VastVR

VastVR is a C++ engine used to develop virtual reality applications during 2015–2018. This repository preserves the VastDevKit engine alongside the tools, applications, and experiments built around it in VastApps.

The engine and apps were originally maintained in separate repositories and are now combined into this open-source snapshot. Recent restoration work makes the SDK and selected macOS apps buildable and usable on current Macs, so the original work can be explored today. Historical VR, mobile, and Windows targets remain unvalidated; see Status below.

• VastDevKit/: engine, source snapshots of dependencies, and legacy tools.
• VastApps/: applications and shared resources.
• scripts/: reproducible macOS build and embedded-font generation.

Build the macOS apps

Install Xcode and SDL2, then build from the repository root:

brew install sdl2
./scripts/build-macos.sh Debug
open .build/DerivedData/Build/Products/Debug/VastBuilder.app

The script builds for the current Mac architecture with a macOS 14.2 deployment target. It selects /Applications/Xcode.app when the system developer directory points to Command Line Tools; set DEVELOPER_DIR for a different Xcode install.

./scripts/build-macos.sh Release
./scripts/build-macos.sh Debug VastDevKit
./scripts/build-macos.sh Debug VastBrowser
open .build/DerivedData/Build/Products/Debug/VastBrowser.app
./scripts/build-macos.sh Debug PhysicsHotel
open .build/DerivedData/Build/Products/Debug/PhysicsHotel.app

Box2D, difont, and FreeType are included as source files: no submodule setup, external workspaces, or prebuilt engine library is needed. Xcode also works by opening VastApps/VastBuilder/osx/xcode/VastBuilder.xcodeproj directly.

These are development builds: resources are loaded from this checkout and SDL2 is loaded from Homebrew. They are not standalone distributable app bundles.

Status

The maintained starting point is VastBuilder, VastBrowser, PhysicsHotel, and VastDevKit on macOS. Other app, Android, iOS, Windows, and tool projects are retained for future work and have not been validated. Some legacy SDKs and uninitialized dependencies were deliberately excluded; see the import notes.

VastBrowser launches the teapot, shadow, geometry, piano, and local-audio demos. It uses the shared Retina renderer and current SDK.

PhysicsHotel is a physics playground for dragging, bouncing, and stacking balls and boxes, with pause/gravity/reset controls.

Music is not bundled. UI fonts and the engine's embedded fallback font use Carlito under SIL OFL 1.1. Font Awesome 4.2.0 remains under its original OFL license. To regenerate the fallback after changing the licensed font source:

python3 scripts/generate-default-font.py

Checks

After a Debug build, run the focused loader regression checks:

./scripts/test-fonts-macos.sh

This checks the new fonts, embedded fallback, Unicode character-map preservation, and separate cache entries for different face sizes.

The independent Base64 regression checks do not require an engine build:

./scripts/test-base64.sh

This checks standard vectors, binary data, legacy decoder formatting, and invalid input, and compares the codec against Python with UndefinedBehaviorSanitizer enabled. Set BASE64_SANITIZERS=address,undefined to also use AddressSanitizer when supported by the installed compiler/runtime.

Math and changed-shader checks are also available:

./scripts/test-math-macos.sh
./scripts/test-shaders-macos.sh

The math test requires the Debug SDK build. The shader test creates a Mac OpenGL context, compiles changed fragments, and renders hue/blur boundary cases. The builder integration check runs a private scene, exercises keyboard/menu editing and sound, saves it, and reloads it in a second process:

./scripts/test-builder-macos.sh

After building VastBrowser in Debug, check its launcher, scenes, piano/audio interaction, and Retina presentation with ./scripts/test-browser-macos.sh. After building PhysicsHotel in Debug, check its physics, mouse interaction, keyboard controls, and resizing with ./scripts/test-physics-macos.sh.

The builder check's save files and rendered frames stay under .build/builder-check.*; it does not modify your working scene. Desktop controls use WASD to move, arrow keys to look, Space to paint/select/erase, and Tab to toggle the menu. Saves are written to VastApps/saves/MySaveFile.json, which is ignored by Git.

See source release verification for the clean-source checks, tested behavior, and remaining prototype limitations.

Original replacement icons/textures can be reproduced with python3 scripts/generate-demo-assets.py.

Licensing

Original VastDevKit/VastApps code is available under the MIT license. The project-created sound effects are also MIT licensed; see their complete license. Bundled third-party code and assets retain their own licenses; the root MIT license does not relicense them. See third-party notices.

The asset review and math/snippet review record preserved project recordings, original artwork/snippet replacements, verified teapot resources, and restored notices. The unverified Freesound click was removed; its callers use an existing project sound effect. Remaining work is tracked in the import notes. The license audit records the Base64 replacement and removal of unused Oolong2, PGMidi, GPL-marked iOS glue, zlib Ada contributions, and obsolete Oculus samples and shaders. Historical mobile/headset projects omit these integrations and remain unvalidated.