Changelog

A follow-up pass on the Elden Engine preview: cleaned up the last spots where the editor still looked like stock Godot, and made the New Project template gallery actually build something.

• Removed the last leftover Godot wordmark/mascot branding from the Project Manager and About dialog
• New Project gallery now scaffolds real starter content for three templates — RPG, Simulator, and Adventure — instead of just a blank project
• Added a native Toolbox dock next to the AI Chat panel for one-click placement of common building blocks (primitives, camera, light, character bodies, UI controls)

An early, separate preview track: a from-scratch native C++ rewrite of the Studio editor, built as a rebranded fork of Godot Engine — Elden Engine. This is not a replacement for the current app yet, just an early look. The regular Studio download below is unaffected and keeps getting updates on its own track.

• Full native C++ editor (no Electron, no browser, no web view) forked directly from Godot 4.8, rebranded end-to-end — icon, splash, About dialog, and window chrome all read "Elden Engine" / "Prometheon Studio"
• New default editor theme matching Studio's dark-glass look with the signature orange accent, replacing Godot's stock color scheme
• A native AI Chat panel built directly into the editor — real streaming chat completions, tool-calling, and scene-aware context, talking to either the cloud backend or a local OpenAI-compatible server
• First-run onboarding screen and a New Project template gallery (city, desert, forest, mountains, platformer, shooter, top-down RPG, and more)
• A working native export pipeline — projects export to a real standalone executable, no bundled browser runtime
• Very early: scripting is GDScript for now (not the final answer — a custom language or C# is still being decided), and a lot of the original app's feature depth hasn't been ported over yet

The engine now runs on WebGPU exclusively — WebGL is fully retired from the 3D pipeline, closing a real gap along the way (a quality preset that was silently rendering solid black). Studio also gained a lighter, more native desktop shell, and — the big one — the first working build of a genuinely native rendering engine written in Rust on top of Vulkan, running independently of the browser entirely.

• WebGL removed from the 3D viewport; WebGPU is now the only rendering backend, simplifying the post-processing pipeline and closing a color-grading bug where certain quality presets rendered solid black
• New optional desktop shell built on Tauri — a native Rust app shell using the OS's own system webview instead of bundling Chromium, meaningfully lighter than the Electron build (which remains available for anyone who prefers it)
• Brand-new native engine core (Rust + wgpu), targeting Vulkan directly: loads a project's scene straight out of Studio's own project files, no export step, and renders it with physically-based shading, cascaded shadow maps, and 4x MSAA
• The native engine renders through a real forward pipeline — Cook-Torrance PBR shading, 3-cascade shadow maps fitted to the camera each frame, and instanced draw calls, so a scene with dozens of trees, rocks, and ruins costs a handful of draws, not hundreds
• Headless rendering mode for the native engine (renders to an image file with no window), used internally for automated visual verification of every rendering change going forward

A full pass on how the engine decides what to draw and how much of it to draw in full detail — the kind of optimization work large game engines invest heavily in, now built into Studio by default.

• BVH-accelerated frustum and screen-size culling — visibility checks now cost time proportional to what's actually on screen, not to total scene size
• Automatic draw-call batching for repeated static props, and a resource pool that shares identical geometry/materials instead of duplicating them per object
• Hierarchical level-of-detail: distant clusters of objects collapse into a single simplified, merged mesh, with a smooth cross-fade transition so the swap never pops
• Cascaded shadow maps replacing the old single fixed-frustum shadow — near geometry gets sharp detail, far geometry stays covered, instead of one blurry compromise across the whole scene
• Optional software occlusion culling for dense or interior scenes, and a live profiler panel showing exactly what all of the above is doing every frame

The AI copilot now uses real structured tool-calling instead of parsing JSON out of chat text, plus a diff-preview panel and full context transparency for every AI response. Also a big load-time win and several real editor bugs fixed.

• Structured tool-calling for AI-proposed file changes, with a text-based fallback for backends without tool support
• Per-file diff preview (Monaco diff editor) before applying any AI-proposed change, plus a "Context used" panel showing exactly what was sent with each request
• Initial load size cut from 8.2MB to under 500KB by lazy-loading the editor — the launcher, library, and settings screens no longer pay the engine's load cost
• Fixed the code editor getting stuck at an unusable, invisible size when opening a script file
• Fixed the Animation Workspace resetting the camera and rebuilding its 3D view on every Play/Pause click and clip switch
• Added FBX and OBJ model import alongside the existing glTF/GLB support
• Fixed the long-standing infinite render loop, a broken WebGL export, and Monaco's editor never actually running off the main thread

Continued polish pass on the Elderfall Souls-RPG template — atmosphere, terrain detail, and the last round of File Explorer stability fixes.

• Elderfall atmosphere pass — volumetric fog density, ambient occlusion, color grading tuned for the keep and overworld
• Terrain detail pass — cliff blending, ground scatter, and texture tiling fixes across the Elderfall map
• Additional File Explorer crash fixes building on Update 29's portal/transparency work
• Reopen-after-close state correctly restored for nested folders

• File Explorer context menu now renders through a top-level portal — no longer clipped by parent panel overflow
• Fixed transparent/see-through menu background on certain GPUs
• Fixed menu failing to reopen after being closed once in the same session
• Menu position now reliably tracks the triggering row after scroll

The Elderfall template world was rebuilt from the ground up and wired to real, runnable C# scripts rather than placeholder logic.

• Elderfall map geometry, lighting, and prop placement rebuilt
• Player combat, enemy AI, and checkpoint logic implemented with real scripts against the engine API
• NPC behaviors hooked into the World and Player classes from Update 10's API expansion
• Template now ships as a fully playable AAA-style vertical slice, not a static scene

Introduced Elderfall, a full Souls-style RPG starter template showcasing what Prometheon Studio can produce end-to-end.

• New first-party template: dark fantasy keep, overworld, and boss arena
• Demonstrates layered lighting, terrain, NPCs, and combat-ready character rig together
• Used as the baseline for the rebuild and real-script work in Updates 28–30

• Fixed popups and overlays rendering behind, instead of above, the active panel
• Menus now opt in to a transparent backdrop instead of a solid one, matching the rest of the editor chrome
• Environment status bar moved behind an opt-in toggle for users who don't want it always visible
• Editor window bounds are now saved and restored between sessions

• Baseplate material and scale made uniform across new and existing scenes
• Sculpt layer is now hidden from the Scene Tree by default to reduce clutter
• Snap-to-grid label rewritten to clearly state the active grid size and units

• Restored the full Inspector panel after the Update 22–23 viewport overhaul trimmed too much
• Side panels narrowed for more usable viewport space on smaller displays
• Fixed baseplate grid overlay misaligning with the actual collider bounds

• Further decluttered the viewport, moving secondary controls into menus
• Toolbar icons consolidated into grouped dropdown menus
• Toolbar height reduced again for an ultra-compact footprint

First pass of a major editor chrome redesign focused on giving the 3D viewport more breathing room.

• Viewport layout reworked — panels collapse to maximize the 3D view by default
• Main toolbar redesigned into a compact, icon-first layout
• Frequently used tools surfaced as floating controls over the viewport itself

New-project flow overhauled to get users into a working scene faster.

• New Game Wizard walks through project setup with guided steps
• Starter world templates added, selectable directly from the wizard
• Quality tier presets (Performance / Balanced / Quality) set rendering defaults per-project

• Audio inspector panel — preview, volume, and bus assignment per sound asset
• Script hot reload — C# changes apply without a full play-mode restart
• Always-on stats HUD option showing FPS, draw calls, and physics step time during play

• Prefab library panel for browsing and dragging reusable prefabs into the scene
• LOD inspector — view and edit level-of-detail distance thresholds per object
• Scene Tree can now be filtered by object tag
• Scene-wide search added on top of the Update 11 file search

• Direct keyframe animation editing on any object property, not just rigged characters
• Object tagging system added for organization and scripting lookups
• Timeline editor gained snapping, multi-track selection, and curve handles

• One-click material presets (metal, wood, stone, fabric, glass, and more)
• Align and distribute tools for multi-object selections, matching standard 3D editor conventions
• Standalone particle emitter objects, independent of the Update 16 weather system
• Post-process color grading controls — contrast, saturation, tint curves

• Weather particle presets — rain, snow, fog drift tied to the Environment system
• Smooth fade-in transition when entering play mode
• Particle inspector panel for live-tuning emitter properties
• Environment status bar showing time of day and active weather at a glance

• In-editor and in-play minimap with object markers
• Script templates for common patterns (movement, pickup, trigger volume)
• Multi-select objects can now be grouped into a single transformable node
• NPC inspector panel exposing behavior parameters introduced in Update 14
• Group/ungroup added to the new Update 14 undo stack

First full undo/redo stack shipped across the editor, alongside early NPC tooling.

• Editor-wide undo/redo with a visible history stack
• Idle animation states added to the humanoid character system
• Vignette post-process effect added to the rendering pipeline
• First NPC behavior scripting (patrol, idle, react-to-player) introduced
• New chat tab in the AI panel for keeping separate conversation threads
• Objects now snap to ground on placement instead of floating

• Rebuilt sky shader with better horizon blending and sun positioning
• Hair style options added to the humanoid character customization set
• Accessory slots (hats, glasses, backpacks) added to characters
• In-game chat system foundation laid, expanded in Update 14's chat tab

A dense quality-of-life update covering navigation, scripting, and project safety.

• Viewport compass for orientation while navigating large scenes
• In-editor REPL for running script snippets against the live scene
• Copy/paste support for objects, including nested hierarchies
• Selection HUD showing transform and bounds of the active selection
• Grid toggle, snap panel, and right-click context menu added to the viewport
• Auto-save runs on an interval, with a manual screenshot tool for sharing progress

First update built directly on top of Update 10's expanded scripting API and documentation site.

• Search box added to the Inspector panel for quickly finding properties
• Find-in-files search across all project scripts
• Orthographic top/front/side view shortcuts added alongside the default perspective camera
• Object lock — pin objects to prevent accidental selection or movement
• Scene validation pass flags missing materials, orphaned references, and broken prefab links

Major expansion of the C# scripting API from 6 service classes to 11. Every engine system now has a dedicated, documented class. Official documentation website launched at prometheonstudio.com.

• Added Environment class — time of day, weather, fog, wind, sky color
• Added Lighting class — ambient, sun, bloom, point lights, shadows
• Added Physics class — gravity, forces, impulses, material properties
• Added World class — create, move, rotate, scale, color, clone objects
• Added Camera class — FOV, shake, view mode, distance, look target
• Added Player class — teleport, skin colors, speed, jump power
• Expanded Audio and Particles classes with new methods
• Added Debug.Assert for runtime assertions
• All commands route through updated runtimeEngine.js dispatch layer
• Full API reference website shipped (prometheon-script-api.html)

• Fixed walk animation — setHumanoidMotion now called every frame from loop()
• Rebuilt Ctrl+drag free-look camera for Mac trackpad (no prior click required)
• Fixed permanently latching _freeLookActive flag that locked camera orientation
• Third-person chase camera now trails behind player with exponential lerp smoothing
• Context menu clamped to viewport — no longer clips off-screen
• Fixed player context menu showing no actions (id suffix check was too broad)
• Sprint FOV boost, bob, and shoulder micro-sway added to animation system

• Complete humanoid character rebuild — ears, belt strip, ankle cuffs, natural arm angle
• Shared per-type materials on group.userData.materials for runtime recoloring
• ServerStorage system — hide objects from scene without removing from tree
• moveToStorage, moveToWorkspace, cloneFromStorage APIs added
• Default editable "Character" template created in storage at engine init
• Trackpad two-finger tap context menus added to File Explorer and Scene Tree
• Play-mode camera improved with Ctrl+drag freelook support

• File Explorer rebuilt with drag-and-drop, context menus, and live preview
• HUD system added — runtime UI overlay layer
• Initial humanoid character system introduced
• Baseplate physics — special case cuboid(200,0.05,200) floor collider for Rapier
• Scene tree actions wired: FileExplorer → PanelHost → EditorShell → engine

• Full Scene Tree panel with live sync to Three.js scene graph
• Engine API surface expanded — getNodeById, objectMap, emitSceneUpdate
• Texture map support: albedo, normal, roughness, metalness, emissive
• PBR material system wired to Scene Tree inspector

• Animation editor rebuilt with keyframe timeline and curve editor
• Blend tree support for multi-state animation mixing
• Per-bone override channels added
• Animation preview in viewport while editing

• Sequence timeline editor for scripted events and cutscenes
• Custom terrain shader with multi-layer blending
• Physics inspector panel — live collider visualization and property editing
• Prefab variant system — override individual properties without breaking inheritance

• PBR material editor — roughness, metalness, emissive, normal map channels
• Runtime profiler — draw calls, triangle count, physics step time, frame budget
• Post-processing stack: bloom, tone mapping, vignette
• Environment inspector — ambient, fog, sky, and HDR environment map controls

• Navigation mesh baking — bakeNavMesh, findPath, addNavAgent APIs
• Audio bus system — master, music, and SFX channels with independent volume
• Curve-based particle emission — emission rate and size driven by animation curves
• WebGL export target added to the build pipeline

First public update. Foundational engine systems established on top of the initial Elden Engine 3D core.

• Audio system — Web Audio API integration, sound effects and music streaming
• Particle system — explosion, fire, smoke, and magic presets
• Environment system — daylight cycle, weather presets, fog control
• Core bug fixes across physics, scene graph, and ECS initialization
• C# runtime host established — dotnet 8 script compilation pipeline