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Game Development3DGame Engine

What are the best non-copyleft open-source 3D engines?

6

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Considered

0

User
Recs.

Dec 7, 2023

Last
Updated

Godot vs Ogre3D vs Panda3D

vs jMonkey3 vs Stride vs Irrlicht

Specs

Platforms

Windows, Linux, Mac, Android

Popular Language Bindings

GDScript, C#, C++

Dev platforms

-

Desktop targets

-

Mobile targets

-

Languages

-

Supported languages

-

Console targets

-

Distributed targets

-

TV targets

-

VR targets

-

License

-

API

-

3D

-

2D

-

Opensource

-

VR Support

-

Platforms

-

Popular Language Bindings

-

Dev platforms

Windows, Linux, Mac

Desktop targets

Windows, Linux, Mac

Mobile targets

Android, iOS

Languages

C++

Supported languages

-

Console targets

-

Distributed targets

-

TV targets

-

VR targets

-

License

-

API

-

3D

-

2D

-

Opensource

-

VR Support

-

Platforms

-

Popular Language Bindings

-

Dev platforms

Windows; OSX; Linux; FreeBSD

Desktop targets

Windows; OSX; Linux

Mobile targets

-

Languages

-

Supported languages

C++; Python

Console targets

-

Distributed targets

Panda3D Web Player

TV targets

-

VR targets

-

License

BSD-3-Clause

API

-

3D

-

2D

-

Opensource

-

VR Support

-

Platforms

-

Popular Language Bindings

-

Dev platforms

Windows; OSX; Linux

Desktop targets

Windows; OSX; Linux

Mobile targets

Android; iOS

Languages

-

Supported languages

Java

Console targets

?

Distributed targets

?

TV targets

?

VR targets

Oculus Rift; HTC VIVE

License

-

API

-

3D

-

2D

-

Opensource

-

VR Support

-

Platforms

-

Popular Language Bindings

-

Dev platforms

Windows

Desktop targets

Windows, OSX, Linux

Mobile targets

Windows Phone, iOS, Android

Languages

C#

Supported languages

C#

Console targets

-

Distributed targets

-

TV targets

-

VR targets

-

License

MIT

API

Vulkan, DirectX 11, DirectX 12, OpenGL

3D

Yes

2D

Yes

Opensource

Yes

VR Support

Yes

Platforms

-

Popular Language Bindings

-

Dev platforms

Windows; OSX; Linux

Desktop targets

Windows; OSX; Linux

Mobile targets

iOS; Android

Languages

-

Supported languages

C++

Console targets

-

Distributed targets

-

TV targets

-

VR targets

-

License

-

API

-

3D

-

2D

-

Opensource

-

VR Support

-

Pros + Cons

Pro
Easily expanded scripting system

With 3.0's addition of NativeScript and PluginScript via GDNative, developers can easily define bindings for new scripting languages. In addition to the primarily supported C++, GDScript, VisualScript, and C# languages, the community has contributed D, Nim, and Python as well with more on the way.

Con
Difficult to optimize

Godot has an OOP architecture. Everything is an object internally and data is spread among many classes, thus it's difficult to optimize (i.e. not cache friendly, difficuly to vectorize or paralellize, etc). Read about "Data Oriented Design" for more info about the problems and solutions.

Con
C++ Engine API not very friendly

The base C++ code from Godot is not documented, it's hard to set it up, to compile and hard to extend, it could use better programming standards.

Pro
Creating editor tools is a breeze

Godot Engine is itself a Godot game. By adding the "tool" keyword to the top of a script, you can design extensions for the editor itself INSIDE the editor. Integrating these editor scripts into a bundled plugin for sharing is extremely easy to do.

Pro
Simple and readable codebase

The engine's source code is easy to read and understand with a self-documenting approach to code design. You don't have to wait months or years for other people to fix an engine bug that is important to your game. Often times, you can spend an hour or two of your own time to fix whatever problems you encounter yourself.

Pro
Built-in documentation linked to the internal ScriptEditor

The editor has a fully searchable index of class API documentation for everything the engine offers (NOT just a web interface). You can easily open the documentation for any class by Ctrl-clicking the class's name in the in-engine text editor for scripts.

Pro
Friendly towards Version Control Systems

The engine is build not only to support version control but to really use it. Scene files for example which usually get compiled into some sort of unreadable data stay in a text format - that way you can actually see your changes in a version control system like Git.

Pro
Internationalization of the editor

You can change the language shown in menus. Godot translations: https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/godot-engine/godot/

Pro
Really good community

The community is great and really cares about the engine. It is easy to get help and to be part of Godot's future.

Pro
Drag & drop interface

Many parts of the editor allow you to drag & drop, which makes working with assets and scene trees a joy.

Pro
Instancing and node concept makes sense

The node and the instancing concept work very well and helps developers to structure content efficiently.

Pro
The list of supported languages is growing

Officially, Godot supported languages for now will be GDScript, C#(Mono), VisualScript and C++.

Pro
Easy to learn scripting language

Godot has their own scripting language called GDscript. The scripting language is easy to learn with python-like format, but it is not python. More like a mix of Javascript, PHP, C++. It's very powerful, easy to learn, and it's free of unnecessary things because it's designed for this purpose. It can be used to add custom behaviors to any object by extending it with scripting, using the built-in editor with syntax highlighting and code completion. A built-in debugger with breakpoints and stepping can be used and graphs for possible bottlenecks can be checked.

Pro
Fun to use

An important aspect that can't be grasped without using the engine for a few days. The Interface is evolving nicely and making games is just fun.

Pro
User friendly UI for all your team

Non-programmers (musicians, artists, etc) can join the development easily.

Pro
Editor and runtime are fully cross-platform

You can run Godot on all 3 major operating systems (Windows/Mac/Linux) and build your game to all available platforms from each without any platform-specific work needed. All platforms including Linux are supported first class.

Pro
Lightweight

The executable is portable and less than 40 MB in size.

Pro
Free and open source

Godot is licensed under MIT license. Anyone can grab the source from https://github.com/godotengine/godot, and compile the engine themselves.

Pro
Fully dedicated 2D engine, no hacks

Godot has a mature 2D engine with many features used by modern 2D games.

Pro
Can be deployed to multiple platforms

Deploy games to desktops (Windows/OS X/Linux), smartphones (iOS/Android/BlackBerry), and the web (HTML5 via Emscripten).

Pro
Integrated animation editor

Every property can be animated.

Pro
Unified game editor interface

All the game developing work is done inside one program: the engine editor. This feature is something only high end engines have. Even the scripting is done in the same program. No need for Eclipse or other front end editors.

Pro
Built-in physics

Add physics to 2D and 3D scenes, through rigid and static bodies, characters, raycasts, vehicles and more.

Pro
Under constant development

This engine barely released one year ago has more than 1000 forks on github and about 100 developers. Not only that just a bit of browsing trough issues you will quickly find out the dev community loves new esp free technology and does not shy away from completely rewriting parts of the engine. The audio engine is being completely rewritten to use threads and so forth.

Con
Tileset management could be more efficient

The tileset creation and management is lacking common features found in more developed tileset managers. However, it features support for Tiled - the only downside being that it is an external program.

Con
No built-in way to import atlases

Godot does not have an easy and automatic way to import atlases created by other tools. However, there are plugins that can be used to import atlases from other engines.

Pro
Platform support

Direct3D 9 & 11, Metal, Vulkan, OpenGL (incl. ES2, ES3 and OGL3+) and WebGL (Emscripten) support.

Pro
Good user community

It's been around a long time and still has a very strong user community.

Pro
Multiplatform support

Code can be ported to mobile (iOS is in the works) and other Android supported devices with minor changes to the code (just change some implementations that vary on the platform such as inputs and user interface). It can even run on certain Raspberry Pi devices.

Pro
Has everything

jMonkey3 handles input from computers and mobile devices. It handles networking, physics, rendering, terrain, and cinematics.

Pro
Freedom of choice for architecture

The user is not compelled to use any programming architecture nor standard in order to make a project working. JME allows the freedom to use what is best for a game.

Pro
Offers both low-level and high-level ways of editing shaders

Modifying shaders can be done either via a visual tool called Shader Nodes or via GLSL that allow you to make your own shaders without the engine getting in the way or having to hack around to do so.

Pro
Java is a great development platform

Java is a well-optimized just-in-time compiled language. It's faster than languages without an effective native-code compiler such as Python or Ruby, similar in speed to other just-in-time compiled languages such as C#, while slightly slower than compiled languages such as C or C++ (with some low-level and numeric benchmarks being similar to C++). Java also has a wide variety of high-class IDEs available.

Pro
Not limited to using its own IDE

Unlike some engines, jMonkey doesn't force its own IDE. You can use its Netbeans-based IDE, but you can also set up a project to work in another IDE such as Eclipse. You can still use the special tools from jMonkey's IDE in such projects.

Pro
Ease of extensibility

Engine is modifiable.

Pro
Engine modifications can be made using Java

Because jMonkey is implemented in Java, the same language its apps are typically developed in, developers will have an easier time modifying the engine to their needs.

Pro
Free and open-source

jMonkey is completely free, meaning it's possible to develop and release a game with no fees or royalties. Because it is open-source, jMonkey has plenty of people fixing bugs and, adding to the engine as well as creating a variety of plugins that can be used in the engine.

Pro
Supports Vulkan

Currently the only well known open-source game engine that supports Vulkan, and probably one of the only.

Pro
Engine AND Scripting are both C#

Since the engine is written in the same language as the scripting, there is no weird mix of technologies as other engines have.

Pro
Community seems friendly and is growing

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Pro
Very modern render engine

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Pro
No royalties or licensing fees

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Pro
Good looking and fast

Looking nearly as good as Unreal Engine 4, but rendering significantly faster.

Pro
Powerful 3D Rendering Engine

Supports Vulkan. You can achieve good quality as in Unity3d and Unreal Engine

Con
Editor is Windows only

Since version 1.7, Linux can be targeted for runtime. The editor for the engine is available only to Windows though.

Pro
Straightforward editor

Paradox provides a simple and clean working environment for designing games.

Pro
Supports Visual Studio

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Pro
Projects are normal Visual Studio solutions

No proprietary project format, so it works with all the official .NET tooling.

Pro
Easy to learn and use C#

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Pro
Multiple Starter Templates

The engine comes packed with multiole example projects to help you get started.

Con
Small user community

Unity and UE have a vast amount of user community.

Pro
Lightweight

Especially if you compile it yourself, it can be very light in memory usage.

Pro
Free and open source

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Pro
Lots of examples and docs

Many working examples to study and learn. You can easily experiment modifying an example code to grok in full how the engine works. In the beginning of your learning curve, the example code will offer you many useful code snippets.

Pro
Easy to entry level C++ experience

If you want to start game developing with C++, then Irrlicht is a good candidate since it removes most of the complications in game making in C++. It will let you obtain experience in programming and games at the same time.

Con
Outdated

Obsolete over 5 years ago. While the engine is being worked on with plans for new features and support, the movement is slow, leaving many engines far more advanced in certain areas.

Pro
Good polymorphic design

If you are considering writing your own engine with openGL, you might want to consider Irrlicht instead. It makes many features of any engine worth its salt easy, including events, serialization, nodes, animators, materials, logging, and animation. Bring your own sound and networking.