The demo images look impressively realistic, congratulations. It would be interesting to see some fps figures, including both sides: maximal realism on "gamer PC" hardware… but also reduced detail compromise on average hardware, which is relatively low end.
That being said, I suspect that the following quote would be a major hindrance for a lot of developers looking for a rendering engine:
> "This code base will not work on MacOS. Linux and Windows should both be fine so long as the graphics driver supports OpenGL 4.6 (…)"
These days, most projects/developers looking for a 3D rendering engine - including those who, like me, don't have any sympathy left for Apple and their business practices - will need a wide cross-platform compatibility including MacOS and mobile (both android and iOS). So the point "Porting the renderer to Vulkan" that you list under "Future of StratusGFX" does indeed seem like a priority.
In that same vein, I'd point out that given the very large proportion of end users that have relatively weak hardware, especially on the GPU side, and even more so with the ongoing tendencial shift from desktop to mobile, it is crucially important to keep in mind that while maximal realism capabilities are indeed an important goal, the engine also needs to have good fallback compromise capabilities for less powerful hardware, i.e. cutting back on the most computationally expensive parts and details while still delivering a decent enough result at a good enough speed.
Yeah I think as far as the future goes, removing the dependency on OpenGL 4.6 and adopting Vulkan is the best way to go and needs to be near the top of the priority list (maybe even very top). It would allow MacOS, Linux and Windows to all have a similar experience.
Then for the performance on weaker hardware... yeah this is something I've mostly neglected for now. All my testing has been on a desktop Nvidia GTX 1060 where performance is currently pretty good there.
One option would be for me to add fallbacks that remove reliance on certain realtime features (such as realtime GI) and allow for baked solutions. My initial goal was to avoid all baked solutions and only target realtime everything, but now I feel I need to cycle back and add in other options on top of what's there.
That being said, I suspect that the following quote would be a major hindrance for a lot of developers looking for a rendering engine:
> "This code base will not work on MacOS. Linux and Windows should both be fine so long as the graphics driver supports OpenGL 4.6 (…)"
These days, most projects/developers looking for a 3D rendering engine - including those who, like me, don't have any sympathy left for Apple and their business practices - will need a wide cross-platform compatibility including MacOS and mobile (both android and iOS). So the point "Porting the renderer to Vulkan" that you list under "Future of StratusGFX" does indeed seem like a priority.
In that same vein, I'd point out that given the very large proportion of end users that have relatively weak hardware, especially on the GPU side, and even more so with the ongoing tendencial shift from desktop to mobile, it is crucially important to keep in mind that while maximal realism capabilities are indeed an important goal, the engine also needs to have good fallback compromise capabilities for less powerful hardware, i.e. cutting back on the most computationally expensive parts and details while still delivering a decent enough result at a good enough speed.