browser Control → Smart App Control and turn it off. Note that once disabled, Smart App Control cannot be re-enabled without reinstalling Windows.

Workaround: Run cargo build (debug) first, then cargo build --release. The debug build compiles and approves the build scripts, which are then reused by the release build.

Export shows "Runtime not found"

Ensure the runtime binary exists at runtimes/windows/renzora_runtime.exe. Build it with cargo release-runtime and copy it there.

License

Apache License 2.0 — see LICENSE.md