Deterministic core
A headless, pure-C# simulation with all-int / fixed-point state where possible. Save/load is round-trip safe, and the determinism keeps the door open for lockstep multiplayer.
Structure-of-Arrays
SoA data stores with swap-remove and a stable id → slot mapping. Systems run single-pass per tick with no per-frame allocations.
Spatial grids
Per-attacker scan radius over spatial grids keeps combat target-acquisition cost near-constant per unit, even at high unit counts.
GPU instancing
Units, building pieces, shadows, and projectiles render through MultiMesh — a single draw call per bucket — with anti-cull rects so nothing gets erased.
Off-thread generation
Terrain and decoration generation run off the main thread, deterministically, so a massive world can stream up without stalling the frame.
Always-on profiler
A permanent in-engine profiler and a headless benchmark harness measure every system. The rule on the project: don't optimize without the overlay open.
The Stack
- Engine: Godot 4.6 (mono / .NET) for an iso-2D client.
- Language: C# 12 on .NET 10.
- Architecture: a no-engine C# game library holding the simulation, with the client referencing it one-way and reading its spans.
- Tooling: a sprite-baking pipeline turns 3D models into GPU-instanced 2D units, plus a headless bench harness for sim and render.
The current performance floor is roughly 10,000 active units at a 30 Hz sim and 60 FPS render, with combat, projectiles, and air all live — and the next lever is moving the sim onto a background thread with double-buffered snapshot interpolation.