Roadmap

Development Roadmap

An honest view of where Nova-3D is today and where it is heading. This is a long-term project, not a sprint.

Honest Status Nova-3D is in early prototype stage. The architecture works and a 3D demo runs, but many engine systems are not yet built. There are no release dates — features are added when examples need them.

The development approach: build a small working vertical slice first, then stabilize the foundation, then expand the API incrementally. Every phase is driven by an example that needs the next feature.

■ Phase 0 — Vertical Slice

✓ Complete
✓ Working 3D rendering pipeline
✓ Basic scene graph (Scene, Node, Component)
✓ Camera component
✓ Keyboard and mouse input via SDL3
✓ Application and Engine lifecycle
✓ Hello World and Cube 3D demo examples
✓ Linux and Windows desktop builds
✓ Internal CNA adapter hidden from public API

◆ Phase 1 — Foundation Stabilization

⌛ In Progress
⌛ Audit and align public API against Urho3D-style conventions
⌛ Remove non-Urho3D-style methods from public headers
⌛ Ensure CNA, sharp-runtime, EasyGL never leak into public headers
⌛ Consistent include layout (Nova3D/Math/, Nova3D/Input/, etc.)
○ Cube demo refactored to use scene graph style API
○ CMake dependencies all expressed as PRIVATE
○ Clean build from a fresh checkout

△ Phase 2 — Expanded Examples & Core API

○ Planned
○ Camera movement example
○ Multiple scene nodes example
○ Light and material example
○ Textured cube example
○ Static model loading
○ Resource cache system
○ Basic material system (colors, textures)
○ Directional and point lights

○ Phase 3 — Platform Expansion

○ Planned
○ Validate Android build end-to-end
○ Web / Emscripten build
○ Touch input for Android and web
○ Platform-specific entry points cleaned up
○ Running demo on Android device
○ Web demo publicly accessible

▼ Phase 4 — Game Prototype

… Future
○ Simple collision detection
○ Basic animation system
○ Audio system (sound effects, music)
○ Level loading
○ Debug drawing utilities
○ Speedy Blupi 3D prototype running on Nova-3D

★ Phase 5 — Tooling & Documentation

… Future
○ Full API reference documentation (Doxygen)
○ Example progression fully documented
○ Scripting integration (optional layer)
○ Scene editor / inspector tooling
○ CI/CD pipeline for all platforms

Non-Goals

These are explicitly out of scope, at least for now:

  • Porting all of Urho3D internals into Nova-3D
  • A complete production-grade renderer
  • Full physics engine
  • Adding Urho3D or Nova-3D concepts into CNA (CNA stays XNA-like)
  • Exposing CNA/sharp-runtime in the public Nova-3D API
  • Convenience API that doesn't match Urho3D-style conventions
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