Cortex Engine
AI-Native 3D game engine with pure P/Invoke Vulkan 1.3 render backend.
Features
- Vulkan 1.3 — dynamic rendering, synchronization2, pure P/Invoke (no wrapper libraries)
- PBR Shading — Cook-Torrance BRDF, ACES tonemapping, multi-light support
- Cubemap Array Shadows — omnidirectional shadows from multiple point lights, 16-tap Poisson disk PCF
- Jolt Physics — rigid body dynamics, box/sphere colliders, gravity
- ImGui — debug overlay, light/shadow/physics controls
- AI/MCP — 7 tools (spawn, transform, material, delete, list, world state, screenshot) via HTTP/SSE
- Video Recording — FFmpeg pipe, 60 FPS capture, 30 FPS output
- ECS — Flecs.NET with Transform, Mesh, Material, Light, Camera, RigidBody components
- SDL3 Window — cross-platform, Vulkan surface
Quick Start
# Build
dotnet build CORTEX_ENGINE.sln -c Debug
# Run
./scripts/run.sh
# Run the alternative Solar Sanctuary demo scene
./scripts/run.sh -- --scene sanctuary
# Run the playable Arena Strike FPS demo
./scripts/run.sh -- --scene shooter
# Run with AI/MCP server
./scripts/run.sh -- --mcp-port 5000
# Run tests
dotnet test tests/Engine.Tests/Engine.Tests.csproj -c Debug
Controls
- WASD — move camera
- Right-click + drag — look around
- Q/E — down/up
- Shift — speed boost
- ESC — quit
ImGui Panels
- Cortex Engine Debug — FPS, camera, entity count, physics toggle, reset scene
- Shadow & Light Parameters — per-light intensity/range/RGB, shadow bias/radius/farplane, ambient RGB
- Video Recording — start/stop recording to MP4
Demo Scenes
- Kinetic Gallery (default) — sphere pyramid, diamond rain, orbiting torus rings and physics.
- Solar Sanctuary (
--scene sanctuary) — a luminous torus-knot core, three orbital rings, an obelisk circle and falling physical comets. - Arena Strike (
--scene shooter) — a playable FPS arena with hitscan targets, attacking drones, health, score, waves and reloadable ammunition. Use LMB to fire and R to reload.
Arena Strike Gameplay
Pure scene render — UI intentionally hidden.
Arena Strike UI
MCP Tools
Connect via http://localhost:5000/ (SSE):
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
spawn_model |
Create object (cube/sphere, optional physics) |
set_transform |
Move/rotate/scale by name |
set_material |
Change color/roughness/metallic |
delete_entity |
Remove object |
list_entities |
List all objects |
get_world_state |
Full JSON state |
capture_screenshot |
Request screenshot |
Requirements
- .NET 9 SDK
- Vulkan 1.3+ drivers
- SDL3 (bundled via NuGet)
- FFmpeg (for video recording)
- glslangValidator (for shader recompilation)
Architecture
See CORTEX_ENGINE_ARCHITECTURE.md for full technical docs.
License
All rights reserved.