VQEngine

June 21, 2025 · View on GitHub

master	dev

VQEngine

VQEngine is a multi-threaded DirectX12 renderer for prototyping of rendering techniques and experimenting with cutting edge technology.

See Releases to download the source & pre-built executables.

Screenshots

_{Data-driven (XML) Scenes & glTF Model Loading, HDRI Environment Maps, UE4's PBR model w/ IBL, ImGui UI & debug drawing, AMD FidelityFX CACAO, CAS, FSR1, SSSR, DNSR, SPD}

_{Debug draw modes}

_{Object selection, light bounds, magnifier}

_{Tessellation pipeline drawing a single large quad domain mesh w/ heightmap}

_{How a frame is rendered by VQEngine}

_{Command list & queue management: rendering, background (lower prio) gpu tasks and dedicated presentation queue}
_{The dedicated presentation queue, can be toggled on/off from settings}

_{Radeon Graphics Profiler capture from the stress test scene showcasing async compute}

_{Instanced rendering w/ LODs}

Features

Graphics

Physically-based Rendering (PBR)
- BRDF
  - NDF : Trowbridge-Reitz GGX
  - G : Smith
  - F : Fresnel_Schlick / Fresnel_Gaussian
- Image-based Lighting (IBL) w/ prefiltered environment cubemaps from HDRI Haven
  - Load-time diffuse & specular irradiance cubemap convolution
Lighting & Shadow maps
- Point / Spot / Directional Lights
- PCF Shadows
Reflections
- FidelityFX - Stochastic Screen Space Reflections (SSSR)
- FidelityFX - Denoiser (DNSR)
Ambient Occlusion
- FidelityFX - Combined Adaptive Compute Ambient Occlusion (CACAO)
Anti Aliasing
- MSAA x4
PostProcess
- FidelityFX - Single Pass Downsampler (SPD)
- Tonemapping & Gamma correction
- FidelityFX - Contrast Adaptive Sharpening (CAS)
- FidelityFX - Super Resolution 1.0
Async Compute & Copy queue support
Tessellation Pipeline
- Triangle & Quad domains

Display

HDR display support with scRGB HDR pipeline
Multiple window & monitor support
Refresh Rate
- Custom
- Auto (1.33 x monitor refresh rate)
- Unlocked
VSync
Alt+Enter Borderless Fullscreen

Engine

Multi-threading
- Worker threads
  - Parallel command list recording
  - Frustum Culling
  - Asset loading
  - PSO & Shader compilation
- Main + Simulation threads to decouple OS events from the update loop
glTF 2.0 model loading
Shader system
- Shader cache
- Multi-threaded shader compilation
- Shader Model 5.0 (DXBC) & 6.0 (DXIL)
Editor for Materials, Lights & Transforms
Automated build & testing scripts

_{Multi-threaded loading: Textures, Shaders & PSOs. Not shown: Models}

_{Multi-threaded simulation: Frustum culling & parallel command list recording}

Build

Make sure to have pre-requisites installed

CMake 3.24
Visual Studio 2022
Windows 10 SDK 10.0.20348 OR Windows 11 SDK 10.26100.0

To download the PBR & HDRI textures, run

Scripts/DownloadAssets.bat

Then, run one of the build scripts in Build/ folder,

GenerateSolutions.bat to build from source with Visual Studio
- VQE.sln can be found in Build/SolutionFiles directory
PackageEngine.bat to build and package the engine in release mode and open _artifacts folder
- VQE.exe can be found in Build/_artifacts directory

Run

Make sure to have installed

MSVC v143 - VS 2022 C++ x64/x86 build tools
A DX12-capable GPU

Double click VQE.exe.

Or, if you're using a terminal

VQE.exe -LogConsole for logging displayed on a console
VQE.exe -LogFile="FileName.txt" to write out to a file.

Controls

Key
WASD+EQ	Camera movement
Left Click	Pick object
Right Click	Hold to look around
F1	Toggle Scene Controls
F2	Toggle Profiler
F3	Toggle Settings
F4	Toggle Editor
Page Up/Down	Change Environment Map
1-4	Change scenes 1 - Default Scene 2 - Sponza 3 - Geometry Test Scene 4 - Stress Test Scene
Shift+R	Reload level
C	Change scene camera
V	Toggle VSync
M	Toggle MSAA
G	Toggle tonemapping gamma
J	Toggle FidelityFX-SuperResolution1
B	Toggle FidelityFX-CAS
N	Toggle object bounding boxes
Shift+N	Toggle mesh bounding boxes
Alt+Enter	Toggle Fullscreen

Settings

VQE can be configured through Data/EngineConfig.ini file

Graphics Settings
`ResolutionX=<int>`	Sets application render resolution width
`ResolutionY=<int>`	Sets application render resolution height
`VSync=<bool>`	Toggles VSync based on the specified `<bool>`
`AntiAliasing=<bool>`	Toggles MSAA based on the specified `<bool>`
`MaxFrameRate=<int>`	Sets maximum frame rate to the specified `<int>`
`HDR=<bool>`	Toggles HDR swapchain & HDR display support

Engine
`Width=<int>`	Sets application main window width
`Height=<int>`	Sets application main window height
`DisplayMode=<Windowed/Fulscreen>`	Sets Sets application main window mode: Windowed or Fullscreen

Command Line

VQE supports the following command line parameters:

CMD Line Parameter	Description
`-LogConsole`	Launches a console window that displays log messages
`-LogFile=<string>`	Writes logs into an output file specified by `%FILE_NAME%`. Example: `VQE.exe -LogFile=Logs/log.txt` will create `Logs/` directory if it doesn't exist, and write log messages to the `log.txt` file
`-Test`	Launches the application in test mode: The app renders a pre-defined amount of frames and then exits.
`-TestFrames=<int>`	Application runs the sepcified amount of frames and then exits. Used for Automated testing. Example: `VQE.exe -TestFrames=1000`
`-W=<int>` `-Width=<int>`	Sets application main window width to the specified amount
`-H=<int>` `-Height=<int>`	Sets application main window height to the specified amount
`-ResX=<int>`	Sets application render resolution width
`-ResY=<int>`	Sets application render resolution height
`-FullScreen`	Launches in fullscreen mode
`-Windowed`	Launches in windowed mode
`-VSync`	Enables VSync
`-VSync=<bool>`	Sets Specified VSync State
`-AntiAliasing` or `-AA`	Enables MSAA
`-TripleBuffering`	Initializes SwapChain with 3 back buffers
`-DoubleBuffering`	Initializes SwapChain with 2 back buffers

Note: Command line parameters will override the EngineSettings.ini values.

Scripts

File
`ProjectFiles.bat`	What it does - Initializes the submodule repos - Runs `CMake` to generate visual studio solution files in `Build/SolutionFiles` directory - Launches Visual Studio Flags - `noVS` : Updates/Generates `VQE.sln` without launching a Visual Studio instance Example : `GenerateSolutions.bat -noVS` while VS is open to update solution files after modifying CmakeLists.txt without closing/relaunching VS
`PackageEngine.bat`	What it does - Runs `GenerateSolutions.bat` if the visual studio solution doesn't exist - Builds the engine in Release configuration - Moves build output into `Build/_artifacts` folder Flags `-Clean` : Runs Clean on `VQE.sln` projects before building `-DebugOnly` : Builds the Debug binaries only `-Debug` : Builds Debug binaries in addition to Release `-RelWithDebInfo` : Builds the Release binaries with Debug info in addition to Release Note: Release build is always on by default, unless `-DebugOnly` is specified Example: `PackageEngine.bat -Clean -Debug -RelWithDebInfo` will build all configurations after running Clean and copy the binaries into `Build/_artifacts` folder
`TestVQE.bat`	What it does - Runs `VQE.exe` with testing parameters, making the engine exit after rendering specified number of frames (1000 default). Flags `-Debug`: Tests the Debug build in addition to the Release build

3rd-Party

D3DX12
D3D12MA
stb
tinyxml2
[cgltf][https://github.com/jkuhlmann/cgltf]
WinPixEventRuntime
Khronos glTF Sample Models
cgbookcase PBR Textures
AMD-FidelityFX
Dear ImGui