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 — Linux (main platform)

# 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

Quick Start — Windows x64

PowerShell scripts select the Windows native runtime assets explicitly; Bash is not required:

# Build and restore Windows native dependencies
dotnet restore .\CORTEX_ENGINE.sln -r win-x64
dotnet build .\CORTEX_ENGINE.sln -c Debug -r win-x64 --no-restore

# Run the engine
.\scripts\run.ps1

# Run a demo scene
.\scripts\run.ps1 --scene shooter

# Run with AI/MCP server
.\scripts\start_mcp_engine.ps1 -Port 5000

# Run tests
dotnet test .\tests\Engine.Tests\Engine.Tests.csproj -c Debug -r win-x64

The project keeps Linux as the default RID on Linux hosts and selects win-x64 automatically on Windows. Use -r win-x64 when cross-publishing from another OS.

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.

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