Project Status: Alpha

Current Phase: Alpha – The core architecture is under active development. APIs may change without deprecation warnings.

What Alpha Means

During the alpha phase we focus on:

• Establishing fundamental subsystems (rendering, scene graph, input, math)
• Iterating quickly on API surface without stability guarantees
• Identifying performance bottlenecks early
• Building example coverage + test foundation

Not guaranteed yet:

• API backward compatibility
• Performance optimization
• Full platform parity
• Complete math feature set (quaternions, SIMD still missing)

Stability Overview

Module	Phase	Relative Stability	Notes
Rendering	Alpha	Low	RenderPass & material pipeline evolving
Scene Graph	Alpha	Medium	Transforms & hierarchy stable, culling pending
Input	Alpha	Medium	Keyboard/mouse OK, gamepad refinements pending
Math	Alpha	Low	Missing quaternions & SIMD acceleration
Windowing	Alpha	Medium	GLFW integration functional
Logging	Alpha	Medium	Scoped logger integrated
Utilities	Alpha	Medium	GUID + file I/O stable

Milestones & Progress

Milestone	State	Due	Progress	Description
milestone_1	Closed	2025-10-20	3 / 3 (100%)	Application layer: event system, input, low level API interfaces
milestone_2	In Progress	2025-11-17	3 / 6 (50%)	Functional rendering engine; draft main screen (player view)
milestone_3	Planned	2025-12-22	0 / 1 (0%)	Main physics & player controls; shooting mechanisms
milestone_5	Planned	2026-02-02	0 / 1 (0%)	Playable prototype; tuned mechanics, controls & graphics
milestone_6	Planned	2026-03-16	0 / 5 (0%)	Project presentation & ~20 page paper

Interpretation

• Progress column lists closed issues vs total (open + closed) at time of snapshot.
• Milestones beyond the current date are marked Planned; active milestone shows "In Progress".
• Closed milestone_1 forms the historical baseline for the Alpha phase.

Current Focus (milestone_2)

Remaining goals before completion:

1. Rendering pipeline consolidation
2. Material / shader lifecycle cleanup
3. Initial performance profiling
4. (Issues still open) Refactor Renderable to use RenderPrototype
5. AABB support for Mesh / SceneNode
6. Shader-side matrix computation (model/view/world)

Upcoming Sequence

1. milestone_3: Math extensions (quaternions, SIMD), camera polish & frustum culling, basic asset pipeline
2. milestone_5: Integrate game mechanics into a playable prototype
3. milestone_6: Formal documentation & presentation (paper, website refinement)

Beta Criteria (Exit Alpha)

• Public API stability policy documented
• Core modules (rendering, input, scene) have stable interfaces
• Math feature completeness (quaternions, transforms, basic collision primitives)
• Continuous integration green across platforms

Detailed Change History

For a complete list of all changes, breaking changes, and migration guides, see:

👉 View Full CHANGELOG

The changelog is automatically synchronized from the repository root and follows the Keep a Changelog format.

Guidance for Users

If you depend on helios during alpha:

• Pin to a specific commit hash in your build scripts
• Expect breaking changes (see CHANGELOG for migration guides)
• Open issues for unclear APIs or missing extension points

Contributing in Alpha

• Prefer small, well-scoped PRs
• Mark breaking proposals with refactor!: or feat!: in commits
• Add CHANGELOG entries under [Unreleased]
• Include minimal tests even for experimental code

Feedback & Discussion

• Use GitHub Discussions for architectural questions
• Label issues with feedback for API clarity concerns
• Performance notes welcome (profiling traces, flamegraphs)

Next Steps

• Introduce experimental stability annotations in docs (EXPERIMENTAL badge)
• Add benchmark suite under benchmarks/
• Expand math module (quaternions first)

---

Last updated: 2025-11-14 • Source phase: alpha • Track changes in CHANGELOG