Architecture Overview

Hades is split into a small set of core areas so runtime systems, rendering, and editor code stay easy to trace.

• ECS core

  src/engine/core/ecs

  Entity, component, and system management primitives. Includes scene serialization (JSON), world utilities, and the entity factory.

• Components

  src/engine/components

  Data-only gameplay and render state definitions. 13 component types covering transforms, rendering, audio, scripting, and metadata.

• Systems

  src/engine/systems

  Runtime behavior that operates across component sets. Three systems: AudioSystem, MovementSystem, RenderSystem.

• Rendering

  src/engine/rendering

  Vulkan-based renderer with ImGui integration, software model preview rasterizer, and vector text geometry generation.

• Audio

  src/engine/audio

  miniaudio-based audio engine with 4-bus mixing (Master, Music, Sfx, Voice) and 3D spatial audio support.

• Scripting Runtime

  src/engine/runtime

  In-process C# scripting via the .NET CoreCLR hosting API. Handles script compilation (dotnet build), CLR embedding (hostfxr), and managed-to-native interop using [UnmanagedCallersOnly] function pointers. See Scripting for details.

• Editor

  src/editor

  ImGui-based editor with workspace management, entity hierarchy, scene viewport with gizmos, inspector panels, integrated script editor, debug console, play mode, and a plugin system for custom panels.

• GUI

  src/engine/gui

  Menu bar abstraction and ImGui GUI implementation used by the editor.

Module Map

src/
  engine/
    core/ecs/         Entity, Component, System managers, serialization, world utils
    components/       13 data-only component types
    systems/          AudioSystem, MovementSystem, RenderSystem
    rendering/        VulkanRenderer, model preview, vector text
    audio/            AudioEngine (miniaudio wrapper)
    runtime/          ScriptRuntime, ClrHost, subprocess, dotnet config
    gui/              GUI / ImGui abstraction
  editor/
    editor.cpp/hpp    Core editor: render loop, menus, dock layout, logging API
    editor_scene.cpp  Scene viewport, settings window, debug console
    editor_entities.cpp  Entity CRUD, play mode start/stop
    editor_inspector.cpp  Properties and components panels
    editor_workspace.cpp  Workspace tree, script editor, background compilation
    editor_plugins.cpp  Built-in plugin registration
    window_manager.cpp  SDL/Vulkan window, event loop, detached windows
    detached_play_window.cpp  Play mode rendering window
    plugins/          EditorPlugin base class and registration macros
    types.h           EditorState, DebugMessage, enums

Reading Order

Start here for the module map, then use the generated class relationship page when you need to trace concrete dependencies between types.

Diagram Generation

The class relationships page is generated from project headers in src/:

python3 scripts/generate_class_diagram.py

The generator detects:

• inheritance (A <|-- B)
• usage references inside class/struct bodies (A --> B : uses)