Work on the PAZ Engine began in the fall of 2014, inspired by the apparent lack of a high-performing, versatile and free game engine on the internet. Writing this engine has served as both a learning experience and an opportunity to create the most well-suited infrastructure for quickly and effectively developing our own video games and simulation projects. The first open-source release is scheduled for fall 2017, version 0.1. The engine’s source is written in C++, and it typically uses two simultaneous threads to ensure maximum time-precision for calculations.
Version 1.0 of the PAZ Engine will provide support for input handling, state management, entities, audio and 3D graphics. The engine makes minimal use of third-party libraries, currently requiring only GLFW, GLEW and GLM, all of which are used to streamline the cross-platform graphics process. There is also support for optional text rendering using FreeType. The logic and physics systems use our own PAZ Math Library, and the PAZ Physics Library can be integrated easily. (PAZ Engine 1.0 is expected to also use an as-yet-undecided audio library.) The PAZ Engine is being designed so that software that is written using the engine can be ported between Windows, Mac OS and Linux without requiring any modification.
The PAZ Engine’s broad list of capabilities means that it can be used for any type of simulation software, from video games to high-precision simulations. To see more of what the PAZ Engine can do, take a look at our upcoming games and demo programs.