Top C++ Game Engines To Use In 2024 – Game Engine for C++

A strong C++ game engine can have an important effect on game development. Along with offering an excellent base for game production, it has the ability to improve the gaming experience. 

Selecting an appropriate game engine for C++ is the first stage in the game creation process. You must first decide what kind of game you want to create. 

Keeping these things in mind, you can look at other engines and how they can help you out. There are several gaming engines with various frameworks available in today’s technology. 

Choosing the best engines requires careful thought. This is why we made the top C++ game engines of 2024 list to help you make this decision. 

This article will also mention the elements, resources, and strengths that will simplify the process for you. 

Let’s examine what a C++ game engine is and how it operates. 

What is Game Engine?

An application with toolkits for creating games is called a “game engine.” 

The reason for this definition’s complexity is that the tools provided by each engine can vary greatly in terms of their nature and expression.

The vast majority of game engine tools are designed to decrease some of the boredom related to creation. 

It is quite difficult, for example, to present a 3D model on display in the past. Simply put, 3D models consist of tiny cubes with color pixel values assigned to them. 

Therefore, all we have to do is tell the computer how to take the visible portions of the 3D model, change them into two-dimensional pictures, and finally assign a tint to every pixel on our screen. 

The game engines have assembled resources made up of several parts, they offer a set of optimized visual engines that are quite quick. 

Importance of Choosing the Right Game Engine

Game engines are superior to traditional game production techniques for various reasons. It offers important features that you can only use with a game engine. 

There are several reasons to use game engines, for example, developers can create games with the resources and tools provided by game engines. 

The “routine work” of game production is, mostly handled by game engines. Freeing up programmers to focus on creating the atmosphere. Because game engines require less skill to produce games, they are far more effective. 

Game engines let game creators create games with either minimal or fully featured pre-built elements. A huge benefit of starting with nothing is that game engines allow teams or lone designers to focus only on making the best game possible. 

Let’s now dive into the list of the best C++ game engines to use this year. 

Best C++ Game Engines to Use in 2024

Godot

The first and best C++ game engine we’re gonna talk about is the Godot game engine.  Godot is the solution if you’re looking for a free and open-source game engine for C++ that lets you customize it and promote your games. 

The engine supports both 2D and 3D capabilities, making it flexible enough to be used to make any kind of game. To set itself apart from other firms and simplify things for a lot of people. 

Godot also uses a unique node and scene design technique to illustrate specific game features. 

Key Features of Godot

• Supported platform: The engine simplifies the resolution and texture contraction settings for each channel and makes it easier to distribute to a variety of systems. 

• Scripting: Godot supports several programming languages for game development, including GDScript, C++. Gadot Docs Native, a tool for creating links with other languages, is another aspect of the engine. GDN native languages that are properly approved are C and C++. 

• GD Script: With a built-in scripting language for Godot, GDScript is a high-level, highly-typed programming language with a syntax similar to Python. 

Unity

Since its debut in 2005, the Unity game engine has become essential to the independent game industry. This C++ game engine is regularly updated with 2D and 3D games of all kinds. 

Many companies and programmers have made useful software development kits (SDKs) for the engine, making it a popular choice for developing interactive virtual games and augmented reality applications.

Unity also boasts an important user community and an easily accessible asset store with a variety of both free and commercial items. 

Key Features of Unity Game Engine

• User-friendly: Unity is incredibly user-friendly because it works with a variety of operating systems, including PC, iOS, and Android.

• Online tutorials: Their website has an abundance of online tutorials that are quite easy to understand, especially for new users. 

• Multiplayer games: The platform offers an abundance of features that encourage developers to produce top-notch games for gamers to play online. 

• Less coding: You don’t need any coding knowledge or experience to use Unity game engine.

C4 Engine 

C++ and OpenGL (Open Graphics Library) were used to construct the C4 gaming engine. C4 makes 3D games with high resolution for consoles and PCs. The gaming engine allows artists to produce spectacular work and explore new and fresh perspectives by building dynamic virtual simulation models.  

People can access the engine’s documentation via a wiki and a collection of API (Application Programming Interface) web pages. 

Key Features of C4 Engine

• The engine works with WAV audio files and uses 16-bit mono or stereo testing. A disk drive or memory can contain audio that the engine can play. 

• A double layer communication system that connects across many machines using the UDP protocol is employed to enable multiplayer gaming. 

• The world editor of the engine is a tool for creating 3D objects, such as geometric shapes, lights, sounds, and various effects. 

CryEngine 3 

The open-source CryEngine framework can be used to develop 3D experiments, C++ games, infographics, simulation models, and more.

CryEngine is ready for takeoff with open access to all operating systems, complete commercialization, and readiness for virtual reality development. Games for game engines can be developed using the top-ranked programming languages.

They allow game developers access to a wide range of game engine functions since they use an intuitive programming language, making it simple for them to create realistic and high-quality 3D images. 

Key Features of CryEngine 3

• Documentation: Because CryEngine does not include complex code, its documentation is fairly easy to grasp. 

• Visual: CryEngine’s library of top-notch images is used for graphics while creating a game. 

• AI (Artificial Intelligence) and Animations: Thanks to AI’s wonderful characteristics, making realistic-looking 3D and 2D games is simple.

GDevelop 

Gdevelop is a free and open-source 2D and 3D cross-platform game engine focusing on making HTML5 and C++ games that can be played in a browser on PCs and mobile devices. 

Gdevelop uses event-based visual programming, similar to engines like Construct, Stencyl, and Tynker, and is primarily targeted at non programmers and game makers of all ability levels. 

Games education using Gdevelop has been observed in settings ranging from elementary schools to university courses. 

Researchers and educators have also made it their first priority to develop serious games and educational materials. 

Key Features of GDevelop

• Editors Extension: Custom events, actions, or features can be added with user-made extensions.

• Language support for JavaScript editing: While the main goal of GDevelop is to use the event system to allow development without the need for any programming language code, any event may also be substituted with a JavaScript code block.

• Integrated content editor: There are integrated graphic and audio editors in the GDevelop IDE. JFXR is integrated for sound effect creation, while Piskel is for art editing. 

Torque

The Torque C++ Game Engine, sometimes known as TGE, is an open source, cross-platform 3D computer game engine that was created by GarageGames and is being actively maintained for both torque 2D and 3D. 

Dynamix was the original developer of it. GarageGames published Torque 3D as free software with an MIT license in September 2012. 

Torque 3D has a world editor package that includes material, particle, and decal editing tools, along with tools for painting wood, creating rivers, and creating highways. 

Key Features of Torque

• Editors: Everything you need to create environments and levels out of your files is included with Torque 3D. Shapes are added to the in-game editor after being imported in collada DAE format.

• Networking: As the brain behind the online shooter tribes 2, torque has continuously offered dependable high-performance networking for action-packed online games since its founding.

• Physics Plugin: A physics plugin system is offered by torque 3D. A straightforward implementation is included, however, it is trivial to replace with PhysX or Bullet libraries. 

Panda 3D 

The intended language for game development with Panda 3D is Python. The engine is constructed in C++ and exposes all of its functionality through a Python interface by means of an automatic wrapper generator. 

Although C++ is an option, Python is used by default in the instructions and the sample applications. There is complete support for both languages.

 C++ may be widely used but developers prefer Python and use this language more frequently. 

Key Features of Panda 3D

• Platform Portability. The Panda 3D core is written in portable C++. 

• Flexible Asset Handling. 
• Library Bindings.
• Extensibility.
• Performance Profiling.

Urho 3D

If you want to experiment with C++ game production, this is an excellent place to start, even though it could be a better C++ game engine overall. 

The developers did excellent work in detailing specific procedures, like configuring Windows using Visual Studios. However, there was a learning curve, and it was challenging to grasp what was going on even by glancing at the GitHub repository. 

The team would have failed without the wiki pages and extra materials highlighting important aspects of Urho3D.

Key Features of Urho 3D

• Every kind of light can have shadow mapping. 
• Terrain that has been geomagnetically mapped. 
• Integrating 2D particle rendering into 3DD scenes. 
• Skinned and Static decals. 
• Rasterized occlusion culling software. 

Odyssey Engine

BioWare developed the Odyssey Engine, a computer game engine that has been used to make 3D role-playing games. 

After Infinity and Aurora Engine, this is the third that BioWare has made available for licensing.

The highly regarded Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic was created by BioWare using this engine. 

Obsidian Entertainment was granted the license to use the engine in the creation of the follow-up, Star Wars: The Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords. 

Key Features of Odyssey Engine

This is their third licensable engine, following the 2D Infinity Engine and the 3D Aurora Engine. The Aurora engine served as the foundation for the addition of 3D backgrounds and character face expressions. The Xbox, Mac OS C, and Windows XP operating systems are supported. 

Leadwerk 

Leadwerks Software is a cross-platform C++ gaming engine that prioritizes user-friendliness and education. The software supports Windows, and Linux, with OS X support in development. 

Leadwerks is available for purchase via the Steam digital distribution platform and is presently on its fourth major version.

Programming is not necessary to build basic games thanks to the flowgraph framework and visual editor. Advanced game dynamics can be achieved with Lua Scripts, although C++ is useful for low-level programming and external library imports. 

Key Features of Leadwerk

• Sophisticated Graphics.
• System of Painting and using Vegetation.
• UV Automatic Mapping.
• LUA Script Editor is integrated. 
• Tools for Constructive Modeling of Solid Geometry. 

FAQ’s

What Are the System Requirements for C++ Game Engine?

A 64-bit Windows or Linux operating system, 8 GB of RAM, and a Direct3D 11 or Metal Graphic Card are the minimal requirements for the engine.