Quick Start

Run your first Aether demos — 3D rendering, visual scripting, GPU rendering, and multiplayer.

This guide walks you through running the bundled demos so you can see Aether in action. Make sure you have installed Aether before continuing.

3D Demo

An interactive 3D scene with a software renderer, physics simulation, and keyboard controls.

aether run 3d-demo            # pre-built binary
cargo run -p aether-3d-demo   # from source

Controls

| Key | Action | |-----|--------| | W A S D | Move | | Arrow keys | Orbit camera | | Q / E | Zoom in / out | | ESC | Quit |

Visual Scripting Editor

A web-based node editor for building game logic visually. It supports 33 node types across 6 categories (events, flow control, actions, math, logic, variables), type-safe connections, graph validation, cycle detection, and compilation to an IR instruction set.

aether run visual-editor                    # pre-built binary
cargo run -p aether-visual-scripting-demo   # from source

Drag nodes from the sidebar, connect ports, and click Compile to see the generated output.

GPU Rendering Demo

A PBR scene rendered with wgpu featuring shadows, MSAA, and metallic-roughness materials.

cargo run -p gpu-demo

Multiplayer Demo

Server-authoritative multiplayer with QUIC transport and avatar sync. You need two terminals for this one.

Terminal 1 — Start the server:

cargo run -p multiplayer-demo --bin mp-server

Terminal 2 — Connect a client:

cargo run -p multiplayer-demo --bin mp-client

Single-World Integrated Demo

The Phase 1 milestone demo that ties together GPU rendering, physics, multiplayer networking, visual scripting, and asset hot-reloading through the ECS.

cargo run -p single-world-demo

Controls

| Key | Action | |-----|--------| | W A S D | Move camera | | Arrow keys | Rotate camera | | Space / Shift | Move up / down | | ESC | Quit |

What's Next

Now that you have seen Aether running, explore these topics: