Engine Structure
Here is a diagram describing the high-level architecture of Simulant:
Render System
The render system in Simulant is in constant flux at the moment, but the general architecture has been established. The rendering process is based around a series of pipelines. Each pipeline take a StageID, CameraID and ViewportID as inputs, and an optional target TextureID as an output. If the TextureID is omitted, then the output of the pipeline is applied directly to the framebuffer.
Pipelines also have an ordering value. The higher the ordering, the later in the render sequence the pipeline runs. The Compositor class manages Pipelines and is responsible for processing them in order.
The Render System is structured in this way for flexibility. Imagine for a second that you are writing a game and you want to show the CCTV camera in the next room on an in-game TV monitor. You could do this by creating a Camera representing the view of the CCTV camera, and then add a Pipeline that uses this Camera's ID, but outputs to the TextureID of the TV monitor. Then the final Pipeline would use the CameraID of the player and output to the framebuffer.
Scene Management
The Scene
As mentioned in the [Render System] section above, when you add a Pipeline to the Compositor you must specify which Stage you are rendering. Stages are where you define your scene, and a Scene consists of many Stages. It's up to you how you divide your Scene into Stages, (even if you divide it at all), but you'll need to do so while considering how your rendered output will be composited using pipelines.
For example, you might create a Stage for your background, and add that to a pipeline with a low priority, then add a Stage for your world geometry, and finally add one for rendering a UI overlay.