Getting Started Guide

gkNextEngine is a cross-platform 3D game engine and rendering playground built with modern C++20 and Vulkan. Through the unified gnb CLI toolchain, dependency management, environment setup, compilation, and testing are streamlined into single-line commands.

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🛠️ Prerequisites

Platform	Compiler / Host Tools	Notes
Windows	Visual Studio 2022 (C++ workload)	Builds default to the fast Ninja generator
Linux	GCC 12+ or Clang 16+, CMake 3.26+, Ninja	gnb setup auto-installs missing system packages on Ubuntu / Arch
macOS	Xcode / Command Line Tools (Apple Silicon)	Native arm64 architecture support

Note: No need to manually install Vulkan SDK or Slang compiler. gnb setup will automatically download and configure the exact project SDK versions locally.

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🚀 One-Click Build & Run

1. Host Environment Doctor

./gnb.bat doctor    # Windows
./gnb.sh doctor     # Linux / macOS

2. Setup Dependencies

./gnb.bat setup     # Windows
./gnb.sh setup      # Linux / macOS

3. Fast Incremental Build

# Default: build core targets (gkNextRenderer + gkNextUnitTests)
./gnb.bat build

# Build all 15+ subprojects
./gnb.bat build --all

# Build a specific subproject (e.g. MagicaLego)
./gnb.bat build MagicaLego

4. Run & Experience

# Run main path tracing renderer
./gnb.bat run gkNextRenderer

# Run comprehensive editor
./gnb.bat run gkNextEditor

# Run AirportSim simulation
./gnb.bat run AirportSim

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🌐 Remote Play via WebRTC

Any desktop target natively supports running as a WebRTC host, encoding 60FPS video through Vulkan Video hardware encoding:

./gnb.sh remote --target gkNextRenderer --scene assets/models/playground.glb --res 1280x720

Open the printed URL (e.g., http://127.0.0.1:8080) in any modern browser to play with zero installation.