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List of free game engines

CodeCat's Photo CodeCat 01 May 2009

A list of game engines that can be freely used for game development. When listing your favourite engine, please give a bit of a description and its strong and weak points. Also specify what genre of game the engine is made for, the language(s) the engine requires to be used (C++, Java, custom scripts, XML etc.), and the licence the engine is released under.
Edited by CodeCat, 01 May 2009 - 22:36.
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G-sus's Photo G-sus 01 May 2009

Irrlicht Engine

Irrlicht Engine is about the best free open source game engine you can get your hands on.
Its written in and for use of C++, although all .NET languares are supported too.
Irrlicht can be used for about any game you wanna make, and its a very performant engine.
List of features is kinda too much to post here, but check the site out, there´s lots of tutorials ect also.
Big bonus: the license allows you even to use it free if your project is commercial or not open source...



jMonkeyEngine

a game engine in java :P
althoug its probably not as good as Irrlicht, its pretty good as well, and much more easy too use.
got lots of features too, and tutorials on the site. check it out...
(also, anyone doing stuff with that pm me, since i´m about to start there too...)
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Sgt. Rho's Photo Sgt. Rho 06 Nov 2009

http://www.udk.com/

Unreal Engine 3.
Yes, they have made the UT3 engine free, to an extent. It is completely free for indie game devs, or you have to pay 25% of the "profit" if you sell the game and make more than 5000$ of total profit.

The UDK includes practically all official tools available for the UT3 engine.
Even though the UT3 engine is made for shooters, it also works just as well with sidescrollers, etc.
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Libains's Photo Libains 06 Nov 2009

View PostSargeant Rho, on 6 Nov 2009, 19:51, said:

http://www.udk.com/

Unreal Engine 3.
Yes, they have made the UT3 engine free, to an extent. It is completely free for indie game devs, or you have to pay 25% of the "profit" if you sell the game and make more than 5000$ of total profit.

The UDK includes practically all official tools available for the UT3 engine.
Even though the UT3 engine is made for shooters, it also works just as well with sidescrollers, etc.


Indeed, just noticed this over at moddb, this could well be an extremely awesome thing for games modding, should release the potential in a number of games. :)
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JJ's Photo JJ 07 Nov 2009

Renegade X as a standalone game, anyone? :)

EDIT: Cool, already one UT3 mod released as standalone already.
Edited by JJ, 07 November 2009 - 08:22.
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BeefJeRKy's Photo BeefJeRKy 08 Nov 2009

That would be very cool :D Maybe means I won't need UT3? In fact, I would pay for Renegade X once it's finished.
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Strategia's Photo Strategia 08 Nov 2009

http://springrts.com/

Spring, open-source RTS engine. Originally designed as a 3D port of Total Annihilation, most currently available mods are heavily based around that game and the engine's mechanics are still geared largely towards a TA-style system.

-GPL licence
-Windows and Linux support
-Written in C++
-Extensive mutator possibilities with Lua, allowing custom widgets or GUIs even in existing mods without causing sync problems
-Full-3D
-Complex physics engine allowing, for example, realistic weapon trajectories and terrain deformation
-Many possibilities with AI, completely custom AI, unit group AIs
-Massive battles on land, at sea and in the air, with hundreds or thousands of units fighting at once
-First-person control of units

It's apparently a quite complex engine to mod, but the sheer amount of possibilities make it interesting and worthwhile nonetheless.
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Erik's Photo Erik 09 Nov 2009

Spring is indeed pretty nice, i wish i had free time to put in it. I can only recommend it, its not perfect but gets updates regularly. Also beware of the folks over their with their fetish for huge walker-mecha-robots and icons instead of a zoom skale that makes you see shit xD. But aside form that its cool 8|
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Zhao's Photo Zhao 18 Nov 2009

Yes spring is a very nice engine to be free , i would pay for it :)
Edited by Zhao, 18 November 2009 - 14:28.
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H4mm3r's Photo H4mm3r 26 Nov 2009

Wow, Spring sounds ten times better than SAGE!
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Erik's Photo Erik 02 Dec 2009

It is. It has almost limitless possibilities, limitless if you got someone who can code C++.
And ofcourse a lot of time to work into it :D
Edited by Erik, 02 December 2009 - 23:06.
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Pav:3d's Photo Pav:3d 15 Dec 2009

Unity is now free, Im going to use it for my assignment infact.
Its pretty good, this game was made in it, and it aint bad
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Ion Cannon!'s Photo Ion Cannon! 21 Dec 2009

Unreal 3 engine is now free.

http://www.unrealtec...lopment-kit.php
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lithon's Photo lithon 22 May 2010

I like this Irrlicht Engine
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Numbers's Photo Numbers 30 May 2010

Gish OpenSource is released
Download
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Generalcamo's Photo Generalcamo 21 Jun 2010

Umm, The unreal 3 engine is now free. The makers made an SDK for making ANYTHING. The renegade X team is now porting there mod to it, which will make it STAND ALONE.

Edit: I really need to read the whole thread before posting something.
Edited by General Camo, 21 June 2010 - 16:35.
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Gen.Kenobi's Photo Gen.Kenobi 08 Jul 2010

NeoAxis anyone?
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Deformat's Photo Deformat 17 Aug 2010

What's sad is that I don't see any 2D open-source war strategy games, like TS/ Dune series/ YR. :(
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Generalcamo's Photo Generalcamo 20 Aug 2010

W3D engine:
This engine was developed for C&C renegade. And supports 3D effects, Scripts 4.0 adds more features.
Strong: Is a precursor to SAGE, so most of you will be familiar with it.
Weak: Old engine fails, but scripts 4.0 will fix most of the fails.

You require C++ knowlege for advance coding and INI experience for basic coding. Data is stored in .MIX and .DAT files, .DAT being game files, .MIX being maps.

Ingame models use W3Ds and textures are .DDS and .TGA. Making a map is by making a .W3D then editing it VIA Leveledit, something included with renegade public tools.

To get your EXE, talk to EA_Goodman at EA forums.
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CodeCat's Photo CodeCat 20 Aug 2010

I'd hardly call that a free game engine...
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Generalcamo's Photo Generalcamo 21 Aug 2010

It's "free" but not open source...
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Destiny's Photo Destiny 21 Aug 2010

Not really free...still. You have to ask for permission and it's not 100% you'll be granted permission.
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Sgt. Rho's Photo Sgt. Rho 27 Sep 2010

http://www.udk.com/download

There's a new UDK version out btw.
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Deformat's Photo Deformat 29 Oct 2010

OpenRA (Open Red Alert (1) )

http://openra.res0l.net/
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