❄️ OpenGL Real-Time Strategy Project
A high-performance C++/OpenGL RTS Engine featuring procedural terrain, skeletal animations, and dynamic environment deformation.
🚀 Overview
This project is a custom-built Real-Time Strategy (RTS) engine developed for the Graphics and Virtual Reality course (February 2026) that was graded with a perfect scrore (10/10). It demonstrates advanced computer graphics techniques, including procedural world generation, unit AI, and optimized rendering for massive unit counts.
The game is set in a winter landscape where players manage resources, construct buildings with gradual visual progression, and command an army of animated skeletal units.
🛠 Core Technical Features
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Procedural Terrain & Environment
Heightmap Generation: Uses a deterministic Hash function combined with Noise (Hermite Curve/Smoothstep) and multiple octaves to create realistic hills and valleys.
Diagonal Symmetry: Ensures perfectly fair maps for competitive play by mirroring the terrain across the diagonal axis.
Dynamic Deformation: * Flattening: Terrain automatically levels out when buildings are placed.
Craters: Explosions create permanent, bell-curved craters in the geometry.
Snow Trails: A dynamic SnowTrailMap uses vertex displacement to create physical ruts in the snow where units walk, with a "healing" shader that gradually refills trails over time.
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Advanced Graphics Pipeline
Skeletal Animation (Skinning): Full support for .fbx/.obj animated models via Assimp. Every vertex is influenced by up to 4 bones with linear interpolation (Lerp) between keyframes.
Geometry Instancing: Allows rendering hundreds of workers, warriors, and mages with minimal Draw Calls. Units are batched by state (IDLE, WALK, ATTACK) to share bone matrices efficiently.
Optimized Rendering: * Frustum Culling: Uses 6 clipping planes to discard objects outside the camera's view.
Shadow Mapping: Directional shadows with PCF (Percentage Closer Filtering) for soft edges and slope-scaled bias to prevent shadow acne.
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Navigation & AI
A* Pathfinding: Implements the A-Star algorithm with a priority queue for optimal pathing.
Navigation Grid: A spatial memory system that handles obstacle avoidance for buildings, trees, and rocks.
Smart Sliding Logic: Units "slide" along walls and obstacles rather than getting stuck when their path is partially blocked.
Finite State Machine (FSM): Units autonomously transition between IDLE, MOVING, GATHERING, and ATTACKING states.
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Gameplay Systems
Economy: Resource tracking for Wood and Rock.
Construction: Buildings rise gradually from the ground using a custom Clipping Shader based on construction progress.
Combat: Melee units engage in close-quarters combat, while Mages utilize a Particle System for energy beams and impact effects.
🎮 Controls
Key/Action Function
W, A, S, D Move Camera (XZ Plane)
Mouse Scroll Zoom to Cursor (Raycasting)
Edge Panning Move camera by touching screen edges
Left Click & Drag Selection Box (Drag-select units)
Right Click Move Units / Target Resource / Attack Building
G (Warrior) Trigger Explosion & Terrain Deformation
C Toggle 3rd Person POV (Follow Unit)
F1 Toggle Depth Map View (Debug)
🏗 Tech Stack
Language: C++
Graphics API: OpenGL 3.3+ (Core Profile)
Libraries: * GLFW / GLEW: Window management and extension loading.
GLM: Mathematical operations (Matrices, Vectors).
Assimp: 3D Model and Animation loading.
SOIL / Texture Loaders: Image processing.
📸 Gallery
Dynamic Construction
Pathfinding & Formations
