8 Best C++ game engines for programmers

There are different people all around the world some prefer playing games while some prefer developing games, you’re one of the people who find pleasure and excitement in developing games then you’re in the right place.

Many programmers prefer C++ over other existing languages in the gaming industry. If you want to create or develop the best, you have to choose the best as well.

A fitting gaming engine will pave your way to success. Choosing a gaming engine is the first and most crucial step towards developing a game.

Listed below are game engines written in C++  giving you a detailed description of the engine itself and some of the games developed using this engine.

List of Game Engines in C++

4A Engine

This is an all-rounder game development platform. It was developed by 4A games limited. The targeted platforms for 4A engine are DirectX9 / DirectX10, PS3 (Play Station 3) , Xbox One, PS4 (Play Station 4) , Linux, Windows and Xbox 360.

The co-founders of 4A games are the brains behind the 4A engine as well, Aleksandr Maksimchuk and Oles Shiskovtsov.

Some of the features included in the 4A engine:

• Lightening and Volumetric Fogging
• HDR Rendering
• Day/night models
• Weather Models
• Global illumination effects
• Penumbra and Umbra
• Deferred reflections
• Real-time reflective lights
• Geometric displacement mapping and Parallax occlusion maps
• ADS (Advanced Deferred Shading)

Games that have been developed using 4A engine

• Metro redux
• Metro 2033
• Metro: last night
• Arktika.1

Adventure Game Studio Engine(AGS)

Want to develop graphic adventure and thriller games with an open-source development tool? The adventure game studio (AGS) engine is exactly what you need.

Intended for players who are at the mid-level between beginner and pro, this engine is predominately built to develop point and click games.

Some features included in AGS are listed below:

• It supports multiple graphic filters
• It supports games with more of an exemplary style
• A graphic range of up to 256 colours is supported
• Video Formats: OGV (Ogg Theora), WMV, AVI and FLC

Games that have been developed using AGS engine

• Resonance is a third-person point and clicks adventure game
• Apprentice II: The Knight’s Move
• Winner of the MAGS competition for June 2019
• The Journey Down: Over the Edge game: Chapter one

Aleph One-Open Source Game Engine

A project that started at the beginning of the 2000s Aleph One is a cross-platform open-source game engine. We can compile the engine on Windows, OS X and Linux.

Some of the features included in Aleph One are listed below

• Modern OpenGL shader support
• High-Resolution Graphics
• Modern Widescreen HUD Support

Games that have been developed using Alphen One

• Fight for Survival.
• Hunt for an ancient ally
• Rewrite History

Antiryad GX 3D Game Engine

Standing out because of its ability to support extensive platforms, Antiryad Gx is a unified cross-platform 3d game engine.

Since 1997, the year they developed this game engine to this day forward, Antiryad challenges and excels every other game engine when it comes to features and stability.

Originally this game engine was introduced back in 2004 and now in Version 4.7 which was introduced in September 2019.

Antiryad Gx 3D game engine Features

• Languages supported by this game engine are Gel, C and C++
• Plugin system to supplement with external libraries
• fully platform-independent, Documented and simplified API
• Full-game framework
• Full codec for desktop PCs and mobile phones
• Real-time Shadow

Games developed using Antiryad Gx 3D game engine

• Antiryad v1.5
• Let’s play ballerina
• Hidden path of faery

Anura Game Engine Developed in C++

Do you know the game Frogatto & Friends? Well, the Anura game engine is the tech behind it. When the game was first publicly released, the creators made the game engine versatile general-purpose since no additional alteration was needed.

Anura comes with its own graphical level-editor, its own markup language, FSON and its own logic language, FFL. Anura supports iOS, Window, Linux and Android.

Some features included on the Anura game engine are listed below

• If you want to edit the current level in the game, they provide a level editor.
• Prevalent graphical techniques such as particle systems are supported by Anura to optically revive things like sparks, smoke, spraying water or fire.
• Allows a custom object to have multiple blur objects attached to it because it supports motion blur.

Games that have been developed using the Anura game engine

• Frogatto & Friends
• Argentum Age
• Cube Trains

Anvil Game Engine In C++

Developed by Ubisoft Montreal game developers back in 2007, Anvil is a 3D game engine. Up until 2009, people also knew Anvil by the name Scimitar. ZBrush is a digital sculpting tool that is used for modelling the characters.

The updated version of Anvil is AnvilNext, which was introduced back in 2012.it added multiple new improvements to the game engine. Another version of AnvilNext, AnvilNext 2.0 was released two years later in 2014.

Some features included in the Anvil game engine and the late updates are listed below

• Better reflection and special effects
• Vegetation technology, i.e. the virtual experience of nature
• A full day and night cycle in the Game
• Enhanced draw distance, i.e. the maximum distance of objects in a three-dimensional scene
• New clothing system
• Non-playable Character (NPC) navigation system i.e. character in-game controlled by algorithms
• Enhanced Artificial Intelligence (AI)
• The platforms supported by the Anvil game engine are Windows, PS 3, PS 4, PS Vita, Xbox 360, Wii U and Xbox One.

Games that have been developed using the Anvil game engine

• Assassin’s Creed Origins
• Assassin’s Creed Unity
• Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
• Assassin’s Creed–Revelations
• Assassin’s Creed II
• Assassin’s Creed–Brotherhood

Aurora Toolset Developed in C++

Developed by BioWare, the aurora engine is the inheritor of the infinity engine. Aurora toolset is a stack of different tools that allow users to create their own digital adventure modules, these modules allow the ideas of programmers to turn into reality in-game.

It does not, however, support plug-ins or other third-party extensions.

To write new modules you can use the scripting language provided by Aurora ToolSet, NWScript. This language is super user friendly since it has many similarities to other languages such as Java and C language.

His toolset became a hot topic in the world of modelling. In just 6 months it had over 1000 fn made modules.

Games that have been developed using the Aurora toolset

• Neverwinter Nights – Enhanced Edition
• Neverwinter Nights
• The Witcher

Blender Game Engine in C/C++

Want to make interactive real-time content? Blender, an open-source 3D graphics production suite is the perfect choice for you. Blender supports many features such as Python scripting and OpenAL 3D.

it operates on Linux, macOS 10.12+ and Windows 10,8 and 7.

Some features included on the Blender game engine are listed below

• SDL Toolkit for Audio
• Python Scripting API
• Fully defined advanced game logic
• Vehicle dynamics support
• Discrete collision detection
• In-game dynamic constraint activation support
• Multi-layered scenes for overlay interfaces

Games that have been developed using Blender

• Sintel the Game
• Yo Frankie!

BuildBox C++ Game development Platform

Founded in August 2014 by Trey Smith, Buildbox is a C++ game development platform. The initiative of this platform is to allow anybody to develop computer games without coding.

Builbox can transport the products to significant game stores such as Android, iOS, Amazon TV, PC, Amazon Mobile Devices, Mac, and Steam because of its focus on developing and producing mobile games.

A tutorial about operating BuildBox for beginners is available by their staff. Users can now develop unique 3D objects without coding easily.

Some features included in BuildBox are listed below :

• To create a collision effect or reshape the collision of an asset, the collision editor is available.
• The asset bar helps users to organize in-game assets.
• The image drop wheel helps the users to insert images to the UI screen with no complexity.
• Unique assets, soundtracks, and animations are also provided by the asset store for the user to begin the project.
• The scene editor permits you to include and alter singular scenes that make up your game world.
• Buildbox also brings forward the option to add monetization to your projects once it exports them. This feature helps users to earn from their projects.

Games that have been developed using Buildbox

• Color switch
• Bruce Lee
• Line Zen
• Hyper fruits

C4 Game Engine Written In C++

Made commercially available in 2005 by Terathon Software, the C4 Game engine is written in C/C++ and is based on OpenGL.

It supports several gaming platforms such as Linux, PS4, PS3, OS X and Windows.it is used to create high definition graphics 3D games for PC and console.

Users can now create interactive virtual simulations, allowing them to explore their creative sides with the game engine and develop their imaginations into reality.

Features included in the C4 game engine are listed below

• World editor is a 3D asset creating application provided by the engine that allows users to create geometric objects, light, sound and different effects
• The developer uses Scripting editor to determine the order of execution of in-game assets
• They support Multiplayer gaming by a two-layer messaging system that used UDP protocol to communicate among different computers.
• The engine supports the WAV audio format using 16-bit mono or stereo sampling
• C4 engine comprises an OpenGL library for Mac, Windows, and Linux. It used a one-pass-per-light forward rendering model for the graphics rendering.
  The engine can also make light sources useful for big outdoor scenes by rendering different light sources and shadowing methods using a technique called shadow mapping.

Games that have been developed using the C4 game engine

• World of subways
• Fat Princess Adventure
• Citybus Simulator

Conclusion

If you’re looking to develop digital games on console, PC, or even mobile and want a game engine written in C++ then there are no worries since these are just the tip of the iceberg.

Every game engine has its unique features and has games developed in them for you to see how the games turn out to e developed in the said game engine.

Now that you know the game engine written in C++ you can go ahead and develop your own games.

Written by Shahid Siddique

I am a software engineer with over 10 years of experience in blogging and web development. I have expertise in both front-end and back-end development, as well as database design, web security, and SEO.