C99 Game Opinionated Guide

C99 Game Engine Opinionated Guidelines

Requirements

• Overlay on c99-guide - This guide carries only the game/engine opinionated decisions; for generic C99 idioms: const-correctness, designated initializers (ZII), fixed-width types, value-oriented APIs, and baseline error/return patterns, follow c99-guide

Math

• Types - 16-byte aligned vectors/matrices/quaternions, see references/math-types.md
• Access - Use accessor functions for matrices, direct fields for vectors, see references/math-types.md
• Coordinates - Right-handed Y-up, CCW winding, configurable clip depth, see references/coordinate-system.md
• Suffixes - _aos/_soa layouts, _simde SIMD, 2d/3d dimensions

Geometry Pipeline

• Analytic → Discrete → Packing - Separate logic/rendering/GPU layers, see references/geometry-pipeline.md
• Builder pattern - *_req() query size, *_build() write to caller buffer, see references/builder-pattern.md

Patterns

• Inverse mass - Store 1/mass, static objects use 0.0, see references/physics-patterns.md
• SoA optimization - AoS for single objects, SoA for batches, see references/mesh-types.md
• Validation - Check capacity, bounds, NULL, overflow before operations

Gotchas

• Vertex packing order matters for GPU upload: pack tightly and match the shader's attribute layout, not the C struct's natural padding
• Quaternion math is sensitive to normalization drift: re-normalize after long chains of multiplications
• Tagged unions with a sentinel TYPE_INVALID = 0 save initialization bugs; designated initializers default fields to zero
• Builder patterns in C99 work via opaque structs + functions; never expose mutable struct fields across the public boundary

Progressive disclosure

• Read references/math-types.md - Load when working with vectors, matrices, or quaternions
• Read references/coordinate-system.md - Load when setting up camera, projection, or mesh normals
• Read references/physics-patterns.md - Load when implementing rigid bodies, collision, or constraints
• Read references/geometry-pipeline.md - Load when converting analytic shapes to renderable meshes
• Read references/builder-pattern.md - Load when generating meshes or other variable-size data
• Read references/vertex-packing.md - Load when preparing vertex data for GPU upload
• Read references/mesh-types.md - Load when working with 2D or 3D mesh structures
• Read references/spatial-structures.md - Load when implementing broad-phase collision or spatial queries