slate engine release v1.0.0-alpha

slate engine v1.0.0-alpha

note: this release is not a finished version of the project. it will have bugs and stuff probably won't work lol

tested on fedora 44 and wine, mac and windows releases have not been tested natively yet, if you run into issues i would reccomend building from source (i promise it doesnt take that long)

downloads below: linux (AppImage), windows (zip), macOS (dmg, apple silicon)

requirements

All platforms need a GPU and driver with vulkan 1.3 support (macOS uses the bundled MoltenVK).

platform	requirement
linux	x86_64, glibc 2.35+ (ubuntu 22.04, fedora 38, or newer equivalent), FUSE 2, vulkan driver
windows	64-bit windows 10 or 11, up-to-date gpu driver
macos	apple silicon (arm64) only, recent macOS

how to run:

linux

chmod +x slate-linux-x86_64.AppImage
./slate-linux-x86_64.AppImage

windows

1. extract the whole zip (right-click → Extract All). don't run it from inside the archive
2. run slate.exe

macOS

1. open the dmg and drag Slate Engine to applications
2. the app is not notarized. on first launch, right-click → Open → Open.

if something goes wrong :o

first, run it from a terminal to see error output. no error messages print if you just double-click it

also, most of these issues will be fixed by building it from source, so if you can't figure out how to run one of the binaries, just build it from source

linux

problem	fix
dlopen(): error loading libfuse.so.2	you need to install FUSE 2: sudo apt install libfuse2 (ubuntu 24.04: libfuse2t64) or sudo dnf install fuse-libs. or skip FUSE: ./slate-linux-x86_64.AppImage --appimage-extract-and-run
window fails to create / vulkan errors	check vulkaninfo --summary (package vulkan-tools). if it lists no GPU, install a driver: mesa-vulkan-drivers (debian/ubuntu/fedora), vulkan-radeon or vulkan-intel (arch), or the stupid proprietary nvidia driver
black window or crash on a hybrid GPU laptop	pick the GPU: DRI_PRIME=1 ./slate-linux-x86_64.AppImage, or __NV_PRIME_RENDER_OFFLOAD=1 for nvidia
permission denied	chmod +x the file, and don't run from a noexec mount

Windows

problem	fix
"Windows protected your PC"	the exe isn't code-signed because i dont wanna pay microslop money. click More info → Run anyway
immediate exit w/ no errors	update your GPU driver. slate needs a driver-provided vulkan loader, so a bare VM or remote desktop session without a GPU driver won't work :(
missing DLL error	you probably ran it from inside the zip or moved the exe out of the zip. extract everything first and leave the exe in the folder with all the dlls
antivirus quarantine	add an exception, or build from source below

macOS

problem	fix
"Slate Engine is damaged" / "cannot be opened"	clear the quarantine flag: xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine "/Applications/SlateEngine.app"
won't launch on an intel mac	not supported, build it from source
crash on start	run /Applications/SlateEngine.app/Contents/MacOS/slate in terminal and google the output, or just build from source

build from source

common prerequisites that you'll probably need: git with Git LFS, CMake 3.20+, a C++20 compiler, and the vulkan SDK (provides glslc). The libraries needed are SDL3 3.2.x (with vulkan support) and GLM.

git clone --recurse-submodules <repo-url>
cd slate
git lfs pull

optional targets (tests, samples, viewer) can be skipped with these flags, used by the official builds:

-DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DCMAKE_POLICY_VERSION_MINIMUM=3.5
-DTARGET_UNIT_TESTS=OFF -DTARGET_HELLO_WORLD=OFF -DTARGET_PERFORMANCE_TEST=OFF
-DTARGET_SAMPLES=OFF -DTARGET_VIEWER=OFF

linux

sudo apt install build-essential cmake ninja-build pkg-config libglm-dev \
  libx11-dev libxext-dev libxrandr-dev libxcursor-dev libxi-dev libxfixes-dev \
  libxss-dev libxkbcommon-dev libwayland-dev wayland-protocols libdecor-0-dev \
  libasound2-dev libpulse-dev libdrm-dev libgbm-dev libudev-dev libdbus-1-dev \
  libegl-dev libgl-dev mesa-vulkan-drivers

install SDL3 3.2.x from your distro if available (fedora: SDL3-devel), otherwise build it:

git clone --depth 1 --branch release-3.2.20 https://github.com/libsdl-org/SDL.git /tmp/SDL
cmake -S /tmp/SDL -B /tmp/SDL/build -G Ninja -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX="$HOME/sdl3"
cmake --build /tmp/SDL/build && cmake --install /tmp/SDL/build

then build and run:

cmake -B build -G Ninja -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DCMAKE_POLICY_VERSION_MINIMUM=3.5 \
  -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH="$HOME/sdl3" -DGLSLC_EXECUTABLE="$(command -v glslc)"
cmake --build build --parallel
cd build && ./slate

windows (visual studio 2022 + vcpkg)

vcpkg install "sdl3[vulkan]:x64-windows" glm:x64-windows
cmake -B build -A x64 -DCMAKE_POLICY_VERSION_MINIMUM=3.5 `
  -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE="$env:VCPKG_ROOT/scripts/buildsystems/vcpkg.cmake" `
  -DVCPKG_TARGET_TRIPLET=x64-windows -DUSE_STATIC_MSVC_RUNTIME_LIBRARY=OFF `
  -DGLSLC_EXECUTABLE="$env:VULKAN_SDK/Bin/glslc.exe"
cmake --build build --config Release --parallel
cd build\Release; .\slate.exe

the [vulkan] feature is required. without it, sdl explodes with "vulkan support is either not configured in SDL...".

macOS

brew install cmake sdl3 glm molten-vk vulkan-loader vulkan-headers shaderc spirv-tools
cmake -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DCMAKE_POLICY_VERSION_MINIMUM=3.5 \
  -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH="$(brew --prefix)" -DGLSLC_EXECUTABLE="$(command -v glslc)"
cmake --build build --parallel
cd build
VK_ICD_FILENAMES="$(brew --prefix molten-vk)/etc/vulkan/icd.d/MoltenVK_icd.json" ./slate

always run from the build directory so assets/, models/ and shaders/compiled/ are there.

full changelog: https://github.com/swedishsplidney/slate/commits/v1.0.0-alpha