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Game Development
What are the best FOSS cross-platform 3D game engines?
13
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Considered
106
User
Recs.
Sep 24, 2023
Last
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11
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Best FOSS cross-platform 3D game engines
Price
Platforms
Popular Language Bindings
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Godot
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Windows, Linux, Mac, Android
GDScript, C#, C++
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jMonkey3
-
-
-
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libGDX
-
-
-
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Urho3D
-
-
-
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Panda3D
-
-
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See Full List
--
Godot
My Rec
ommendation
for
Godot
My Recommendation for
Godot
All
27
Experiences
3
Pros
15
Cons
8
Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Cross-platform editor
Editor works in Window, OSX and Linux as well as having a Linux CLI server version (useful for testing and build tasks).
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Top
Con
•••
Editor crashes randomly
It likes to freeze for several seconds then crash at random.
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LoveablePaivatar's Experience
The editor tends to crash on low-end systems. It happened when I was editing properties of an object the first time. And the second time, the final straw, it crashed when I was debugging a game.
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Specs
Platforms:
Windows, Linux, Mac, Android
Popular Language Bindings:
GDScript, C#, C++
Top
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.
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Top
Con
•••
Slow and unadvanced 3D engine
Although the 2D engine in Godot is amazing, 3D is very slow, and lacks proper reflection materials.
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MerryLamia's Experience
A lot of decent UI tools, fast development
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Top
Pro
•••
Built-in physics
Physics can be added to 2D and 3D scenes, through rigid and static bodies, characters, raycasts, vehicles and more.
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Top
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.
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Auro Cogent's Experience
Lots of contributors and developers. Over 700 on Github!
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Top
Pro
•••
Integrated animation editor
Every property can be animated.
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Top
Con
•••
2DPhysics is weak compared to Box2d
Box2d has much more features.
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Top
Pro
•••
User friendly UI for all your team
Non-programmers (musicians, artists, etc) can join the development easily.
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Top
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.
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Top
Pro
•••
Engine is yours
There is no royalty and the game you made + engine itself is yours.
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Top
Con
•••
No console targets
Given that you can target both desktops and consoles with the same code base in other engines, the lack of support for consoles in Godot is pretty hard to get past if targeting desktops for a game. But asking for an open-source engine to target consoles is probably too much to ask. But it would be interesting to see some legacy consoles targeted even if current ones cannot be.
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Top
Pro
•••
Lightweight
The executable is portable and less than 40 MB in size.
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Top
Con
•••
Primarily supports own proprietary language (GD Script)
While it's very accessible, and if you know Python you'll pick it up fast, having to learn a new language to fully make use of the platform can be a bit discouraging. And for those learning to code as well as learning Godot for the first time, many would rather learn a language they can 'take with them' when they explore other platforms in the future.
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Top
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.
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Top
Con
•••
Self-designed scripting language
Implementing new scripting language instead of using an existing scripting engine (such as Lua or V8 JS) looks expensive, but easy to learn.
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Top
Pro
•••
Instancing and node concept makes sense
The node and the instancing concept work very well and helps developers to structure content efficiently.
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Top
Pro
•••
Unified game editor interface
All the game development work is done inside one program: the engine editor. The scripting is done in the same program. No need for Eclipse or other front-end editors.
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Top
Pro
•••
Fully featured
This is a multi-purpose game engine that can deploy to variety of platforms. It has been an in-house engine for over a decade but now anyone can get access to it including full source code. Professional tool from developers for developers.
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Top
Pro
•••
Amazing 2D capabilities
Godot has some pretty impressive 2D features, ranging from simple hdr, to incredibly beautiful isometric lighting.
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Top
Pro
•••
Fully dedicated 2D engine, no hacks
Godot 2.1 has a improved 2d engine with many features used by modern 2D games.
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Top
Pro
•••
The list of supported languages is growing
Officially, Godot supported languages for now will be GDScript, C#(Mono), VisualScript and C++.
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Top
Pro
•••
Internationalization of the editor
You can change the language shown in menus. Godot translations.
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Hide
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Get it
here
Recommend
24
1
--
jMonkey3
My Rec
ommendation
for
jMonkey3
My Recommendation for
jMonkey3
All
15
Experiences
1
Pros
9
Cons
4
Specs
Top
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.
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Top
Con
•••
Not an engine for total beginners
While it's clear that you need to know Java first before using this engine, it is recommended that you have some programming experience as well. Most performance issues and memory leaks are more due to bad programming practices than the engine itself.
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MerryLamia's Experience
Great rendering engine, sadly lots of boilerplate required
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Specs
Dev platforms:
Windows; OSX; Linux
Desktop targets:
Windows; OSX; Linux
Mobile targets:
Android; iOS
Supported languages:
Java
See All Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Not limited to using its own IDE
Unlike some engines, jMonkey doesn't force its own IDE. It allows setting it up for use with other IDE's such as NetBeans or Eclipse.
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Top
Con
•••
GUI tools are lacking
Even though JME comes with its own SDK, it's often buggy and is only good for basic scene manipulation. Everything else needs to be done in code, which can get annoying and takes longer to do.
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Top
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.
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Top
Con
•••
Slow release cycle
jMonkey3 lacks manpower to have a fast and decent release cycle.
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Top
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.
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Top
Con
•••
Scene composer lacks ragdolls
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Top
Pro
•••
Access to the lower levels of OpenGL
Most higher level engines straight up don't allow doing low level OpenGL operations or make it annoyingly difficult to do. Not JME.
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Top
Pro
•••
Engine modifications can be made using Java, the same language jMonkey3 implements
Because jMonkey is written in the same language it implements, Java developers will have an easier time modifying the engine to their needs.
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Top
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 allows making own shaders without the engine getting in the way or having to hack around to do so.
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Top
Pro
•••
Ease of extensibility
Engine is modifiable.
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Top
Pro
•••
Has everything
jMonkey3 handles input from computers and mobile devices. It handles networking, physics, rendering, terrain, and cinematics.
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Hide
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Get it
here
Recommend
13
--
libGDX
My Rec
ommendation
for
libGDX
My Recommendation for
libGDX
All
28
Experiences
1
Pros
22
Cons
4
Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Free and open-source
LibGDX is completely free to use, with no premium or paid version. It is also open-source under the Apache 2.0 license allowing users to change and distribute it freely.
See More
Top
Con
•••
Not an 'Engine' per se, it's a framework
If you're looking for a free and open source alternative to Unity, look elsewhere.
See More
's Experience
It's a great game framework (not engine) and the developers even provide lots of tools/extensions in other repos to provide extra functionality such as Ashlet (Entity Component System). Really simple to use, relatively speaking, and a good FOSS option, especially if you're hoping to avoid paying fees.
See More
Specs
Dev platforms:
Windows; OSX; Linux
Desktop targets:
Windows; OSX; Linux; HTML5
Mobile targets:
iOS; Android; BlackBerry; Desktop; HTML5
Supported languages:
Java
See All Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Easy to learn
See More
Top
Con
•••
It's Java
Java is always hindered by the JVM, and thus will always have (perhaps imperceptibly) lower performance than native code.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Cross platform support
You can write once and run anywhere (Android, IOS, Desktop, Browser) also lately came with lib to deal with VR.
See More
Top
Con
•••
A bit difficult to use
This engine is not well put together. Is made from various free modules each with their own peculiarities. At times it feels you need to learn a couple of libraries rather than just one. Is not an engine for beginners as it requires coding. Lots of coding. You need to be intermediate to advanced in Java to develop in LibGDX.
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Top
Pro
•••
Doesn't force a specific design
Unlike some engines, which only allow making a game in a few specific ways, libGDX allows designing any type of game as it is extremely customisable.
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Top
Con
•••
Could be difficult for inexperienced programmers
LibGDX is a low-level engine meaning it requires much more coding than other higher-level engines. Although this allows for greater customization, it can make things more difficult for beginner programmers.
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Top
Pro
•••
It's Java
The JVM is everywhere, and LibGDX takes full advantage of the available hardware on PC (mouse, keyboard), Android (touch, accelerometers), or makes use of web deployment using webGL.
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Top
Pro
•••
Kotlin support
It is written in Java so you can easily make games using Kotlin and Ktx project will help you get all advantages of this language.
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Top
Pro
•••
Focusing on object pool patterns, to control memory without pointers
Unlike Unity or other engine, it allows to optimize a language that uses garbage collector when using patterns of objects you can control the use of memory without needing a language like C / C ++, getting the same speed in a more productive language.
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Top
Pro
•••
Lots of tutorials to get you going
Even though the official documentation might be lacking, there are many tutorials on YouTube for libGDX.
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Top
Pro
•••
Uses Box2D
A Java port of the Box2D physics engine is included in libGDX.
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Top
Pro
•••
Constantly improved
LibGDX itself is pretty mature, and get updates not quite frequently, but various libraries for it are actively updated.
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Top
Pro
•••
Support for 3rd party tools
libGDX has built in support for many 3rd party tools, including (but not limited to) Bullet Physics, Box2DLights and the well-praised Tiled Map Editor.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Very easy to customize
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Free, open source & permissive license
libGDX uses the Apache License 2.0. Not only is libGDX free and open source but also it's license gives you a lot of power over the engine. As long as you provide a copy of the license, give credit, do not hold devs liable and do not use libGDX logo in any engine forks you can do pretty much anything you want.
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Top
Pro
•••
Can use any JVM language
Since it's built with Java and runs on the JVM, any language that compiles to Java bytecode can be used to develop games with libGDX.
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Top
Pro
•••
Gradle support
Allows easy integration with multiple IDEs, easy dependency management and provides shell support.
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Top
Pro
•••
Fantastic UI toolkit (scene2d)
scene2d is a 2D scene graph, scene2d.ui is a UI toolkit on top of that. It enables very complex mobile and desktop UIs.
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Top
Pro
•••
Interfacing with platform specific code
Sometimes it is necessary to access platform specific APIs, e.g., adding advertisement services or leaderboard functionality provided by frameworks.
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Top
Pro
•••
Supports desktop, mobile and web
Supports Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS and HTML5/WebGL. Being able to develop & run mobile games on the desktop is very efficient to rapidly iterate.
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Top
Pro
•••
Active and helpful community
The libGDX community, in the official libGDX forum is extremely helpful and approachable for any kind of question regardless of the its quality or difficulty. The forums themselves are a very helpful resource for any issue or guide simply by searching past posts in there. In addition to the forums, there's also the official #libgdx IRC channel on Freenode.
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Top
Pro
•••
Lots of resources to learn from
Lots of references, tutorials and open source code to learn from.
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Top
Pro
•••
Allows you to migrate from 2D to 3D within same framework
LibGDX supports both 2D and 3D game development. Allowing developers to migrate from 2D to 3D with ease without having to switch the engine they are using or having to learn a new API.
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Top
Pro
•••
Great API
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Get it
here
Recommend
15
5
--
Urho3D
My Rec
ommendation
for
Urho3D
My Recommendation for
Urho3D
All
12
Pros
8
Cons
3
Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Very high code quality
See More
Top
Con
•••
The UI can be hard on the eyes
Urho3D's UI lacks polish and and could cause eye strain.
See More
Specs
Dev platforms:
Windows; OSX; Linux
Desktop targets:
Windows; OSX; Linux
Mobile targets:
iOS; Android
Supported languages:
C; C++; AngelScript; Lua;C#
See All Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Free and fully open source
The entire engine is open source and makes use of other open source libraries. Source code is licensed under MIT and available on GitHub.
See More
Top
Con
•••
Little documentation and small community
There are some high-level design docs and a bunch of examples, but code is poorly commented and nothing much more can be found.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Fat-free codebase
Only use what you need.
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Top
Con
•••
Complicated to install
If you dont know what you are doing, this game engine can be hard to get running, especially on linux. At least, I have not managed to install it.
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Top
Pro
•••
Includes a lot of samples
A selection of samples in AngelScript, Lua and C++ are included with the engine.
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Top
Pro
•••
Good 3D level editor
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Top
Pro
•••
Good docs
Documentation covers the main components of the engine in a clear, easy to understand manner.
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Top
Pro
•••
In constant active development.
Bugs are usually fixed that same day. Core devs are very active on forums. New features are always being worked on. HTML5, DirectX11, and OpenGL3.1 support have recently been added. (as of 4/15/15)
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Top
Pro
•••
Unofficial Oculus Rift support
Information on enabling OR support can be found here.
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Hide
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Get it
here
Recommend
6
--
Panda3D
My Rec
ommendation
for
Panda3D
My Recommendation for
Panda3D
All
9
Pros
6
Cons
2
Specs
Top
Con
•••
No unified editing program
Unlike Unity and Unreal, Panda3D doesn't currently offer a single, unified editing program in which objects can simply be dragged in and assigned properties (although third-party solutions are available). Developers are expected to design their scenes in a modelling program like Maya or Blender instead, and bring it into Panda3D using Python code.
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Top
Pro
•••
Python scripting environment
Although it's possible to use only C++ to program in Panda3D, all its power is available to the Python scripting language, while not trading in performance since the performance-critical parts are implemented in C++. It has a powerful binding layer that exposes the vast majority of the API via Pythonic interfaces.
See More
Specs
Dev platforms:
Windows; OSX; Linux; FreeBSD
Desktop targets:
Windows; OSX; Linux
Mobile targets:
-
Supported languages:
C++; Python
See All Specs
Top
Con
•••
Direct3D support is behind
Direct3D support not up to par with OpenGL support, only version 9 is supported
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Top
Pro
•••
Flexible scene and object hierarchy system
Creating weird world constructs is generally a breeze. The node system the engine runs with allows to build self-looping worlds and, on large scale, non-Euclidean scenes without having to introduce a huge amount of custom code.
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Top
Pro
•••
Supports most popular physics engines
Panda3D has in-depth integration with industry standard physics engines such as Bullet, NVIDIA PhysX and ODE, but also offers a simpler built-in physics engines that will cover more basic needs.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Free, open-source, and permissive license
The liberal license allows use of the engine for any purpose without restrictions or royalties.
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Top
Pro
•••
Web plug-in for browser deployment
Panda3D offers web plug-ins that allow deployment of an application to all major browsers. A WebGL port is in the works as well.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Powerful profiling and debugging tools
Panda3D has a suite of powerful tools to help track down performance bottlenecks, memory leaks and examine internal state
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Hide
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Get it
here
Recommend
9
2
--
Superpowers
My Rec
ommendation
for
Superpowers
My Recommendation for
Superpowers
All
9
Pros
8
Cons
1
Top
Pro
•••
Supports both 2D and 3D
This isn't a 3D with 2D on the side type of engine. The scene-editor supports both 3D and 2D views, allowing ease of use no matter what type of game your making.
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Top
Con
•••
Not frequently updated
Although it's got very nice features as is, and the team does respond to issues at a pretty good rate, the engine itself takes a little while to get updates. It's a 3-4 person team, and they need to work jobs on the side in order to bring in income. Even though the updates come out a little slower than other engines, the team is still very much committed to the project and still support it well.
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Top
Pro
•••
Easy to use programming language
Games can be published to the web with good performance, and the game-framework utilizes TypeScript to make programming games a little bit nicer.
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Top
Pro
•••
Lots of handy built-in editors
It's got a scene-editor, cubic-model creator, text-editor, 2D image / animation importer, and a very useful tile-map editor.
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Top
Pro
•••
Plugin based
The community can develop and release their own plugins to add additional features making game development easier. All of these plugins can be easily downloaded in the app.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Collaborative
You can spin up a server and work with other people at the same time.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Cross-Platform
Works on Windows, Mac, Linux, and in web browsers.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Open Source
The desktop app, game framework, documentation, and even its website are all open-source.
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Top
Pro
•••
Free
Completely free to download and make games with
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0
Recommend
5
--
Solar 2D (formerly Corona SDK)
My Rec
ommendation
for
Solar 2D (formerly Corona SDK)
My Recommendation for
Solar 2D (formerly Corona SDK)
All
4
Pros
3
Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Good cross-platform support
iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, tvOS, Android TV, WinPhone 8 support.
See More
Specs
Dev platforms:
Windows; Macintosh
Desktop targets:
Windows; Macintosh
Mobile targets:
iOS; Android; Kindle; Windows Phone 8
TV targets:
tvOS
See All Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Free for most users
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Easy to use
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Recommend
3
1
--
Stride
My Rec
ommendation
for
Stride
My Recommendation for
Stride
All
4
Pros
2
Cons
1
Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Good looking and fast
Looking nearly as good as Unreal Engine 4, but rendering significantly faster.
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Top
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.
See More
Specs
Dev platforms:
Windows
Desktop targets:
Windows, OSX, Linux
Mobile targets:
Windows Phone, iOS, Android
Supported languages:
C#
See All Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Very modern render engine
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FREE Get It Here
Recommend
1
--
OpenMW
My Rec
ommendation
for
OpenMW
My Recommendation for
OpenMW
All
1
Pros
1
Top
Pro
•••
Works outside of Windows
At least Linux is supported, probably *BSD too, maybe MacOS.
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FREE
Recommend
1
--
Torque3D
My Rec
ommendation
for
Torque3D
My Recommendation for
Torque3D
All
3
Pros
1
Cons
1
Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Excellent networking code
Torque's approach to networking makes this one of the best performing and easiest to implement multiplayer game engines available.
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Top
Con
•••
Importing art assets is difficult and frustrating
Skins and character models can be difficult to import.
See More
Specs
Dev platforms:
Windows; OSX; Linux
Desktop targets:
Windows; OSX; Linux
Supported languages:
C++;TorqueScript
License:
MIT
See All Specs
Hide
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Recommend
1
--
Intrinsic
My Rec
ommendation
for
Intrinsic
My Recommendation for
Intrinsic
All
2
Pros
1
Cons
1
Top
Con
•••
Requires Proprietary Libraries
Requires (as of 30APR2017): NVidia PhysX Autodesk FBX (for the editor)
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Top
Pro
•••
Vulkan Based
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1
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Paradox 3D
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Paradox 3D
My Recommendation for
Paradox 3D
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11
4
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Banshee3D
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Banshee3D
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Banshee3D
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