v0.12.0

Welcome!

Tofu Engine is a free and open self-contained game-engine suitable for small-to-mid 2D projects.

It is entirely self-contained, as no additional runtime modules/libraries required (system-wide libraries excluded). Everything is bundled in the engine executable.

It has been developed entirely in C99 (and some Lua scripts) on Linux, aiming to be as portable as possible. This resulted in being multi-platform through cross-compilation (Windows, Linux and Raspberry-Pi systems are supported – macOS isn’t currently on the radar, but a WebAssembly version might appear be in a not so distant future).

The engine is in perpetual work-in-progress state, with new features being added and updates being applied. The core API, however, can be considered stable.

Inspirations

Tofu Engine is an original software, result of the experience gained from ~30 years in programming on a broad range of platforms (some concept even stems back to ancient platforms like the Amiga and the SNES, and arcane languages like AMOS and Blitz BASIC 2). However, it has also been influenced by modern similar/other softwares in one way or another.

Features

Fully scripted in Lua.
Straight multimedia support, no intermediate third-party libraries (OpenGL 2.1 required).
Windowed/fullscreen display with best-fit integer automatic scaling.
Array of predefined common/famous resolutions (e.g. C64, Capcom’s arcades, Nintendo DS, Sony PSP, etc…).
Internal software renderer. OpenGL is used only to present the framebuffer to the user (and apply post-process effects).
Fixed- and variable-size Blitter OBjects drawing with rotation/scaling/flipping.
Support for both proportional and non-proportional bitmap based fonts (alphabet subset can be specified, if required).
Sprite batching for optimized (ehm) batch drawing.
Tiles drawing with offset/scaling/flipping.
Palette based graphics with up to 256 colors.
Banked palette support w/ color bias during VRAM transfer.
Predefined library of 8/16/32/64 colors palettes.
Automatic nearest-matching-color palette indexing of RGBA8888 images.
Per-color re-indexing (shifting) and transparency, affecting drawing operations (both per-draw and during VRAM transfer).
Multiple canvas, with drawing state stack support.
SNES’ Mode7-like transforms, with scan-line based (HDMA) changes.
Amiga’s Copper-like programs, with pixel-wide resolution.
Image programmable copy functions, to implement script-shaders.
Image stencil copy function, with used definable threshold function.
Image blend copy, with user definable blending function (repeat, add, sub, multiply, min, max).
Post-effect display-wise fragment shaders.
Library of “retro-feel” post-effects (LCD, CRT, color-blindness, etc…).
Audio support w/ real time sound streaming on a separate thread.
On-the-fly audio mixing w/ per voice looping/panning/balance/gain/speed control.
Static and streamed audio data playback (FLAC format).
Module playback support (MOD, S3M, XM, and IT).
Programmable timers support.
Ready-to-use 2D vector class and higher-order iterators.
Customizable application icon.
Support for archived games, via custom “packed” format (w/ optional encryption). Multiple archives are supported, with root folder override.
Resource manager w/ caching I/O and single instance object loading/reuse.
Game-controller support (w/ D-PAD and mouse emulation) w/ keyboard/mouse fallback if not available.
Screen capture and recording.
Framebuffer offsetting (e.g. for screen-shaking effect).
Out-of-the-box ‘tweening functions support (optimized Penner’s set).
Noise generators (perlin, simple, and cellular).
Logging facility (w/ selectable severity level).
Run-time signature check for Lua’s API functions (debug build). Also, UDTs are typed-checked with a custom RTTI implementation.
Crash screen (debug build).
Game window focus detection (for game-pause).
Real-time performance statistics (FPS and frame times) and resource usage (memory).
User-dependent I/O functions to load/store game data.
Configuration override through command-line arguments.