A lightweight C++20 & D3D11 engine focused on third-person games. Built to learn engine programming fundamentals.
Hibou Engine is a personal learning project. Even though this page describes several systems and goals, it is not intended to become a commercial engine. I use it as a long-term sandbox to understand in depth how game engines work — from rendering and architecture to tools and workflows.
Modern rendering architecture built on Direct3D 11 with explicit control over swap chains, render targets, depth buffers, and GPU resources for predictable performance and clear data flow.
Data-oriented design that decouples gameplay logic and scales cleanly. Systems iterate efficiently over tightly-packed components for cache-friendly execution.
Unified input layer with action mapping for keyboard, mouse, and gamepads. Events are fed into gameplay systems without engine-specific coupling.
Cross-platform window creation and event pump via SDL3. The window system is thin and replaceable, keeping the engine portable and focused on rendering + gameplay.
Clear stages for frame setup, pass scheduling, resource management, drawing, and post-processing. Built to evolve into a frame-graph without breaking gameplay code.
Engine programming forces understanding of graphics APIs, memory, synchronization, and data layouts. Hibou exists as a living lab for those fundamentals.
From input to GPU submission, every layer is inspectable and modifiable. That ownership enables better debugging, profiling, and trade-off decisions.
Minimal abstractions, small binaries, and pragmatic features. The goal is shipping features that matter to gameplay first.
Priorities, samples, and the render feature set are optimized for third-person projects (characters, cameras, animation, environments).
