Docs / Your game's name

The splash

SplashScreen is the engine saying its own name: the engine's mark and "Windage Engine" over a dark ground, fading up, holding and fading away. A game that wants to credit the engine at launch has nothing to build: no art, no texture and no pipeline, because it is drawn with the HUD. Nothing runs unless your game runs it.

What it shows

One line across: an optional lead, the mark, and the name, with "WINDAGE" large over "ENGINE" small and tracked out. With lead: "MADE WITH", as the sample uses, the lead sits in small capitals to the left of the mark, one word per line.

The name is set in the HUD's font rather than drawn: the engine has a drawn mark but not yet a drawn wordmark. There is no version on it by default. showsVersion exists for development builds and is off, because no shipped game shows its engine's version.

Using it

It is an overlay and a clock, not a mode. Advance it from your simulation step, draw it from your HUD, and drop it when it is done. From the sample:

private var splash: SplashScreen? = SplashScreen(lead: class="p">"MADE WITH")

func step(deltaTime: Float) {
    if splash != nil {
        splash?.advance(by: deltaTime)
        if splash?.isFinished == true { splash = nil }
    }
    // … the rest of the step runs as usual
}

func keyPressed(_ code: UInt16, command: Bool) {
    splash?.skip()
    // … and the key goes on to do what it was pressed for
}

func encodeHUD(into encoder: MTL4RenderCommandEncoder, frameSlot: Int, interpolation: Float) {
    guard let hud else { return }
    hud.begin(viewportSize: viewportSize)
    // … the game's own interface
    splash?.draw(into: hud, viewportSize: viewportSize)   // last, over everything
    hud.draw(into: encoder, frameSlot: frameSlot)
}

Three rules come with it:

• Keep stepping behind it. The game is usually loading during a splash. A game that suspends its step while the splash is up makes its first second unrepeatable.
• skip() is a side effect of a press, never a consumer of one. A splash that eats the first keystroke eats the first keystroke of whatever the player was already doing. The sample checks this with a scripted walk run under the splash, which must end exactly where the same walk ends without it. See walks.
• Drop it when isFinished is true. An overlay at zero opacity still costs its vertices.

Draw it last in encodeHUD, so it covers the game's own interface.

Timing

duration is the three together. elapsed, opacity (0 to 1), isSkipped and isFinished report where it is.

A skip runs it to the start of its fade, not to its end. A splash that vanishes on the frame a key goes down looks like a dropped frame; one that fades out looks intended. A skip is ignored for the first skipDelay seconds, because the key or click that launched the game is often still down when the first frame appears, and ignored again once it is fading, so holding a key does not cut the fade short twice.

The fades are linear ramps in elapsed, which is a sum of step lengths, so the picture at a given moment is the same at 30 steps a second and at 240. The tests check exactly that.

Appearance

All are vars, set after SplashScreen(lead:). If you set showsVersion, the text drawn is Engine.version.

Your game's name

The splash says the engine's name, not yours. It reads Engine.name, which is "Windage Engine", and there is no setting to put anything else in it. It is the engine's credit; the only words you choose are the lead.

Your game's own title card, logo or studio card is yours to draw, with the same tools. The HUD draws text, rectangles and polygons in exact colors, so a title screen needs nothing from the engine beyond that. Show it before or after the engine's splash as you like; SplashScreen does not install itself in the frame loop or take control of what comes next.

Where the engine's name appears without a splash — a credits screen, an about box, a corner — draw the mark with EngineMark.draw(into:origin:height:color:) and set Engine.name beside it. The sample also puts the engine's name and version in its window title:

window.title = class="p">"\(Engine.name) \(Engine.version) — sample"

The splash is optional. What a game must show is a credits line — "Uses Windage Engine © 2026 Pixla LLC" in its credits or legal screen; the splash is a more visible credit on top of that, and nothing shows one unless your game does. See the mark.

In the sample

The sample opens with the splash in ordinary play. WINDAGE_SAMPLE_SPLASH=1 or 0 forces it on or off; unset, it is off in a scripted check and in a recorded frame, because those are pictures of the scene. The splash has a recorded frame of its own. See the sample and frames.