Brine2D.Core 0.8.0-beta

Brine2D

The ASP.NET of game engines - A modern .NET 10 game engine built on SDL3 for creating 2D games with C#.

Brine2D brings the familiar patterns and developer experience of ASP.NET to game development. If you've built web apps with ASP.NET, you'll feel right at home building games with Brine2D.

Features

• Entity Component System (ECS) - ASP.NET-style system pipelines with automatic ordering
• Scene Management - Async loading, transitions, loading screens, and lifecycle hooks
• Advanced Queries - Fluent API with spatial queries, filtering, sorting, and caching
• Performance Monitoring - Built-in FPS counter, frame time graphs, and rendering statistics
• Object Pooling - Zero-allocation systems using ArrayPool<T> and custom object pools
• Sprite Batching - Automatic batching with layer sorting and frustum culling
• Texture Atlasing - Runtime sprite packing with intelligent bin packing
• Event System - Type-safe EventBus for decoupled component communication
• Input System - Keyboard, mouse, gamepad with polling and events
• Sprite Rendering - Hardware-accelerated with sprite sheets and animations
• Animation System - Frame-based with multiple clips and events
• Audio System - Sound effects, music, and 2D spatial audio with distance attenuation
• Tilemap Support - Tiled (.tmj) integration with auto-collision
• Collision Detection - AABB and circle colliders with spatial partitioning
• Camera System - 2D camera with follow, zoom, rotation, and bounds
• Particle System - Pooled particles with textures, rotation, trails, and blend modes
• UI Framework - Complete component library with tooltips, tabs, dialogs, and more
• Configuration - JSON-based settings with hot reload support
• Dependency Injection - ASP.NET Core-style DI container
• Logging - Structured logging with Microsoft.Extensions.Logging
• Multiple Backends - SDL3 GPU (modern, high-performance) and Legacy renderer (compatibility)

Why Brine2D?

ASP.NET Developers Will Feel at Home

// Looks familiar? That's the point!
var builder = GameApplication.CreateBuilder(args);

// Configure services just like ASP.NET
builder.Services.AddSDL3Input();
builder.Services.AddSDL3Audio();

builder.Services.AddSDL3Rendering(options =>
{
    options.WindowTitle = "My Game";
    options.WindowWidth = 1280;
    options.WindowHeight = 720;
    
    // Choose your backend
    options.Backend = GraphicsBackend.GPU;              // Modern SDL3 GPU API (recommended)
    // options.Backend = GraphicsBackend.LegacyRenderer; // SDL_Renderer API (fallback)
    
    options.PreferredGPUDriver = "vulkan"; // or "d3d12", "metal"
    options.VSync = true;
});

// Configure ECS systems like middleware
builder.Services.ConfigureSystemPipelines(pipelines =>
{
    pipelines.AddSystem<PlayerControllerSystem>();
    pipelines.AddSystem<AISystem>();
    pipelines.AddSystem<VelocitySystem>();
    pipelines.AddSystem<PhysicsSystem>();
    pipelines.AddSystem<SpriteRenderingSystem>();
});

// Register your scenes like controllers
builder.Services.AddScene<GameScene>();

var game = builder.Build();
await game.RunAsync<GameScene>();

Key Similarities to ASP.NET

Quick Start

Installation

Using NuGet (Recommended)

Create a new .NET 10 console project and add Brine2D:

dotnet new console -n MyGame
cd MyGame
dotnet add package Brine2D.Desktop

That's it! Brine2D.Desktop includes everything you need to start building games.

Package Options

For most users, install the meta-package:

dotnet add package Brine2D.Desktop

Advanced: Install only what you need:

# Core abstractions
dotnet add package Brine2D.Core
dotnet add package Brine2D.Engine
dotnet add package Brine2D.ECS

# Choose your implementations
dotnet add package Brine2D.Rendering.SDL
dotnet add package Brine2D.Input.SDL
dotnet add package Brine2D.Audio.SDL

# ECS bridges (optional)
dotnet add package Brine2D.Rendering.ECS
dotnet add package Brine2D.Input.ECS
dotnet add package Brine2D.Audio.ECS

Your First Game

Create Program.cs:

using Brine2D.Core;
using Brine2D.Hosting;
using Brine2D.Input;
using Brine2D.Input.SDL;
using Brine2D.Rendering;
using Brine2D.Rendering.SDL;
using Microsoft.Extensions.Logging;

// Create the game application builder
var builder = GameApplication.CreateBuilder(args);

// Configure SDL3 rendering
builder.Services.AddSDL3Rendering(options =>
{
    options.WindowTitle = "My First Brine2D Game";
    options.WindowWidth = 1280;
    options.WindowHeight = 720;
    options.VSync = true;
});

// Add SDL3 input
builder.Services.AddSDL3Input();

// Register your scene
builder.Services.AddScene<GameScene>();

// Build and run
var game = builder.Build();
await game.RunAsync<GameScene>();

// Define your game scene
public class GameScene : Scene
{
    private readonly IRenderer _renderer;
    private readonly IInputService _input;
    private readonly IGameContext _gameContext;

    public GameScene(
        IRenderer renderer,
        IInputService input,
        IGameContext gameContext,
        ILogger<GameScene> logger) : base(logger)
    {
        _renderer = renderer;
        _input = input;
        _gameContext = gameContext;
    }

    protected override void OnRender(GameTime gameTime)
    {
        // Systems and rendering happen automatically!
        _renderer.DrawText("Hello, Brine2D!", 100, 100, Color.White);
    }

    protected override void OnUpdate(GameTime gameTime)
    {
        // Systems run automatically via lifecycle hooks!
        if (_input.IsKeyPressed(Keys.Escape))
        {
            _gameContext.RequestExit();
        }
    }
}

Run your game:

dotnet run

Beta Release Notice

⚠️ This is a beta release (0.8.0-beta)

What works:

• ✅ Entity Component System (ECS)
• ✅ System pipelines with automatic ordering
• ✅ Advanced query system with fluent API
• ✅ Performance monitoring and profiling
• ✅ Object pooling (ArrayPool, custom pools)
• ✅ Sprite batching with frustum culling
• ✅ Texture atlasing with runtime packing
• ✅ Scene transitions and loading screens
• ✅ Lifecycle hooks with opt-out for power users
• ✅ EventBus for component communication
• ✅ Prefabs and serialization
• ✅ Transform hierarchy (parent/child)
• ✅ Utility components (Timer, Lifetime, Tween)
• ✅ GPU rendering (SDL3 GPU API with Vulkan/D3D12/Metal)
• ✅ Legacy rendering (SDL_Renderer API for compatibility)
• ✅ Sprites, primitives, text, lines
• ✅ Input system (keyboard, mouse, gamepad)
• ✅ Spatial audio system (2D distance attenuation + stereo panning)
• ✅ Animation system
• ✅ Collision detection with physics response
• ✅ Tilemap support
• ✅ UI framework (complete component library)
• ✅ Camera system with follow behavior
• ✅ Advanced particle system (textures, rotation, trails, blend modes, 7 emitter shapes)

What's coming next:

• 🔄 Post-processing effects
• 🔄 Multi-threaded ECS systems

Expect breaking changes before 1.0!

Documentation

Full guides and API reference available at brine2d.com

Samples

Check out the samples/ directory for complete working examples:

FeatureDemos

Interactive demo menu showcasing all major features:

• Query System Demo - Advanced entity queries with spatial filtering, sorting, and pagination
• Particle System Demo - Pooled particle effects with fire, explosions, smoke, and trails
• Texture Atlas Demo - Runtime sprite packing with automatic batching
• Spatial Audio Demo - 2D positional audio with distance attenuation and panning
• Collision Demo - AABB and circle colliders with physics response
• Scene Transitions Demo - Fade transitions and custom loading screens
• UI Components Demo - Complete UI framework showcase
• Manual Control Demo - Power user lifecycle hook examples
• Performance Benchmark - Sprite batching stress test with 10,000+ sprites

Run the demos:

cd samples/FeatureDemos
dotnet run

Performance hotkeys (in any demo scene):

• F3 - Toggle performance overlay
• F4 - Toggle frame time graph
• F5 - Toggle memory statistics

Architecture

Brine2D follows a modular architecture with clear separation of concerns:

Core Packages

• Brine2D.Core - Core abstractions, animation, collision, tilemap, pooling
• Brine2D.Engine - Game loop, scene management, transitions
• Brine2D.Hosting - ASP.NET-style application hosting
• Brine2D.ECS - Entity Component System

Abstraction Layers

• Brine2D.Rendering - Rendering abstractions (IRenderer, ITexture, ICamera)
• Brine2D.Input - Input abstractions (IInputService, keyboard, mouse, gamepad)
• Brine2D.Audio - Audio abstractions (IAudioService, music, sound effects)

SDL3 Implementations

• Brine2D.Rendering.SDL - SDL3 GPU + Legacy renderer implementation
• Brine2D.Input.SDL - SDL3 input implementation
• Brine2D.Audio.SDL - SDL3_mixer audio implementation

ECS Bridges

• Brine2D.Rendering.ECS - Sprite rendering, particles, camera systems
• Brine2D.Input.ECS - Player controller system
• Brine2D.Audio.ECS - Audio playback system

Extensions

• Brine2D.UI - UI framework (buttons, inputs, dialogs, tabs, scroll views)

Meta-Package

• Brine2D.Desktop - All-in-one package (recommended for most users)

Requirements

• .NET 10 SDK
• SDL3 (included via SDL3-CS NuGet package)
• SDL3_image (for texture loading)
• SDL3_mixer (for audio playback)

Platform Support

SDL3 provides cross-platform support, but we've only tested on Windows so far. Community testing on other platforms is welcome!

Community & Support

• GitHub Discussions - Ask questions, share projects
• Issue Tracker - Report bugs, request features
• Documentation - Full guides and API reference
• Sample Projects - Learn by example

Roadmap

0.8.0-beta (Current Release)

• ✅ Texture atlasing with runtime packing
• ✅ 2D spatial audio system
• ✅ Advanced particle system (textures, rotation, trails, blend modes)
• ✅ SDL3 GPU and Legacy renderers stable

0.9.0-beta (Next Release)

• Post-processing effects (bloom, blur, etc.)
• Multi-threaded ECS systems
• Performance optimizations

1.0.0 (Stable Release)

• Stable, production-ready API
• Complete documentation and tutorials
• Full platform testing (Windows, Linux, macOS)
• Comprehensive sample games
• Migration guides from beta

See the full roadmap.

Contributing

We welcome contributions! Please see CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details

Credits

Built with:

• SDL3 - Simple DirectMedia Layer
• SDL3-CS - C# bindings for SDL3

Made with ❤️ by CrazyPickle Studios