Talon Engine

Talon Engine is a lightweight, modular 2D game engine written in C++ using SDL2. Inspired by Unity, designed from scratch, and built with pure muscle.

Tech Stack

Features

• GameObject + Component System Inspired by Unity, every object is modular, dynamic, and follows a clean lifecycle: Awake(), Start(), Update().

• Input System Handles real-time keyboard input (WASD, spacebar, Shift) using SDL2's raw scancodes.

• Animator with Frame Events Spritesheet-based animation with timing control, direction switching, and frame-triggered callbacks (std::function per frame).

• SpriteRenderer Renders sprites with SetSourceRect() support for pixel-perfect control over frames and spritesheets.

• Rigidbody2D Physics

  • Gravity, drag, velocity, acceleration
  • AddForce() and ApplyImpulse()
  • Fully frame-based physics update with jump support

• BoxCollider Collision detection with offset support, overlap handling.

• CollisionManager Handles collision resolution and prediction before applying movement.

• Vector2 Math Library Clean utility methods like Normalize(), Length(), Dot(), and operator overloads.

• Folder-based project layout Organized includes, systems, and components — Visual Studio–friendly.

• Built From Scratch No engine templates, no frameworks — just pure C++ and SDL2.

• Editor UI with ImGui

  • Dockable panels: Hierarchy, Inspector, Console, Scene
  • Right-click context menus (rename, delete, duplicate, drag & drop parenting)
  • Live editing of GameObject properties and components
  • Log filtering, search, and source-file trace with timestamps

• Component System with Custom Scripting

  • Base MindCore system with full lifecycle (Awake, Start, Update, OnDestroy)
  • Register custom user scripts using the built-in ComponentFactory
  • Serialize/deserialize custom and built-in components to JSON
  • Prioritized component update order

• Scene System & JSON Serialization

  • Save and load scenes to JSON
  • Each GameObject has UUID + parent/child hierarchy
  • Automatic component linking and factory-based creation
  • Supports prefab-like behavior

• Play/Edit Mode Switching

  • Seamless toggle between editing and runtime mode
  • Automatic scene state restoration after exiting Play mode

Editor UI

Hierarchy Panel

The hierarchy panel displays your scene structure in a tree view, allowing you to organize GameObjects with parent-child relationships.

Hierarchy Context Menu

Right-click on any GameObject to access options like rename, delete, duplicate, and more.

Inspector Panel

The inspector allows you to view and edit properties of selected GameObjects and their components in real-time.

Adding Components

Easily add new components to GameObjects through the inspector's "Add Component" menu.

Console Panel

The console displays log messages with filtering, timestamps, and source file information for debugging.

How Custom Components Work

Custom components inherit from MindCore and are registered using:

REGISTER_COMPONENT(MyCustomScript)

Then registered like this:

ComponentFactory::Instance().Register("MyCustomScript", MyCustomScript::Create);

To support saving/loading, implement:

void Serialize(nlohmann::json& json) override;
void Deserialize(const nlohmann::json& json) override;

Requirements

• C++17 or higher
• Visual Studio (recommended)
• vcpkg
• SDL2
• Doxygen (for generating documentation)
• Graphviz (optional, for UML-style diagrams in Doxygen)

Getting Started

Follow these steps to build and run Talon Engine locally.

1. Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/severmanolescu/Talon.git

2. Install Dependencies with vcpkg

If you don't have vcpkg installed yet:

git clone https://github.com/microsoft/vcpkg.git
cd vcpkg
./bootstrap-vcpkg.bat

Then install SDL2 and SDL2-Image:

vcpkg install sdl2 sdl2-image

** If both repositories are cloned in the same directory you can skip step 3 and 4!**

3. Open the Project in Visual Studio

• Open Talon.sln

• Go to Project Properties > VC++ Directories

• Add:

  • Include Directories: C:\path\to\vcpkg\installed\x64-windows\include

  • Library Directories: C:\path\to\vcpkg\installed\x64-windows\lib

4. Link SDL2 Libraries

Go to Project Properties > Linker > Input > Additional Dependencies, and add:

SDL2.lib SDL2main.lib SDL2_image.lib

** Copy all the dlls from C:\path\to\vcpkg\installed\x64-windows\bin next to the .exe at runtime**

Generate Documentation (Optional)

1. Install Doxygen Download and install from: Doxygen

2. Install Graphviz Download and install from: Graphviz

3. **Set the DOT path ** After installing Graphviz open Doxyfile file and put into DOT_PATH: C:\Program Files\Graphviz\bin

4. Generate Docs: ./run_doxygen.bat

5. Then open html/index.html in your browser.