r3d/ROADMAP.md

R3D Roadmap

v0.5

• [ ] Create Shader Include System Implement an internal shader include system to reduce code duplication in built-in shaders. This could be integrated during the compilation phase, either in glsl_minifier or a dedicated pre-processing script.

• [ ] Revamp Forward Rendering The forward rendering pipeline needs to be revised, particularly to support SSAO. For SSAO, we need at least depth and normals before lighting. The best approach is to compute normals (and other material values by the way) during the depth pre-pass, which also provides the depth. After the depth pre-pass, we can compute SSAO and then apply it during the lighting pass, using the normals and material values generated in the pre-pass.

However, the pre-pass only applies to opaque rendering, so we will need a slightly different version of the forward shader for objects that are not pre-passed. This shader will compute normals and material values directly instead of extracting them from the pre-pass like with opaque objects.

This make the depth pre-pass mandatory for opaque forward rendering.

• [ ] Better SSAO Support Refactor R3D_End so that in forced forward mode, SSAO can also be applied to opaque objects stored in the forward draw calls array.

• [ ] Add ‘Light Affect’ Factor for Ambient Occlusion Currently, occlusion (from ORM or SSAO) only affects ambient light (simulated or IBL). Add a factor to control how much direct lighting is influenced too. While this is less physically accurate, it allows better artistic control. Note: Consider splitting this into two separate factors: one per material and another for SSAO globally.

• [ ] Better Shadow Quality and Performance Shadow rendering can currently be easily simplified and improved

v0.6

• [ ] Add Support for Custom Screen-Space Shaders (Post-Processing) Allow custom shaders to be used in screen-space for post-processing effects.

• [ ] Add Support for Custom Material Shaders Allow custom shaders per material. This will likely require a different approach for deferred vs. forward rendering. Deferred mode will probably offer fewer possibilities than forward mode for custom material shaders.

• [ ] Rework Scene Management for Directional Lights
  Currently, shadow projection for directional lights relies on scene bounds defined by R3D_SetSceneBounds(bounds). This function only exists for that purpose, which makes the system unclear and inflexible. It would be better to design a more natural way to handle shadow projection for directional lights.

• [ ] Better logs Add better logs for initialization, shutdown, loading operations, and failures.

v0.7

• [ ] Improve Shadow Map Management Instead of using one shadow map per light, implement an internal batching system with a 2D texture array and Sample2DArray in shaders. Note: This would remove per-light independent shadow map resolutions.

• [ ] Implement Cascaded Shadow Maps (CSM) Add CSM support for directional lights.

• [ ] Make a Wiki Add wiki pages to the Github repository.

Note: v0.7 features are still incomplete.

v0.7

• Support for OpenGL ES Likely add support for OpenGL ES.

Ideas (Not Planned Yet)

• After implementing Sampler2DArray for shadow maps, explore using UBOs for lights. Evaluate whether this is more efficient than the current approach.
• Provide an easy way to configure the number of lights in forward shaders (preferably runtime-configurable).
• Implement a system to save loaded skyboxes together with their generated irradiance and prefiltered textures for later reloading.
• Improve support for shadow/transparency interaction (e.g., colored shadows).