BRUTAL is a free, open-source C# framework for building games or for creating your own engine. It targets Windows, Linux, and macOS through a common package family, but it does not provide an editor, scene graph, or renderer. You assemble those systems yourself.
The shortest successful setup is to install the .NET 10 SDK, create a console project, add the Core and GLFW packages, and run a window-only sample. Add the Vulkan packages and a Vulkan 1.3-capable GPU with current drivers when you are ready to render. This approach gives experienced programmers substantial control over native interop, memory, scheduling, and engine architecture in exchange for more implementation and maintenance work.
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What BRUTAL is—and what it is not
The BRUTAL project describes itself as a framework: “BRUTAL is a framework. You can make a game directly with it, or use it as the foundation for a separate engine.” That distinction determines almost every setup decision.
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What you get
- A custom interop layer between C# and native APIs and libraries.
- Foundational systems for mathematics, memory, collections, job scheduling, logging, and localization.
- Bindings for Vulkan, GLFW, Dear ImGui, FMOD, RakNet, Jolt, and Box2D.
- A package-oriented structure so you can add only the systems your project needs.
What you must build
- No built-in editor, scene graph, or general-purpose renderer is included.
- You choose the game or engine architecture, resource lifetime rules, asset pipeline, and tools.
- Platform-specific graphics-driver behavior, input, audio, filesystem handling, and distribution remain your team’s responsibility.
- Unmanaged memory and unsafe code require disciplined ownership, testing, and debugging.
BRUTAL therefore fits programmers who want to control low-level behavior or develop an unusual simulation more than teams seeking a turnkey editor-driven workflow.
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Supported platforms and prerequisites
Ahwoo’s product information lists Windows, Linux, and macOS targets and says every package supports the same three targets. The getting-started documentation describes Windows or Linux as the initial setup environments, so those are the most straightforward places to begin. Plan a separate validation and packaging pass on macOS before shipping there.
| Target | Package support | Practical setup note |
|---|---|---|
| Windows | BRUTAL packages support the target | The getting-started setup documents Windows as an initial environment. |
| Linux | BRUTAL packages support the target | The getting-started setup documents Linux as an initial environment. |
| macOS | BRUTAL packages support the target | Listed as a target for every package; validate native drivers, windowing, and packaging on macOS separately. |
Install the .NET SDK
Install the .NET 10 SDK on the development machine. The SDK supplies the dotnet command used to create the project, add NuGet packages, and run the sample.
Prepare a rendering machine
If your program will render, use a GPU that supports Vulkan 1.3 and install current graphics drivers for the operating system. Install the Vulkan SDK when you need validation layers during development. The SDK is a development aid; a Vulkan-capable driver is still required at runtime.
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The first BRUTAL sample below deliberately creates a window without a graphics API, so you can verify the .NET and GLFW installation before introducing Vulkan-specific failures.
Create and run a minimal BRUTAL project
- Install the .NET 10 SDK. On a rendering machine, update the GPU driver and install the Vulkan SDK if you will use validation layers.
- Create a console project and enter its directory:
dotnet new console -n HelloBrutal
cd HelloBrutal- Add the core and GLFW packages:
dotnet add package Ahwoo.Brutal.Core
dotnet add package Ahwoo.Brutal.Glfw- Replace
Program.cswith the following window-only program:
using Brutal.GlfwApi;
using Brutal.Numerics;
if (!Glfw.Init())
throw new Exception("Failed to initialize GLFW");
Glfw.WindowHint(GlfwWindowHint.ClientApi, 0);
var window = Glfw.CreateWindow(new GlfwWindow.CreateInfo
{
Title = "Hello BRUTAL",
Size = new int2(1280, 720),
});
while (!window.ShouldClose)
Glfw.PollEvents();
Glfw.Terminate();- Run it:
dotnet runA 1280×720 window titled “Hello BRUTAL” should open. The loop polls GLFW events until the user closes the window, then calls Glfw.Terminate(). Because ClientApi is set to 0, this test does not create a graphics context; it confirms project creation, package resolution, native GLFW loading, window creation, event polling, and orderly shutdown.
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Why this order matters
Starting without a graphics API isolates the first failure. If the window test cannot initialize, adding Vulkan will only make diagnosis harder. Keep this small project or commit it as a known-good baseline before adding rendering, jobs, physics, or editor-like tools.
Add Vulkan rendering deliberately
BRUTAL exposes Vulkan through separate packages rather than assuming a renderer architecture. Add the packages that match the renderer you intend to write:
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Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Ahwoo.Brutal.Vulkan.Abstractionsfor Vulkan-facing abstractions.Ahwoo.Brutal.Vulkan.Vmafor Vulkan Memory Allocator integration.Ahwoo.Brutal.ShaderCwhen shaders must be compiled at runtime.
The framework does not supply a ready-made renderer or scene graph. You are responsible for instance and device selection, swap-chain and resource lifetime, synchronization, command submission, shader organization, and the boundary between rendering and game code.
Vulkan setup checklist
- Confirm the GPU supports Vulkan 1.3.
- Install a current driver for each operating system you test.
- Install the Vulkan SDK when you need validation layers.
- Keep the window-only GLFW test working before replacing the no-client-API hint with your Vulkan initialization path.
- Exercise device selection and swap-chain behavior on Windows, Linux, and macOS rather than assuming identical driver behavior.
Vulkan support does not remove platform differences. A common C# package set can share application code, while native drivers, window-system integration, shader tooling, and distribution still need target-specific testing.
Add only the systems your game needs
BRUTAL’s package layout lets you keep the initial project small and introduce subsystems as architecture decisions become clear.
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| Need | Package or packages named by the project | What to plan for |
|---|---|---|
| Debug interface | Ahwoo.Brutal.ImGui |
Immediate-mode debug tools and in-game diagnostics. |
| Plotting and telemetry views | Ahwoo.Brutal.ImPlot |
Graphs for runtime measurements or simulation data. |
| Job scheduling | Ahwoo.Brutal.Concurrency |
Work partitioning, synchronization, and ownership of data shared by jobs. |
| Audio | Ahwoo.Brutal.Fmod |
Audio integration and the lifetime of native audio resources. |
| Networking | Ahwoo.Brutal.RakNet |
Connection, transport, serialization, and platform testing. |
| Windowing and input alternatives | SDL-related packages listed by the repository | Whether SDL better matches your input and window lifecycle requirements than GLFW. |
| Assets and fonts | Texture, glTF, and FreeType packages listed by the repository | Loading, decoding, import settings, and runtime memory ownership. |
| Physics | Jolt and Box2D packages listed by the repository | Choosing a simulation model and keeping physics updates deterministic where required. |
| Utilities | Monitoring, dialogs, and compression packages listed by the repository | Diagnostics, user-facing error handling, and packaged asset size. |
Do not add every package at once. Establish a working window and application loop, then add one subsystem with a small verification scene or test. That keeps native-loading and unsafe-memory failures attributable to the change that introduced them.
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Share the high-level game code
Use the same BRUTAL package family for Windows, Linux, and macOS targets, and keep platform-neutral game rules, simulation, serialization, and content definitions separate from native integration. Put graphics-device selection, window creation, input mapping, audio initialization, filesystem paths, and distribution adapters behind explicit interfaces in your own code.
Validate each target instead of assuming parity
- Build and run the minimal GLFW project on every target you intend to ship.
- Check that each target loads the native libraries used by your selected package set.
- Exercise window creation, resize handling, input, audio, and filesystem access on each operating system.
- Run Vulkan validation and representative rendering workloads with that platform’s current driver.
- Test packaged output on a clean machine, not only on the development workstation.
Keep platform-specific behavior visible
Low-level control is useful only when ownership is explicit. Document which layer creates and destroys native handles, which thread may call a subsystem, how unmanaged buffers are freed, and what happens when a capability is unavailable. This is especially important for jobs, Vulkan resources, audio objects, and network connections.
Framework or engine: choosing the right scope
Choose BRUTAL as a direct game framework when your team is comfortable writing the missing orchestration: scene or world representation, asset management, rendering abstractions, tools, and content workflows. Use it as an engine foundation when you want to standardize those systems for several games and can invest in shared infrastructure.
BRUTAL is a strong fit when
- You need control over memory layout, native interop, and scheduling.
- Your simulation or rendering architecture does not fit a conventional editor and scene model.
- The team has experienced C# and systems programmers who can maintain unsafe and unmanaged code.
- Cross-platform targets matter, but you want to own the abstraction boundaries rather than inherit a fixed engine.
A turnkey engine may be a better fit when
- Designers need a mature visual editor and scene workflow immediately.
- You want a built-in renderer, asset pipeline, and common gameplay systems with minimal foundational code.
- The team cannot dedicate engineering time to native-driver differences, tooling, and long-term framework maintenance.
The trade-off is intentional: BRUTAL gives you architectural freedom and low-level access, while the omitted editor, scene graph, and renderer become project work.
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What the published performance figures do—and do not—show
Ahwoo summarizes tests reported by Ludeon comparing Waylith/RimWorld 1.7 with a Unity-based 1.6 build. Those reports describe a 2–4× performance improvement, including a 2.2× result in a late-game colony test and a load-time change from 14 minutes to 6 minutes for a 1,500-mod pack.
These are Ludeon’s reported comparisons, not independent benchmarks of a new BRUTAL project. They indicate why a team might investigate a lower-level architecture, but they do not predict frame rate, load time, or memory use for your game. Measure your own representative workloads after your renderer, asset pipeline, and simulation are implemented.
Licensing, attribution, and support
According to the README, BRUTAL is free to use, modify, and distribute, including in commercial games, with no royalties. The attribution conditions are material:
- Include the BRUTAL copyright notice in your credits or an equivalent location.
- Show the BRUTAL logo before gameplay.
- Ship
NOTICE.txt.
If those conditions do not suit a release, the project says a separate commercial licence can be arranged. Resolve that question before finalizing credits, menus, and distribution packages.
For help, use the project’s official Guides and Help forum. Check Framework Updates before upgrading package versions so that changes in native bindings or supporting systems do not arrive unexpectedly in the middle of a release cycle.
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Troubleshoot the first setup
dotnet cannot create or run the project
Verify that the .NET 10 SDK, rather than only a runtime, is installed and that the dotnet command is available in the shell. Run the creation and package commands from the project directory shown in the setup steps.
Glfw.Init() returns false
Check the operating system’s native graphics and windowing prerequisites, confirm that the GLFW package restored successfully, and run the unchanged window sample before adding other packages. A failure here is not a Vulkan rendering failure yet.
The window opens but rendering initialization fails
Confirm Vulkan 1.3 support and current drivers, then install the Vulkan SDK if the failure involves validation layers. Keep window creation and Vulkan initialization as separate steps so you can identify whether the problem is the window system, device selection, or renderer setup.
It works on one operating system but not another
Recheck native-driver behavior, window-system integration, filesystem paths, and packaging on the failing target. The package family is shared across the three targets, but BRUTAL leaves those platform responsibilities to your game team.
Memory or concurrency bugs appear after adding systems
Review ownership and thread rules for unmanaged buffers, native handles, and jobs. Add one subsystem at a time, retain a small reproducible test, and use the monitoring or debug-UI packages where appropriate to expose lifetime and scheduling problems.
Quick Recap
A practical first milestone
- Run the 1280×720 window-only sample on the primary development operating system.
- Repeat that sample on every target you plan to support.
- Add Vulkan packages and create a minimal validated rendering path on each target.
- Choose and document your world, resource, and job architectures before importing a large asset set.
- Add optional audio, networking, physics, loading, and debug packages one at a time.
- Measure your own game workloads and test clean packaged installations.
- Complete the required copyright notice, logo display, and
NOTICE.txtbefore release.
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