Getting Started

This article explains how to install GFX-Next and prepare a project for development. It guides you through the required prerequisites, supported platforms, and available installation methods, whether you are building from source or using prebuilt packages. The article also covers initial project setup, directory structure, and configuration steps needed to get a development environment up and running. By the end, readers will have a working GFX-Next project, understand the recommended setup workflow, and be ready to start writing and experimenting with code.

This section explains the fundamental concepts behind GFX-Next.
It assumes familiarity with C#, object-oriented design, and general game development workflows.

GFX-Next is designed around explicit control, clear ownership, and minimal hidden behavior.
Understanding these core ideas is essential before diving into advanced features.

This article explains how gameplay logic, scene structure, and runtime behavior are organized in GFX-Next. It provides an overview of the core architectural concepts and shows how these elements interact to form a cohesive execution model. By outlining responsibilities, data flow, and lifecycle management, the article helps developers understand how to design, extend, and debug systems built on top of GFX-Next more effectively.

This article explains how assets, CPU/GPU memory, and resource ownership are handled in GFX-Next. It describes the complete lifecycle of resources, from loading and initialization to usage, synchronization, and eventual release. Special attention is given to how data is transferred between CPU and GPU memory, how ownership and access rules are defined, and how GFX-Next avoids common pitfalls such as memory leaks, race conditions, and redundant uploads. By clarifying these mechanisms, the article enables developers to manage resources efficiently, write performance-conscious code, and maintain a clear mental model of how data flows through the rendering and execution pipeline.

This article explains how geometry, materials, and rendering responsibilities are separated and combined in GFX-Next. It outlines the conceptual boundaries between mesh data, material definitions, and the rendering systems that process them, emphasizing how each concern is kept modular while still working together efficiently. The article discusses how geometry provides the raw structural data, materials define visual appearance and shading behavior, and rendering systems orchestrate the interaction between the two at runtime. It also highlights how this separation improves scalability, enables flexible rendering pipelines, and makes it easier to introduce new material models or rendering techniques without tightly coupling them to scene or asset data.

This article explains how rendering, render targets, and post processing are structured in GFX-Next. It provides a high-level view of the rendering pipeline, describing how render passes are organized, how intermediate and final render targets are managed, and how data flows between stages. The article details how render targets are created, reused, and synchronized across passes, ensuring both performance and correctness. It also explains the role of post-processing stages—such as tone mapping, color grading, and screen-space effects—and how they are composed in a flexible, extensible manner. By understanding this structure, developers gain insight into how GFX-Next balances visual quality, performance, and maintainability within its rendering architecture.

This article describes how a GFX-Next application is structured and how the game loop is executed. It breaks down the overall application layout, including initialization, system setup, and shutdown, and explains how these phases relate to the lifetime of

The following example shows a minimal but complete GFX-Next application structure. It demonstrates the essential building blocks required to start and run an application, including engine initialization, application setup, and the main execution loop. The example is intentionally kept small and focused, making it easy to understand how the different parts fit together while still reflecting real-world usage. By studying this structure, developers can quickly grasp the recommended entry points, control flow, and responsibilities within a typical GFX-Next application and use it as a foundation for more complex projects.