Spinlock Game Engine

Authors

• Shane Misley, St. Mary's University

Files

Digital Publisher

Digital Commons at St. Mary's University

Publication Date

Spring 2026

Keywords

Game engines, CPU, Memory usage, C++, SDL3, Raylib, Software development

Description

Modern game engines prioritize developer convenience at the cost of performance and transparency. Large frameworks like Unity and Unreal Engine abstract away implementation details, which simplifies development but introduces computational overhead—often 40-50% of CPU and memory usage goes to engine infrastructure rather than the actual game. For developers targeting low-end hardware, older systems, or performance-critical applications, this overhead becomes prohibitive. The Spinlock Engine addresses this problem by adopting a "close-to-the-metal" philosophy, stripping away unnecessary abstraction layers to deliver raw speed and predictable behavior. Built in C++ with SDL3 and Raylib, Spinlock prioritizes memory efficiency, CPU optimization, and developer transparency—allowing you to understand exactly what your code does and why it performs the way it does. Currently tested exclusively on Linux systems, Spinlock proves that powerful game development doesn't require bloated frameworks.

Format

PDF

Size

1 poster

City

San Antonio, Texas

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.