Candle Engine

Status: In development
Role: Full development (C++, rendering systems, architecture)
Tags: Engine, Low-level programming, Tools, C++

Candle Engine is my custom C++ game engine, designed as a deep dive into graphics programming and engine architecture. It’s modular, performant, and built to explore how rendering pipelines, input systems, and materials come together in a real-time environment.

🌟 Features (So Far)

• Core Loop & Windowing

  • Custom Win32 message handling and DirectX 9 device creation
  • Main update/render loop with frame timing.

• Rendering Pipeline

  • World → View → Projection matrices
  • Indexed vertex buffers & triangle rendering.
  • Per-object transforms (translation, rotation, scale).
  • Basic lighting via point lights (position, diffuse, attenuation).

• Game Objects

  • GameObject abstraction with position, rotation, scale, vertex/index data.
  • Configurable materials and textures.
  • Per-object render toggling.

• Materials & Textures

  • Material system using DirectX effects (.fx) and up to three textures bound per object.
  • Texture sampling & anisotropic filtering.

• Input System

  • DirectInput-based keyboard handling.
  • Key mapping (WASD, Space, Q/E) with GetKey, GetKeyDown, GetKeyUp.

• Scripting Layer (FireScript)

  • Simple Start() and Update() hooks for user-defined behavior.
  • Main and secondary scripts attachable to the game loop.

🧩 Example Components

• Game.cpp → Bootstraps the engine, sets up DirectX, and runs the loop.
• GameObject.cpp → Defines position, rotation, scaling, and rendering state.
• Input.cpp → Polls and updates keyboard state each frame.
• Material.cpp → Loads and manages textures.
• FireScript.cpp → User scripting hooks.

📖 Why Candle Engine?

This project is my next step after Shadow Engine:

• Shadow Engine gave me a browser-based playground.
• Candle Engine is where I bring those lessons into C++ and DirectX for performance and low-level control.
• It’s my personal “C++ lab” for graphics programming, scalable architecture, and future extensions like physics.

🛣️ Next Steps

• Expand material/shader system with normals & specular.
• Add camera movement & multiple view modes.
• Build a mesh loader for external models.
• Implement a physics/collision layer.
• Explore porting to modern APIs (DirectX 11/12, Vulkan, or OpenGL).

🔥 Candle Engine is all about learning by building.
It’s not just about making games—it’s about mastering the craft of engines themselves.

Related Projects

Shadow Engine

A lightweight 3D engine built from scratch in JavaScript. Fully browser-based, easy to read, and a stepping stone toward a future C++ engine.