Prerequisites
Install the following before you start:- Git — required to clone the repository.
- Visual Studio 2022 or later — with the .NET desktop development workload enabled in the installer.
- .NET 10 SDK — required to compile the engine and run the build tools.
Visual Studio 2022 is the minimum version. Earlier versions of Visual Studio do not support the
.slnx solution format used by this project.Build steps
Clone the repository
Open a terminal and clone the public engine repository:This creates an
sbox-public/ directory containing the full engine source tree.Run Bootstrap.bat
Navigate to the repository root and run the bootstrap script:The script runs the
Allow several minutes for the first run. Subsequent builds are faster because incremental outputs are cached.
SboxBuild tool three times in sequence:| Step | What it does |
|---|---|
build --config Developer | Compiles the C# engine assemblies in developer configuration |
build-shaders | Compiles HLSL/GLSL shader source files |
build-content | Packages engine content assets |
Open the engine solution
Once the build succeeds, open the engine solution in Visual Studio:The
.slnx format is a modern, XML-free solution file supported by Visual Studio 2022 and later. All engine projects load from this single solution.Build and run from Visual Studio
Select the Developer solution configuration in the Visual Studio toolbar and press F5 or Build → Build Solution (
Ctrl+Shift+B).After a successful build, the output binaries are placed in the game/ folder. Run the executable from there to launch the editor with your locally compiled engine.Repository layout
| Path | Contents |
|---|---|
engine/ | C# engine source and the Sandbox-Engine.slnx solution |
engine/Tools/SboxBuild/ | The SboxBuild MSBuild tool invoked by Bootstrap.bat |
game/ | Compiled binaries and engine content (output of the build) |
game/bin/ | Native binaries distributed under the s&box EULA |
game/thirdpartylegalnotices | Third-party license notices |
The native binaries in
game/bin/ are not covered by the MIT license. They are distributed under the s&box EULA, which you must agree to in order to use them.Contributing
After making changes, see the contributing guidelines before opening a pull request. Bug reports and feature requests go to the sbox-issues tracker.Next steps
Contributing overview
Learn how the contribution workflow is structured and what kinds of changes are welcome.
Contributing guidelines
Code style, commit conventions, and review expectations.