Bevy 0.20 - Rust Powered Game Engine

Bevy 0.20 Overview

Bevy is a free, open-source game framework written in Rust and built around a data-driven entity-component-system (ECS) architecture. The headline feature in version 0.20 is Solari, Bevy’s rewritten real-time path-tracing renderer.

Key Features and Changes

• Solari real-time path tracing: The update is described as faster, more accurate, compatible with more Bevy rendering features, and able to run on macOS through Metal.
• Noise reduction: The demo shows DLSS substantially reducing ray-tracing noise. The video notes that macOS does not yet have the same denoising option and discusses ReSTIR as another available technique.
• Scenes and ECS: Bevy’s BSN scene syntax has been improved for readability and compilation. Scene entries can also emit readiness events, allowing code to respond when an object loads or appears.
• UI and editor tools: Bevy’s Feathers toolkit for editor interfaces adds color pickers, scrollable lists, dropdowns, deferred menus, draggable and scrollable number inputs, and headless tabs.
• Shaders and 2D rendering: Bevy adopts WESL, a shader language described as an extension of WGSL. Developers can create shader materials for sprites, and 2D meshes gain material customization similar to 3D.
• Other additions: The release includes a pan-orbit camera for CAD-style scene navigation and shader examples. The video also notes rasterization changes that may require users to enable it manually.
• Broader engine capabilities: Bevy includes 2D and 3D rendering, animation, UI, audio, scene loading through ECS, and hot reloading. It supports common platforms, though the video notes console support as a possible exception.

Limitations, Setup, and Comparison

Bevy is presented as mature and easy to get started with, with fast compile times, a beginner’s guide, and documentation. It does not yet have its own built-in editor, though editor-related work is ongoing. Basic examples can be run with Rust set up and a single command; using DLSS may require installing NVIDIA’s SDK.

The project is available on GitHub under either the Apache 2.0 or MIT license. The presenter compares Bevy with Fyrox: Bevy is characterized as the stronger framework-oriented option, while Fyrox offers a more traditional approach and a built-in editor.

Main speaker/source: Mike from Gamefromscratch.