June 2025 performance highlights for HawkEngine_Warhammer40K. Delivered a set of core gameplay enhancements, visual refinements, and reliability fixes across animation, destruction visuals, boss mechanics, and scene/asset management. The work focused on improving player experience, frame-rate stability, and development efficiency through robust asset handling and lifecycle controls, while addressing key bugs that impacted VFX linkage and gameplay toggles. Key features delivered and the business value: - Animation and Boss Fight Enhancements: Non-blending single-play animation support and refined boss animations/attack patterns to improve combat readability and visual fidelity, enabling more predictable boss encounters and smoother player feedback. Commits include: 3caf07744e180a2cec6acfc3d750c46f050408cf (animation no loop on no blending animations); db64149ee4393fc9182a3907d750c46f050408cf (Tail now unburrows once). - Destructible Environments and Visuals: Added destruction visuals for wooden boxes and new destructible prefabs/ visuals to enhance environmental interaction and player reward clarity. Commits include: 0daa176808353c02eab85c58acac287a1cba4183 (Boxes now have a destruction fbx); f7ae54a34415ecef55e3099d577d157f39e5fc1a (new boxes and medkits). - MetalSlide Boss Mechanics and Slam Hitbox: Implemented MetalSlide prefab usage in boss encounters and improved Slam hitbox dimensions/placement for more consistent hit registration and player feedback. Commits include: ae5f77ddd41aa2d2c9458d684314f33b4d2454a3 (Metal slide fix); 25a2a3611164c366d85e166aa1166f6b6fd5c79a (Improved Slam attack). - Scene Data Optimization and Asset Management: Refactored and optimized scene data and assets, including medkit prefab updates and multiple scene object transforms, to improve performance and loading efficiency. Commits include: e369432d1e2200451523681059ce58f6cb6a53d8 (now medkdits work); 0e2e53dc5e457c3185d277b116826672cd9a4100_chunk_1 (Drop manager + boxes). - Automated Scene Transitions and VFX Lifecycle: Added automated scene transitions after Lose/Win to MainMenu and integrated VFX lifecycle control via StopVFX to reduce lingering effects and improve framerate consistency. Commits include: 49300f1442f4ced6a0c8104f7fa1e4591e6394e1 (Timertomenu); c867fded27e998635fa536394593c757eda3338e (assembly). Major bugs fixed: - Destruction VFX naming robustness: Fixed incorrect VFX linkage when naming schemes differed, ensuring visuals align with destroyed objects. Commit: 9cafe2de8cbbec50b536904f536799a9ece74091 (Guarrada historica). - God Mode Bypass and Input Cleanup: Corrected god mode ammo bypass and removed unused input bindings for scene loading and volume cycling to reduce accidental triggers and streamline controls. Commit: d68f413df3954605771ac93b5ba2a80503ff5626 (Fixed god mode and health shortcut). Overall impact and accomplishments: - Enhanced player experience through higher-fidelity animation, precise boss mechanics, and responsive environmental interactions. - Improved performance and stability via scene/data optimization and automated transitions, reducing load times and unnecessary VFX processing. - Strengthened code quality and maintainability through lifecycle controls (StopVFX) and input cleanup, enabling faster future iterations. Technologies/skills demonstrated: - Unity-based gameplay programming (C#), prefabs, and scene management - Visual effects integration and lifecycle control (VFX Stop Script) - Environmental destruction systems and asset management - Performance optimization through data/asset refactoring and automated scene transitions - Debugging and fixes for edge cases in VFX linkage and input handling.

Concise May 2025 monthly summary for HawkEngine_Warhammer40K focused on delivering high-value tooling and visuals. Delivered two key features to improve scene interaction and scriptability: (1) Mouse picking and Scene UI Improvement – refined selection to the nearest object, simplified logic, and UI layout tweaks in ImGui.ini for better window positioning. (2) ParticleFX Script Exposure – exposed SetParticleStartRotation to C# bindings to empower scripts to control starting rotation for particle effects. These changes enhance accuracy in scene interactions, reduce UI friction for designers, and enable richer visuals in demos. Overall, these efforts reduce debugging overhead and set the stage for faster iteration in future sprints.

April 2025 performance summary for HawkEngine_Warhammer40K: Delivered visible feature enhancements, expanded rendering capabilities, and strengthened stability across the particle system and core editors. Implemented cross-language integrations and improved UX for artists and engineers while driving key business value through reliability and visual polish.

Summary: In March 2025, we delivered a cohesive skeletal animation core with runtime IMGUI switching, naming, and a 10x+ performance improvement, increasing max bones to 200 and integrating with the main branch. Automated loading of Rabbit animated assets streamlined the asset pipeline. C# integration advanced runtime scripting for animation control, including new methods and blending for smoother transitions. The skeletal animation work was merged into the main branch with merge fixes, stabilizing the animation pipeline. Additional wins include frustum rendering fixes, FPS cap and indicator, and delta-time stabilization, plus environment collisions in the default scene for realistic interaction. UX/tooling enhancements include designer interface improvements and play modes (play on awake, play once with fixed duration). Major bug fixes addressed material.inl, rabbit kill logic, rendering of scripts outside camera view, and bandage behavior. Overall impact: faster feature delivery, more reliable animations and gameplay, and measurable improvements in performance and stability across rendering and input subsystems.

February 2025 performance summary for MarcoDiModica/HawkEngine_Warhammer40K. This month focused on delivering foundational input and rendering capabilities, stabilizing the engine, and advancing animation/shader workflows to enable richer, more reliable gameplay experiences. Key initiatives included groundwork for controller input and gamepad integration, improvements to the rendering pipeline, and targeted fixes to boost reliability during runtime. The team also advanced cross-feature integration by merging particle-system work with main branch and maturing controller support across the engine, setting the stage for faster iteration and feature development in March.

January 2025 (2025-01) monthly summary for MarcoDiModica/HawkEngine_Warhammer40K. Focused on editor UX improvements, camera/navigation stability, rendering quality, and repository hygiene. Key features delivered include editor object manipulation and selection UX improvements; camera controls adjustments; infinite camera movement via mouse wrapping; and texture mipmapping support. Major bug fix: initialization order fix and repository hygiene improvements (updated gitignore to exclude build artifacts). Overall impact: reduced editor friction, improved accuracy and responsiveness in tooling, enhanced texture quality and rendering performance, and cleaner build/repo state enabling faster iteration and fewer merge issues. Technologies/skills demonstrated: editor tooling UX, input and camera systems, rendering (mipmapping/texture filtering), C++ engine development, and build/repo hygiene.

December 2024 delivered a suite of features and stability improvements across HawkEngine_Warhammer40K and Ruinseeker. Key work focused on expanding asset pipelines with FBX loading via ModelImporter, enabling color-aware materials, shader-based color blending, camera rendering enhancements, and a refactored lighting system with multi-light support. UX improvements included drag-and-drop texture import and a stabilized UIInspector. Minor project cleanup was performed in Ruinseeker to reset state and reduce clutter. Collectively, these changes improve asset integration speed, render fidelity, and developer/artist productivity, while reducing build-time warnings and runtime crashes.

November 2024 performance highlights for HawkEngine_Warhammer40K: Delivered foundational editor enhancements and shader pipeline, improved in-editor scene rendering, object manipulation tools, and refined inspector UX; fixed a compilation error and stabilized the build.

October 2024 monthly summary for MarcoDiModica/HawkEngine_Warhammer40K. Focused on delivering a robust editor experience, reliable asset workflows, and stable runtime controls to accelerate scene composition and iteration for the Warhammer 40K project. Core work spanned input, rendering, asset management, and UI improvements, with a strong emphasis on business value: faster scene setup, smoother asset import, and fewer runtime/editor crashes. Key features delivered: - Ray Picking and Object Selection: Implemented ray casting-based picking with mouse-to-world mapping and ray-triangle intersection tests, enabling precise selection of 3D objects in the scene. (Commits include: 5537fcc369a23bd777e32440953cc5ae5f54e004; 2f1a409fbc6bb59b4ef4ec7dd215a854f0972a56) - Texture Loading, Materials, and Drag-and-Drop Asset Management: Established texture loading and rendering for MeshRenderer, material-based texture application, and a drag-and-drop workflow for PNG/DDS textures into the editor, including default texture handling on import and robustness for drop operations. (Commits include: fd672dc277f53680199f0b2092406d9760ed4e5b; e675ed0a24b556cd91fe032617097d262621a231; 6e3a6c0b52466282425eb80abdb26d149e9a701e; b14d9470518ae7b1581e1c0160b629a0a099cc5c; 8284f12105c15c3215bc0b227a98dd902eb7d8cb; 319011aacd74cfc07baa4326e7e6b3608889e02a; 197a319e8717c35e7517ecc786fa5ff998724dd1) - Editor UI Enhancements and Primitive Creation: Overhauled Hierarchy/Inspector panels, improved main menu, and added in-editor creation of primitive shapes (cubes, spheres, planes) to streamline scene composition and asset management. (Commits include: dcbb032e41fd2b1ae692cb9a5376ffa847ca998e; dcb54e0c93a0153bfce9ef401aa212eb4d4828ba; 71f0f837c67cfa369e764cb9f276e8ed29489b85; 7e22afe3144add6cd6bbff7efde4e0ddc5a16b63; 8ab01a7ff8c2b2d196f17d08d784495201c22db4) - Camera Controls and Navigation Enhancements: Implemented WASD-based navigation, LookAt targeting, Unity-like movement/rotation semantics, and an orbital mode, along with stability fixes to prevent crashes during camera operations. (Commits include: e4d2c06bff18d4dd36efdde60c0dc1030cb46d14; 856a929b5ee2822d2bc47ad65f1cc5e620a2d366; 8943379ee321a5322961f269ab45126dae65c3ef) - Mesh System Enhancements: Enhanced mesh handling with normal calculation, improved loading, and debugging drawing, plus observable mesh loading data and integration notes (including Assimp LOGs). (Commits include: 42f5ddc771a6dcfecbc6c151eb7372f6a6235774; de11e856a04040fad9edccf5adb52564cdf8b756) Major bugs fixed: - Stability: Resolved camera operation crashes and other crash vectors identified during editor and runtime usage (e.g., camera navigation crashes). Final release bug fixes completed to stabilize workflow. (Relevant commits: 8943379ee321a5322961f269ab45126dae65c3ef; 7e22afe3144add6cd6bbff7efde4e0ddc5a16b63) - Drag-and-drop and texture import robustness: Fixed edge cases in texture drops, ensuring hovered/object-targeted texture assignment and default texture fallback on import. (Multiple commits listed above) - Texture import pipeline: Fixed texture loading and application to materials to prevent rendering gaps or misapplied textures. (Commits listed under Texture Loading category) Overall impact and accomplishments: - Accelerated scene creation and iteration by enabling direct primitive creation from the UI, robust asset import with drag-and-drop, and more intuitive scene hierarchy management. - Significantly improved editor stability and runtime reliability through targeted crash fixes, particularly in camera/navigation and editor interactions. - Enhanced visual fidelity and material workflow with texture pipelines, default textures on import, and a more predictable asset management experience. - Strengthened debugging capabilities for mesh loading via explicit Assimp integration logs and observable loading data. Technologies and skills demonstrated: - Real-time input and rendering concepts: ray casting, ray-triangle intersection, bounding-box tests, and mouse-to-world mapping. - Asset pipelines: texture loading, material associations, drag-and-drop UX, and default texture fallbacks. - Editor architecture: Hierarchy/Inspector UI, main menu enhancements, and in-editor primitive creation. - Camera systems: WASD navigation, LookAt targeting, Unity-like movement semantics, orbital mode, and crash prevention techniques. - Mesh processing: normal calculation, improved loading, debugging visuals, and integration with mesh import tooling (Assimp) for deeper observability.