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	Medium	Camera system refactored, RenderPass evolving
Scene Graph	Alpha	Medium	CameraSceneNode integration, transforms stable
Input	Alpha	Medium	Gamepad supported; Keyboard minimal (ESC only); Mouse pending
Math	Alpha	Low	Missing quaternions & SIMD acceleration
Windowing	Alpha	High	GLFW integration stable
Logging	Alpha	High	Scoped logger & ImGui sinks stable
ImGui	Alpha	Medium	Backend & Widgets (Log, Camera, Gamepad) added
Utilities	Alpha	High	FramePacer, Stopwatch, Units system added

Milestones & Progress

Milestone	State	Due	Progress	Description
milestone_1	Closed	2025-10-20	100%	Application layer: event system, input, low level API interfaces
milestone_2	Closed	2025-12-12	100%	Functional rendering engine; Camera system refactor; ImGui tooling
milestone_3	In Progress	2025-12-22	10%	Main physics & player controls; shooting mechanisms
milestone_5	Planned	2026-02-02	0%	Playable prototype; tuned mechanics, controls & graphics
milestone_6	Planned	2026-03-16	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_3)

Goals for the next phase:

1. Physics Integration: Basic collision detection and response.
2. Player Controls: Refine spaceship movement (momentum, rotation).
3. Game Mechanics: Shooting, health, and scoring systems.
4. Math Extensions: Quaternions for robust rotation handling.
5. Asset Pipeline: Basic model loading improvements.

Upcoming Sequence

1. milestone_5: Integrate game mechanics into a playable prototype
2. 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

Repository Stats

Metric	Value
Stars	2
Forks	1
Open Issues	26
Last Commit	2025-12-10

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)

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Last updated: 2025-12-13 • Source phase: alpha • Track changes in CHANGELOG