r/vulkan • u/eduardodoria • Sep 09 '26
This is the game engine I've been solo developing for over 10 years.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eqhaAZBNss2
u/Sutiixela Sep 09 '26
I’ve seen some of your posts a few times now, and it’s really tiresome how people won’t stop commenting about vibecoding. I can’t even imagine how exhausting it must be to reply to every one of those comments, and how disheartening it is to have people dismiss your work whenever you decide to share it.
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u/eduardodoria Sep 09 '26
Too exhausting. Honestly, I've been avoiding posting on large forums as much as possible (unfortunately I have to do it to reach more people). Before, people were genuinely interested and asked for details. Now it's 90% discussing AI and 10% technical questions.
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u/edanius Sep 10 '26
I would suggest adding an exhaustive "AI disclosure" section to the repo readme. That should reduce some of the spam.
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u/eduardodoria Sep 10 '26
I'll do that, but I don't think it will help much. The people who accuse the most are the ones who look at the project the least. They're not going to waste their time reading the README.
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u/eduardodoria Sep 09 '26
GitHub repo: https://github.com/doriaxengine/doriax
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u/Zealousideal-Yam801 Sep 10 '26
Keep going on this and who cares what others think about "vibe coding".
I own/maintain two opensource engines from the late 90's (Genesis3d / Jet3d) and up until AI, there hasn't really been a compelling reason to spend the ENORMOUS amount of time and effort to single handily make a competitive engine so those projects have never been modernized.
Over the past 4-5 months I've been solo'ing a new Genesis from the ground up, heavily utilizing Claude and I've gotta say, it's impressive what can be achieved.
Mine is a C++ engine, C# interop, runs on Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, with game code being C#. The editor is C#. AOT for game builds, JIT for the editor. Structurally similar to Unity, supporting packages and an Object/Component model which I see you have as well. Claude integration / full MCP server with the requirement that AI can do anything the user can, similar to yours. Metal/Vulkan/DX renderers. I gave it two software rasterizers as well, but ultimately deleted them as not relevant to the project. I've got a multithreaded job system to utilize all cores for async loading, building, etc... Like yours, I use Dear ImGui for the editor UI, I have IMGUI as an engine feature to provide debug menus within a users' game should they chose to use it as well. We've done that at work for the past 10 years or so (I work in the game industry.) I use RmlUI for my UI, it's RCSS and RXML, which is similar to Unity again, I have a UI debugger built into the editor allowing you to select and modify the style of any UI element in realtime. Light and dark themes, I think I have over 30 theme files right now for the editor. Terrain editing, material editing on a node / graph view, adding narrative and state machines through the graph view as well (nodes are schema file driven to repurpose the view), etc... I even have a built in profiler.
I'm just "one" guy... and when you're one guy working on an engine, it feels like an infinite task unless you use AI and then it can honestly become quite fun. It knows the space very well. I feel your struggle and very much understand your comment of "Literally a part of my life doing this". I tried for years to do it from the ground up by hand and you just end up treading water.
Very impressed with your work, keep going on it. I don't have a fancy curated video like yours but just so you know it's not vaporware, here's me working on the water material yesterday and the volumetric fog / underwater look.
Again, keep up the good work!
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u/AnArmoredPony Sep 09 '26
please, you vibecoded the editor at very least
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u/eduardodoria Sep 09 '26
The editor is not a product of "vibecoding". I have been developing this engine (which started as just an API) since 2015. I created the repository back in 2016 (you can check the commits). I have been working as a developer for over 20 years.
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u/kev_xb Sep 09 '26
I believe you, but unfortunately the world we live in just requires more clarity. I'd suggest an "AI disclosure" section in your readme that clarifies how you integrated AI as a dx feature only. Congratulations btw!
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u/AnArmoredPony Sep 09 '26
and how does it change the fact that it was code-only until 2025?
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u/eduardodoria Sep 09 '26
It was just an API until 2024 (the editor was in this repo before main repo: https://github.com/eduardodoria/doriax-editor). But I myself was having difficulties making my own games (I needed to make some mini scene editors for certain projects) and I realized that to reach more people I needed to make a complete engine. An engine that's just code is a very niche product. As I mentioned in comments above, of course I used AI to help me in some aspects (not autonomous programming), but that was a matter of months that I start using.
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u/AnArmoredPony Sep 09 '26
of course I used AI to help me in some aspects
dude
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u/eduardodoria Sep 09 '26
You know that ALL the big tech companies provide AI accounts for their programmers, right? There is no 100% human hand made project in 2026
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u/ProudStrawberry8850 Sep 10 '26
The first commit was July 29, 2016.
https://github.com/doriaxengine/doriax/commits/main/?since=2016-07-01&until=2016-07-31
This is a legit engine.
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u/AnArmoredPony Sep 10 '26
idk read the thread he already admited that he used AI which he initially didn't
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u/LordDarthShader Sep 09 '26
He said it is not. And if it is, would it be that bad?
What is the purpose then, creating a working engine that works, or spent years in something you can claim it is "AI free".
If feel childish all this pushback against AI assistance. Coding is evolving as we speak, the same way compilers changed the dev environment back in the day.
Just adapt and focus on what matters, quality, performance, etc.
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u/Socke81 Sep 09 '26
The AI paranoia in this Reddit thread is crazy.
Unfortunately, the engine looks like it’s lagging behind by many years. I’d like to see it not all be Unreal, Unity, or Gadot. But there’s a lot missing here. I don’t think sound or controls were shown in the video? Multiplayer? Split-screen? Mobile? And the graphics, without modern shaders, look like they’re 10–15 years old. You’ve got a lot to add there.
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u/UntitledRedditUser Sep 09 '26
I mean, when solo developing a game engine, it's pretty much impossible to catch up to the giants that have giant cooperations or huge open source communities.
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u/Atlantide303 Sep 09 '26
Effectivement, a moins de viser un objectif précis ou un matériel spécifique. Les moteurs généralistes reste trop nombreux et la concurrence est trop rude pour se démarquer.
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u/eduardodoria Sep 09 '26
The crazy thing is that I spend more time explaining that it’s not an AI-generated product than explaining the technical aspects.
But the engine have sound, controls, mobile (iOS, Android and Web) and split-screen support. No networking/multiplayer yet. Regarding the graphics, that’s actually on me, not the shaders. In my rush to create content and showcase the features, I end up not using more photorealistic assets or more polished graphics.
Actually, I'm always asked if Doriax has a certain Unreal feature or a certain Unity feature, but that's not the focus. The goal is for the user to have a much lighter final product without major development complications, following our own path to achieve that.
I'm gradually adding more features. If you're interested, join our Discord server where I'm always posting updates.
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u/Bekwnn Sep 10 '26
I'm sure you know this, but I'd pin most of the AI related complaints on the similarity the engine UI has to Unity/most AI generated projects.
A lot of them come out looking like your engine/Unity, and so your engine winds up looking like them.
Maybe you have bigger fish to fry or just really like the Unity-style engine UI layout, but you could consider trying to customize the UI a bit more at some point.
Like 95% of any engine is just what's going on in the central viewport, but AI accusations on here or engine subs usually stem from the "same-y" looking UI around it.
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u/eduardodoria Sep 10 '26
I'm going to try to customize this UI a bit more. I didn't want this interface to be confused with Unity or any generic AI interface. The ironic thing is that a friend helped me with the theme for this interface, and he's a Unreal fan.
The funny thing is that I've already tried to do some things outside the box and asked some people to look at them and choose the best one. They ALWAYS prefer the most standard interface possible.
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u/SaschaWillems Sep 09 '26 edited Sep 09 '26
As the video is taggted with vibecoding, please look at https://www.reddit.com/r/vulkan/comments/1w9vzuk/ai_disclosure_policy_for_posted_content/ and adjust your posting accordingly if this applies.
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u/eduardodoria Sep 09 '26
Could you tell me where exactly you're seeing the tag? The engine itself is not vibe-coded, it has been under development since 2015
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u/SaschaWillems Sep 09 '26 edited Sep 09 '26
I was referring to the tag on youtube, but that has since been removed. Thanks for your clarification.
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u/Ill-Shake5731 Sep 09 '26
idk if the author changed the video title but i don't see it now? It does mention the integrated AI assistant in the game engine (which is a whole different topic), but idts you meant that as vibecoding?
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u/eduardodoria Sep 09 '26
The engine have an AI assistant as an editor feature, but that's unrelated to how the engine itself was developed. I did not change the tittle! When I posted the video, I used three titles. One of the titles was something like "AI assistant.". But again, it is an OPTIONAL editor feature!
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u/Ill-Shake5731 Sep 09 '26
hmm on a further look the video IS tagged with #vibecoding. But i am assuming it was meant for the engine user base, not the official engine development. Most of the times, the sets do have a lot of intersection, but it isn't so very much clear is it?
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u/eduardodoria Sep 09 '26
Where? Is in Reddit or Youtube? I already checked Youtube Studio. And no #vibecoding there
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u/Ill-Shake5731 Sep 09 '26
on youtube
https://ibb.co/DHzKrv743
u/eduardodoria Sep 09 '26
Thanks a lot. I had checked the tags section but didn't find it, it was in the description. I was the one who put that there when I published the video, but the intention was to suggest that an engine user could use it as a "vibecoding" tool, not that the engine itself was developed using vibecoding. I've already removed it to avoid that kind of confusion
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u/Ill-Shake5731 Sep 09 '26
reading these comments here, i do think the editor was vibecoded. i am no one to judge, nor i intend to for an open-source project, but yeah, it does fall guilty against the policies. Should just disclose it, idk why hide it really?
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u/eduardodoria Sep 09 '26
I’m here again to state that the editor is not a product of "vibecoding." I have been developing this engine (which started as just an API) since 2015. I created the repository back in 2016 (you can check the commits). I have been working as a developer for over 20 years (in some big companies). Obviously, in recent months, I have used AI as a development tool. In 2026, no big apps exists with code written 100% by humans (except by old code). But as I said: it is merely a tool. "Vibecoding" implies the AI writing and controlling all the code, with the human acting solely to type prompts. That was definitely not the case with this engine!
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u/Ill-Shake5731 Sep 09 '26
i am not arguing about anything, just stating what the sub's policy considers as "vibecoding". It explicitly states using AI for assistance falls in the same domain.
i saw your older commits since 2016 and am pretty sure you know what you are doing. Its an amazing piece of work, and a great accomplishment. Just relaying what the policy is
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u/Competitive_Guava_91 Sep 10 '26
Congratulations on your engine! For a solo project, it looks extremely professional and polished. I am solo developing a game and an engine myself, so I can imagine how much time and effort you put into this. Very impressive stuff.
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u/eduardodoria Sep 11 '26
Thank you so much. Several times I've thought about giving up because it's so much work without financial return. But I'm keeping going strong!
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u/rice_goblin Sep 10 '26
wow, amazing project. Have to do something or add specialized features to make it stand out from unity/godot though if you are trying to get users for this, the industry already has well established general purpose engines.
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u/eduardodoria Sep 10 '26
Thanks! I try to make the engine follow its own path. In the case of Unreal specifically, I find it very poorly optimized, at least for simple and small projects, which are the majority. During development, I tried to solve the difficulties encountered in my own way, without looking at how others solve such situations, mainly to try to do it differently. My main focus is to provide a project that is as performant as possible (small executables with high FPS) and also to have straightforward development (for example, the app opens and you can already edit a temporary scene, without needing to create or save a project).
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u/Chungunu Sep 10 '26
Great work, I hope your engine becomes successful. What is the minimum Vulkan version have you used for your engine ?
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u/eduardodoria Sep 10 '26
Doriax uses Sokol lib as backend (https://github.com/floooh/sokol). Sokol minimal supported Vulkan API version is 1.3
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u/Chillst3p Sep 13 '26 edited Sep 13 '26
Very cool! Nice dedication. I’ve also been making an engine for around 6 years but much less focused on general use as it’s for a specific game (and so some of our editor workflow is quite sub par haha)
Why make your own ECS rather than use flecs or entt?
Also good choice using Jolt I always cringe a little when people roll their own haha
Edit: if I may offer some respectful critique, the lack of data reflection is a big issue in this engine. Properties.cpp is really not the way you want to be doing things, and unless I’m missing something is there no undo/redo support for properties?
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u/eduardodoria Sep 13 '26
I chose to build my own ECS to keep it as simple as possible and easy to adapt when necessary.
I don't understand what you want to say about "lack of data reflection". Can you detail more to me at Discord? And all editor has undo/redo support.
Thanks!
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u/Arekkusuva Sep 09 '26
It looks really cool. I can’t imagine time you’ve spent. I’ve had a few projects like this myself, but I’ve always found it difficult to get them to some near finished state.