http://www.codemonsters.de/home/content.php?show=freelibraries#4
/Developer Portal/Free Game Development Libraries
The following list is a collection of open source libraries, SDKs, frameworks, engines, tools, and utilities which might come in handy for your (game development) projects. With one exception, the Golden T Game Engine, which has been developed in Java, all of the listed libraries are written in C/C++.Special thanks go out to Ben Sizer a.k.a. Kylotan from Gamedev.net's community forum.
Content:
- 2D Graphics
- 3D Graphics Engines
- 3D Game Engines
- Artificial Intelligence
- Audio (Sound & Music)
- Collision Detection
- Compression
- Encryption
- Font Handling
- General Purpose
- Graphical User Interfaces
- Image Handling
- Mathematics
- Mesh Optimization and Preprocessing
- Model Handling & 3D Character Animation
- Multimedia/Game Libraries
- Networking
- Physics
- OpenGL
- OpenGL Extension Handling
- Scripting Languages
- SDL - Simple DirectMedia Layer
- Visualization
- Widget Toolkits
- XML
- Unsorted
Latest updates:
- July 17, 2008: Added Arauna, a real-time ray tracer, by Jacco Bikker
- July 13, 2008: Added Phya by Zenprobe
- July 6, 2008: Added Drome Engine by Josh Beam
- July 1, 2008: Added dclib, Detours, Geometry Utility Library, Havok, libQGLViewer, libRocket, Pantheios,POCO C++ Libraries, Tiny Template Library, Visualization Library, as well as FLTK, FOX Toolkit, Qt Cross-Platform Application Framework, and wxWidgets
- April 29, 2008: Added ACTC by Brad Grantham and The Mesh SDK by Mike Chow
- April 20, 2008: Added AES by Chris Lomont, Box2D by Erin Catto, Glyph Keeper by Kirill Kryukov, GNE by Jason Winnebeck, and PMASK
- March 27, 2008: Added CML (Configurable Math Library) by Jesse Anders
- March 22, 2008: Added FreeSG by Hypertriton, Inc., Cyclone Physics Simulator by Ian Millington, Right Brain Games GUI and Mocha by Right Brain Games as well as the Wild Magic Graphics Engine by David Eberly
- February 29, 2008: Added Dirent by Kevlin Henney and glpng by Ben Wyatt
- February 26, 2008: Added LodePNG by Lode Vandevenne
- February 6, 2008: Added XMLParser by Frank Vanden Berghen
- January 8, 2008: Added stbi by Sean Barrett
CDX Library
www.cdxlib.com
Description: CDX is a free Game Development Kit which is comprised of a set of C++ wrapper classes for writing Windows games. It is built on top of Microsoft Windows and DirectX technology and offers simple to use C++ wrappers for all aspects of game development. This includes things like sprites, tiles, scollable maps, alpha blending and even 3D primitives (using Direct3D). CDX takes care of the low-level details of using DirectX, providing you with an easy to use toolkit for implementing your own games using simple yet flexible C++ classes. With only a handful of classes, CDX is quick to learn and easy to use.
Added: October 31, 2004
Eclipse 2D Game Engine
eclipseeng.sourceforge.net
Author: JGH
License: LGPL
Added: October 31, 2004
Golden T Game Engine
goldenstudios.or.id/products/GTGE/
Description: Golden T Game Engine (GTGE) is an advanced cross-platform game programming library written in Javalanguage. GTGE library provides a complete routines for making 2D game, from low level routines such as hardware accelerated 2D graphics, mouse and keyboard input, audio, timing, to game specific routines such as sprite, background, collision detection.
Author: Paulus Tuerah
License: free, but requires credits
Added: March 28, 2005
hxRender
mavweb.mnsu.edu/longaj/hxrender/
Author: Joel Longanecker
License: zlib
Platforms: Windows, GNU/Linux, MacOS X
Added: October 31, 2004
Haaf's Game Engine - Hardware accelerated 2D game engine
hge.relishgames.com
License: Free for non-commercial use
Platforms: Windows
Added: October 31, 2004
Arauna - Real-Time Ray Tracing
igad.nhtv.nl/~bikker/
Description: Arauna is a real-time ray tracer developed for game development.
Author: Jacco Bikker
License: Free for non-commerical use
Added: July 17, 2008
Crystal Space 3D
www.crystalspace3d.org
Description: Crystal Space is a free and portable 3D Game Development Kit written in C++.
License: LGPL
Platforms: GNU/Linux, Unix, Windows, MacOS X
Added: October 31, 2004
Delta3D
delta3d.org
Description: A well-supported and fully-funded open source project, Delta3D is a full-function game engine appropriate for a wide variety of modeling & simulation applications.
License: LGPL
Added: March 28, 2005
Demeter Terrain Engine
demeter.sourceforge.net
Description: Demeter is a cross-platform C++ library that renders 3D terrains using OpenGL. Demeter is designed for fast performance and good visual quality and makes use of advanced techniques such as dynamic tessellation (adaptive mesh) to render vast landscapes in real-time, without the need for high-end hardware. It is written as a stand-alone component that can be easily integrated into any kind of application.
Author: Clay Fowler
License: LGPL
Added: October 31, 2004
ExNihilo
www.ploksoftware.org
Description: ExNihilo engine is new technology based on multi manager system.
Added: October 31, 2004
FreeSG
www.freesg.org
Description: FreeSG is a portable, high-level open-source 3D engine with an emphasis on generality.
Authors: Hypertriton, Inc.
License: BSD
Added: March 22, 2008
G3D C++ Library
g3d-cpp.sourceforge.net
Description: G3D is a commercial-grade 3D Engine available as Open Source. It is used in games, tech demos, research papers, military simulators, and university courses. It can support real-time rendering, off-line rendering, back-end game server management of 3D worlds, and use of graphics hardware for general purpose computing.
Authors: Morgan McGuire, Peter Sibley, Ben Landon, Peter Hunt, Giulio Mainardi, Gabe Taubman
License: BSD
Platforms: Windows, GNU/Linux, MacOS X
Added: October 31, 2004
Genesis3D Engine
www.genesis3d.com
Description: Genesis3D is a real-time 3D rendering environment for all of your real-time 3D needs.
Added: October 31, 2004
Horde3D - Next-Generation Graphics Engine
www.nextgen-engine.net
Description: Horde3D is a small open source 3D rendering engine. It is written in an effort to create a graphics engine that offers the stunning visual effects expected in next-generation games while at the same time being as lightweight and conceptually clean as possible. Horde3D has a simple and intuitive interface accessible from virtually any programming language and is particularly suitable for rendering large crowds of animated characters in next-generation quality.
Author: Nicolas Schulz
License: LGPL
Added: October 6, 2007
Irrlicht Engine
irrlicht.sourceforge.net
Description: The Irrlicht Engine is an open source high performance realtime 3D engine written and usable in C++ and also available for .NET languages. It is completely cross-platform, using D3D, OpenGL and its own software renderer, and has all of the state-of-the-art features which can be found in commercial 3d engines.
Author: Nikolaus Gebhardt
License: zlib
Platforms: Windows, GNU/Linux
Added: October 31, 2004
Jet3D
www.jet3d.com
Added: October 31, 2004
Lightfeather
lf.mmdevel.de/news.php
Description: Lightfeather (formerly Irrlicht NX++) is an open source 3D Engine for MacOSX, Windows and Linux.
License: zlib/libpng
Platforms: Windows, GNU/Linux, MacOS X
Added: October 31, 2004
Nebula Device 2
nebuladevice.cubik.org
Description: Nebula Device is an open source realtime 3D game/visualization engine, written in C++. Version 2 is a modern rendering engine making full use of shaders.
Platforms: Windows, GNU/Linux, MacOS X
Added: October 31, 2004
NVSG SDK
developer.nvidia.com/object/nvsg_home.html
Description: The nVIDIA Scene Graph Software Development Kit is an object-oriented programming library for creating scene graph-based applications.
Author: nVIDIA
Added: October 31, 2004
Ogre3D
www.ogre3d.org
Description: Ogre (Object-oriented Graphics Rendering Engine) is an open-source graphics rendering engine.
License: LGPL
Added: October 31, 2004
OpenSceneGraph
www.openscenegraph.org
Description: The OpenSceneGraph is an open source high peformance 3D graphics toolkit, used by application developers in fields such as visual simulation, games, virtual reality, scientific visualization and modelling.
License: OpenSceneGraph Public License (based on the LGPL)
Platforms: Windows, MacOS X, GNU/Linux, IRIX, Solaris, FreeBSD
Added: October 31, 2004
SGL - A 3D Scene Graph Library
sgl.sourceforge.net
Description: SGL consists of a set of cross-platform C++ libraries, built on top of OpenGL, which implements 3D scene graph functionality, some simple 3D model loaders, and some miscellaneous utilities.
Added: October 31, 2004
SxDL Game Development Toolkit
sxdl.sourceforge.net
Description: SxDL is a powerful and an easy to use 2D and 3D Game Development Framework for MS Windows and MS DirectX.
License: GPL
Added: October 31, 2004
Wild Magic Real-Time 3D Graphics Engine
www.geometrictools.com
Author: David Eberly
License: LGPL
Added: March 22, 2008
XEngine
xengine.sourceforge.net
Description: XEngine is a platform- and rendering-API-independent 3D engine for real-time visualization with support for programmable graphics pipeline architectures and is implemented in C++. The engine aims at flexible support for many of the shading languages available today, so that existing shaders can easily be re-used. This includes current assembler-like languages as well as high-level languages, such as NVIDIA's Cg. In addition, integration of new shading languages should be easily possible with the engine's design.
Author: Martin Ecker
License: zlib
Added: October 31, 2004
Yake
www.yake.org
Description: Yake is a small, flexible, cross-platform game engine/application framework.
License: LGPL
Added: March 28, 2005
Apocalyx
apocalyx.sourceforge.net
Description: Apocalyx is an OpenGL 3D engine. The current implementation supports Win98 (or higher) and accelerated 3D graphic cards with OpenGL drivers.
License: GPL
Platforms: Windows
Added: October 31, 2004
Cube Engine
www.cubeengine.com
Description: Cube is an open source multiplayer and singleplayer first person shooter game built on an entirely new and very unconventional engine. Cube is a landscape-style engine that pretends to be an indoor FPS engine, which combines very high precision dynamic occlusion culling with a form of geometric mipmapping on the whole world for dynamic LOD for configurable fps & graphic detail on most machines. Uses OpenGL & SDL.
Author: Wouter van Oortmerssen
License: zlib
Added: October 31, 2004
Drome Engine
www.3ddrome.com/engine.php
Author: Josh Beam
Added: July 6, 2008
Fly3D
www.fly3d.com.br
Description: Fly3D is a plugin-oriented, OpenGL-based 3D games engine and development kit. It offers rendering, input, sound and scene control methods for game programmers to build their game software, as well as a variety of tools for game developers to add and modify content to game projects.
Authors: Alan Watt, Fabio Policarpo
License: GPL
Added: October 31, 2004
NeoEngine
www.neoengine.org
Description: NeoEngine is an Open Source 3D game engine
License: MPL
Added: October 31, 2004
Panda3D
panda3d.etc.cmu.edu
Description: The free open source game and simulation engine, developed by Disney and maintained by Carnegie Mellon University's Entertainment Technology Center.
License: Free
Added: March 28, 2005
QuakeForge
www.quakeforge.net
Description: QuakeForge is a 3D graphics game engine based on id Software's legendary Quake and QuakeWorld game engine.
License: GPL
Added: October 31, 2004
Tenebrae
tenebrae.sourceforge.net
Description: Tenebrae is a modification of the quake source that adds stencil shadows and per pixel lights to quake.
Added: October 31, 2004
FEAR - Foundations for Genuine Game AI
fear.sourceforge.net
License: GPL
Added: September 13, 2007
MicroPather
www.grinninglizard.com/MicroPather/
Description: Pathing Made Simple. MicroPather is a path finder and A* solver (astar or a-star) written in platform independent C++ that can be easily integrated into existing code. MicroPather focuses on being a path finding engine for video games but is a generic A* solver.
Author: Lee Thomason
License: zlib
Added: September 13, 2007
OpenSteer
opensteer.sourceforge.net
Description: OpenSteer is a C++ library to help build steering behaviors for autonomous characters in games and animation. OpenSteer provides an app which displays predefined demos of steering behaviors. You can prototype, visualize and debug your own as a plug-in.
Author: Craig Reynolds
License: MIT
Platforms: Windows, All POSIX (Linux/BSD/UNIX-like OSes), Linux, MacOS X
Added: October 31, 2004
PathLib - Game Pathfinding Library
pathlib.hildebrand.cz/pathlib.html
Description: The Pathlib is an independent simple library (written in C) for searching optimal paths for objects in map. The library solves generally tasks like finding optimal-cost path in map, timing objects and their movement in map, simple collision detection and solving of deadlocks.
License: unknown
Added: September 13, 2007
Audiere
audiere.sourceforge.net
Description: Audiere is a high-level audio API. It can play Ogg Vorbis, MP3, FLAC, uncompressed WAV, AIFF, MOD, S3M, XM, and IT files. For audio output, Audiere supports DirectSound or WinMM in Windows, OSS on Linux and Cygwin, and SGI AL on IRIX.
Author: Chad Austin
License: LGPL
Platforms: Windows, Linux-i386, Cygwin, IRIX
Added: October 31, 2004
BASS Audio Library
www.un4seen.com
Description: BASS is an audio library for use in Windows and Mac OSX software. Its purpose is to provide developers with the most powerful and efficient (yet easy to use), sample, stream (MP3, MP2, MP1, OGG, WAV, AIFF, custom generated, and more via add-ons), MOD music (XM, IT, S3M, MOD, MTM, UMX), MO3 music (MP3/OGG compressed MODs), and recording functions. All in a tiny DLL, under 100KB* in size.
Author: un4seen development
License: Free for non-commercial use
Platforms: Windows, MacOS X
Added: October 31, 2004
FMOD Sound System
www.fmod.org
Description: FMOD is a cross platform audio library to let you easily implement the latest audio technologies into your title.
Authors: Firelight Technologies Pty, Ltd
License: Free for non-commercial use
Platforms: Windows, Linux, MacOS X, PS2, Xbox, GC...
Added: October 31, 2004
FreeSL - Free Sound Library
www.lukasheise.com/web_res/freesl.html
Description: FreeSL (Free Sound Library) is a OpenAL wrapper. It also includes the EAX 2.0 library for realistic audio environment simulations plus occlusion and obstruction.
Author: Lukas Heise
License: Free
Added: October 6, 2007
Hekkus Sound System
www.shlzero.com
Description: Hekkus Sound System is a small and fast sound engine for WinCE/Win32/Symbian and .NET application, expecially designed for games.
Author: Thomas Maniero
License: Donate-Ware
Platforms: Win32, WinCE, Symbian
Added: October 31, 2004
irrKlang
www.ambiera.com/irrklang/index.html
Description: irrKlang is a cross platform audio library designed to be used in games, scientific simulations and similar.
Author: Nikolaus Gebhardt
License: irrKlang License
Added: September 17, 2007
Libsndfile
www.mega-nerd.com/libsndfile/
Description: Libsndfile is a C library for reading and writing files containing sampled sound (such as MS Windows WAV and the Apple/SGI AIFF format) through one standard library interface.
Author: Erik de Castro Lopo
License: LGPL
Platforms: Windows, Linux, MacOS X, Solaris, QNX
Added: October 31, 2004
libMikMod
mikmod.raphnet.net
Description: Mikmod is a module player and library supporting many formats, including mod, s3m, it, and xm.
Author: Raphaël Assénat
License: LGPL
Added: September 17, 2007
Ogg Vorbis
www.vorbis.com
Description: Ogg Vorbis is a completely open, patent-free, professional audio encoding and streaming technology with all the benefits of Open Source.
License: BSD-like
Added: September 17, 2007
OpenAL
www.openal.org
Description: OpenAL is a cross-platform 3D audio API appropriate for use with gaming applications and many other types of audio applications.
Platforms: Windows, Linux, MacOS X, UNIX, Xbox
Added: October 31, 2004
Open Source Audio Library Project
osalp.sourceforge.net
Authors: Bruce Forsberg, Darrick Servis
License: LGPL
Platforms: Linux, Solaris, FreeBSD
Added: October 31, 2004
Phya - Physical Audio for Virtual Worlds
www.zenprobe.com/phya/
Description: Phya is a C++ library, that was created as an expandable system for adding physical audio to a virtual world.
License: zlib
Added: July 13, 2008
PortAudio
www.portaudio.com
Description: PortAudio is a free, cross platform, open-source, audio I/O library.
Authors: Ross Bencina, Phil Burk
License: Free
Platforms: Windows, MacOS X, Unix, SGI, BeOS
Added: October 31, 2004
SDL_mixer
www.libsdl.org/projects/SDL_mixer/
Description: A sample multi-channel audio mixer library.
Authors: Sam Lantinga, Stephane Peter, Ryan Gordon
License: LGPL
Platforms: Windows, MacOS X, Linux
Added: October 31, 2004
SDL_sound
icculus.org/SDL_sound/
Description: SDL_sound is a library that handles the decoding of several popular sound file formats, such as .WAV and .MP3.
Author: Ryan C. Gordon
License: LGPL
Platforms: Windows, Linux, MacOS X, FreeBSD, BeOS
Added: October 31, 2004
Bitmask
people.ifm.liu.se/ulfek/bitmask/
Description: The Bitmask library provides C functions for 2D pixel-perfect collision detection. In addition to just collision detection the library can also calculate a point of intersection and the number of overlapping pixels in an efficient way.
Author: Ulf Ekström
License: LGPL
Added: September 13, 2007
ColDet - Free 3D Collision Detection Library
photoneffect.com/coldet/
Description: This library is an effort to provide a free collision detection library for generic polyhedra. Its purpose is mainly for 3D games where accurate detection is needed between two non-simple objects.
Author: Amir Geva
License: LGPL
Platforms: Windows, Linux
Added: October 31, 2004
FreeSOLID - Software Library for Interference Detection
www.win.tue.nl/~gino/solid/index.html
Description: SOLID is a library for collision detection of three-dimensional objects undergoing rigid motion and deformation. SOLID is designed to be used in interactive 3D graphics applications, and is especially suited for collision detection of objects and worlds described in VRML.
Author: Gino van den Bergen
License: LGPL
Added: October 31, 2004
GImpact
gimpact.sourceforge.net
Description: GImpact is a software library with tools for geometry processing and collision detection, focused on solving most common problems on Virtual Reality development.
Author: Francisco Leon
License: LGPL
Added: September 14, 2007
PMASK
sourceforge.net/projects/pmask/
Description: Optimized "pixel perfect" collision detection intended for use in 2-D games. This is intended for use with either Allegro or SDL (game-oriented IO libraries), but does not require either.
License: Public Domain
Added: April 20, 2008
OPCODE - Optimized Collision Detection
www.codercorner.com/Opcode.htm
Description: OPCODE is a new small collision detection library. It is similar to popular packages such as SOLID or RAPID, but more memory-friendly, and often faster.
Author: Pierre Terdiman
License: Free
Platforms: Windows, Linux
Added: October 31, 2004
RAPID - Robust and Accurate Polygon Interference Detection
www.cs.unc.edu/~geom/OBB/OBBT.html
Description: RAPID is a robust and accurate polygon interference detection library for large environments composed of unstructured models.
License: Free for non-commercial use
Added: October 31, 2004
V-Collide - Collision Detection for Arbitrary Polygonal Objects
www.cs.unc.edu/%7Egeom/V_COLLIDE/
Description: V-Collide is a collision detection library for large environments. It is designed to operate on large numbers of polygonal objects. It makes no assumptions about input structure and works on arbitrary models, also known as "polygon soups".
Added: September 14, 2007
bzip2
www.bzip.org
Description: bzip2 is a freely available, patent free (see below), high-quality data compressor. It typically compresses files to within 10% to 15% of the best available techniques (the PPM family of statistical compressors), whilst being around twice as fast at compression and six times faster at decompression.
Author: jseward
License: BSD
Platforms: Windows, UNIX, OS/2, Amiga
Added: October 31, 2004
LZMA SDK
www.7-zip.org/sdk.html
Description: LZMA is the default and general compression method of 7z format in the 7-Zip program. LZMA provides a high compression ratio and very fast decompression, so it is very suitable for embedded applications.
Author: Igor Pavlov
License: LGPL
Added: September 17, 2007
LZO
www.oberhumer.com/opensource/lzo/
Description: LZO is a portable lossless data compression library written in ANSI C.
Author: Markus F.X.J. Oberhumer
License: GPL
Added: September 17, 2007
Minizip: Zip and UnZip additionnal library
www.winimage.com/zLibDll/minizip.html
Description: The Zlib library allows to deflate compressed files and to create gzip (.gz) files.
Authors: Gilles Vollant, Eric Bischoff
License: Free
Added: October 31, 2004
szip
www.compressconsult.com/szip/
Description: Szip is a freeware portable general purpose lossless compression program. It has a high speed and compression, but high memory demands (up to 20MB) too.
Author: Michael Schindler
Platforms: Windows, Linux, Unix, BeOS, MacOS X, OS/2
Added: October 31, 2004
unrarlib - Unique RAR File Library
www.unrarlib.org
Description: The UniquE RAR File Library is a platform-independent, small and fast static library for decompressing RAR files (RAR archives are created with WinRAR). Full RAR v2.0 file format support of all compression methods, including multimedia compression and encoding is available.
Authors: Christian Scheurer, Johannes Winkelmann
License: GPL
Platforms: Windows, Linux, SunOS, WinCE, OS/2
Added: October 31, 2004
ZipArchive
www.artpol-software.com/ZipArchive/
License: Licensing information
Added: September 17, 2007
ZipStream/Bzip2Stream
www.codeproject.com/vcpp/stl/zipstream.asp
Description: Two zipped STL iostream implementations based on the library zlib and bzip2. This means that you can easily manipulate zipped streams like any other STL ostream/istream.
Author: Jonathan de Halleux
License: LGPL
Platforms: Windows
Added: October 31, 2004
Zlib - A Massively Spiffy Yet Delicately Unobtrusive Compression Library
www.zlib.net
Authors: Jean-loup Gailly, Mark Adler
License: zlib
Platforms: Windows, Linux, Unix, MacOS X, and any other platform :)
Added: October 31, 2004
zziplib
zziplib.sourceforge.net
Description: The zziplib library is intentionally lightweight, it offers the ability to easily extract data from files archived in a single zip file. Applications can bundle files into a single zip archive and access them. The implementation is based only on the (free) subset of compression with the zlib algorithm which is actually used by the zip/unzip tools.
Author: Guido Draheim
License: LGPL/MPL
Platforms: Windows, Linux, Solaris, FreeBSD, MacOS X
Added: October 31, 2004
AES
www.lomont.org/Software/Misc/AES/AES.php
Description: AES - Advanced Encryption Standard
Author: Chris Lomont
License: free
Added: April 20, 2008
Crypto++ Library
www.eskimo.com/~weidai/cryptlib.html
Description: A free C++ class library of cryptographic schemes. Currently the library consists of the following, some of which are other people's code, repackaged into classes.
Author: Wei Dai
License: Public Domain
Platforms: Windows, UNIX, MacOS X, BeOS, Solaris
Added: October 31, 2004
Cryptlib
www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/cryptlib/
Description: cryptlib is a powerful security toolkit that allows even inexperienced crypto programmers to easily add encryption and authentication services to their software.
License: Distributed under a dual license (free, open-source as a GPL-like license and closed-source use under a standard commercial license)
Platforms: Windows, Linux, UNIX, MacOS X, BeOS
Added: October 31, 2004
LockBox
sourceforge.net/projects/tplockbox/
Description: LockBox is a cross-platform toolkit for data encryption. It contains routines & components for use with Borland Delphi, C++Builder, & Kylix. It provides support for Blowfish, RSA, MD5, SHA-1, DES, triple- DES, Rijndael, & digital signing of messages.
License: LGPL
Platforms: Windows, Linux, UNIX
Added: October 31, 2004
FTGL
homepages.paradise.net.nz/henryj/code/index.html
Description: A font rendering library for OpenGL.
Author: Henry Maddock
License: LGPL
Added: September 14, 2007
FreeType
www.freetype.org
Description: FreeType 2 is a software font engine that is designed to be small, efficient, highly customizable and portable while capable of producing high-quality output (glyph images). It can be used in graphics libraries, display servers, font conversion tools, text image generation tools, and many other products as well.
License: FreeType License/GPL
Platforms: Cross-platform
Added: January 8, 2006
GLFT_Font
www.cs.rit.edu/%7Ejpt2433/glftfont/
Description: GLFT_Font allows programmers to use fonts in their OpenGL applications with great ease on any platform for which both FreeType2 and OpenGL are available.
Authors: James Turk, Marijn Haverbeke
License: zlib
Added: September 14, 2007
Glyph Keeper
kd.lab.nig.ac.jp/glyph-keeper/
Description: Glyph Keeper is a C language library for text rendering. Glyph Keeper helps your program to load a font, render character glyphs and write them to the target surface. Right now only Allegro and SDL targets are supported, but there will be more in future. Glyph Keeper is free, portable, effecient and easy to use.
Author: Kirill Kryukov
License: free
Added: April 20, 2008
SFont
www.linux-games.com/sfont/
License: GPL'ed
Added: September 14, 2007
boost - C++ libraries
www.boost.org
License: Boost license
Added: September 14, 2007
Ceylan
ceylan.sourceforge.net
Description: Ceylan is a C++ open-source library which provides basic core functionalities and a set of optional features.
License: LGPL
Added: October 16, 2007
Chattering Pixels
www.chatteringpixels.com/products.php
Description: Memory Manager, File I/O, Sorting, Timer...
Added: September 17, 2007
dclib
dclib.sourceforge.net
License: Boost Software License
Added: July 1, 2008
Detours
research.microsoft.com/sn/detours/
Description: Detours is a library for instrumenting arbitrary Win32 functions on x86, x64, and IA64 machines. Detours intercepts Win32 functions by re-writing the in-memory code for target functions. The Detours package also contains utilities to attach arbitrary DLLs and data segments (called payloads) to any Win32 binary.
Added: July 1, 2008
dirent - POSIX Directory Browsing API for Win32
www.two-sdg.demon.co.uk/curbralan/code/dirent/dirent.html
Description: The functions and types specified in POSIX for iterating over directory entries have been defined here as wrappers for porting to and common use on Win32 platforms.
Author: Kevlin Henney
Added: February 29, 2008
File Logging Class
www.paulnettle.com
Description: This small class adds feature-rich file logging capabilities to any project. Logging hierarchy is maintained, so that recursion is represented in the log with identation, making it easy to follow code flow.
Author: Paul Nettle
License: Free
Added: September 17, 2007
Garbage Collector
www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Hans_Boehm/gc/
Description: The Boehm-Demers-Weiser conservative garbage collector can be used as a garbage collecting replacement for C malloc or C++ new. It allows you to allocate memory basically as you normally would, without explicitly deallocating memory that is no longer useful. The collector automatically recycles memory when it determines that it can no longer be otherwise accessed.
Author: Hans Boehm
License: Free
Added: September 17, 2007
Google-Sparsehash
sourceforge.net/projects/goog-sparsehash
Description: An extremely memory-efficient hash_map implementation. 2 bits/entry overhead! The SparseHash library contains several hash-map implementations, including implementations that optimize for space or speed.
License: BSD
Added: October 8, 2007
Image Debugger
billbaxter.com/projects/imdebug/
Description: A utility for simple printf-style debugging of images in Win32 C/C++ applications.
Author: William Baxter
License: Free
Added: September 17, 2007
IProf
silverspaceship.com/src/iprof/
Description: A portable industrial-strength interactive profiler for C++ and C.
License: Public domain
Added: September 17, 2007
MMGR
www.paulnettle.com
Description: MMGR is an industrial-strength memory manager for almost any project.
Author: Paul Nettle
License: Free
Added: September 17, 2007
Mocha - A Small C++ Types Library
www.rightbraingames.com/tech.php
Description: Mocha is a small library of useful types that can be used to simplify common tasks in C++. It contains classes for 3D math operations, input/output streams, high quality random number generation, sophisticated scripting with support for micro-threads (Using the Lua scripting language), hardware thread management and synchronization, and plenty more.
Author: Right Brain Games
License: LGPL
Added: March 22, 2008
OIS - Object-Oriented Input System
www.wreckedgames.com/wiki/index.php/WreckedLibs:OIS
License: zlib
Added: September 14, 2007
Pantheios
pantheios.sourceforge.net
Description: Pantheios is an Open Source C/C++ Logging API library, offering an optimal combination of 100% type-safety, efficiency, genericity and extensibility. It is simple to use and extend, highly-portable (platform and compiler-independent).
License: BSD-style licence
Added: July 1, 2008
PhysicsFS
icculus.org/physfs/
Description: PhysicsFS is a library to provide abstract access to various archives. It is intended for use in video games, and the design was somewhat inspired by Quake 3's file subsystem.
License: zlib
Added: October 31, 2004
POCO C++ Libraries
pocoproject.org
Description: POCO, the C++ Portable Components, is a collection of open source C++ class libraries that simplify and accelerate the development of network-centric, portable applications in C++.
License: POCO/Boost Software License
Added: July 1, 2008
SDL_Config
student.agh.edu.pl/%7Ekoshmaar/SDL_Config/
Description: Configuration file handling.
Author: Hubert Rutkowski
License: LGPL
Added: September 14, 2007
SQLite
www.sqlite.org
Description: SQLite is a small C library that implements a self-contained, embeddable, zero-configuration SQL database engine.
License: Public domain
Added: September 17, 2007
Tiny Template Library
tinytl.sourceforge.net
Description: The Tiny Template Library (TTL) is a C++ template library for generic programming. The main objective is to develop a lightweight practical alternative to some of the Boost components.
Added: July 1, 2008
CEGUI - Crazy Eddie's GUI System
www.cegui.org.uk/modules/news/
Description: Crazy Eddie's GUI System is a free library providing windowing and widgets for graphics APIs / engines where such functionality is not natively available, or severely lacking. The library is object orientated, written in C++, and targeted at games developers who should be spending their time creating great games, not building GUI sub-systems!
License: LGPL
Platforms: Windows, Linux
Added: October 31, 2004
libRocket
www.librocket.com
Description: libRocket is a C++ interface middleware package designed for game applications. At its core it is based on the popular HTML and CSS specifications. It contains a full set of widgets so you can get creating screens right out of the box.
Added: July 1, 2008
LibUFO
libufo.sourceforge.net
Description: LibUFO is a C++ core library for forms respectively graphical user interfaces (GUI). It is mainly used as OpenGL GUI toolkit.
License: LGPL
Added: September 17, 2007
ParaGUI
www.paragui.org
Description: ParaGUI is a cross-platform high-level application framework and GUI (graphical user interface) library and is based on the Simple DirectMedia Layer (SDL). ParaGUI is targeted on crossplatform multimedia applications and embedded devices operating on framebuffer displays.
License: LGPL
Platforms: Cross-platform
Added: October 31, 2004
Right Brain Games GUI
www.rightbraingames.com/tech.php
Description: The Right Brain Games GUI is a custom user interface library for 3D games. It supports hardware rendering of multiple user interface windows into separate texture buffers to improve performance and allow for complex animation effects.
Author: Right Brain Games
License: LGPL
Added: March 22, 2008
SDL_Console
sdlconsole.sourceforge.net
Description: A drop down console that can be easily added to any SDL application. It is similar to Quake and other games consoles. A console gives you the ability to interact with your program in an easy way by executing predefined commands. You can also have more than one console at a time.
Authors: Garret Banuk, Boris Lesner, Clemens Wacha
License: LGPL
Platforms: All
Added: October 31, 2004
AfterImage
www.afterstep.org/afterimage/
Description: A generic image manipulation library. It was initially implemented to address AfterStep Window Manager's needs for image handling, but it evolved into extremely powerfull and flexible software, suitable for virtually any project that has needs for loading, manipulating, displaying images, as well as writing images in files.
Author: Sasha Vasko
Added: October 31, 2004
CImg - C++ Template Image Processing Library
cimg.sourceforge.net
Description: An open source C++ toolkit for image processing. It provides simple classes and functions to load, save, process and display images in your own C++ code.
Author: David Tschumperle
License: CeCiLL License
Platforms: Unix/X11, Windows, MacOS X, FreeBSD
Added: October 31, 2004
Corona
corona.sourceforge.net
Description: Corona is an image input/output library that can read, write, and manipulate image files in just a few lines of code. It can write PNG and TGA files, and read PNG, JPEG, PCX, BMP, TGA, and GIF. Corona was designed to be easy to use, and exports a straightforward C++ API. With just a few lines of C++, you can add image loading to your application.
Author: Chad Austin
License: zlib
Platforms: Windows, Linux, IRIX
Added: October 31, 2004
CxImage
www.xdp.it/cximage.htm
Description: A C++ class that can load, save, display, transform images in a very simple and fast way. With more than 200 functions, and with comprehensive working demos, CxImage offers all the tools to build simple image processing applications on a fast learning curve. Supported file formats are: BMP, GIF, ICO, CUR, JBG, JPG, JPC, JP2, PCX, PGX, PNG, PNM, RAS, TGA, TIF, WBMP, WMF.
Author: Davide Pizzolato
License: zlib
Platforms: Windows, Linux
Added: January 8, 2006
DevIL
openil.sourceforge.net
Description: A fully featured cross-platform image library.
Authors: Denton Woods, Nicolas Weber, Meloni Dario
License: LGPL
Platforms: Windows, Linux, MacOS X
Added: October 31, 2004
FreeImage
freeimage.sourceforge.net
Description: The library has been designed to be extremely simple in use and supports many formats.
Authors: Herve Drolon, Floris van den Berg
License: FreeImage Open Source Dual-Licence
Platforms: Windows, Linux, MacOS X
Added: October 31, 2004
GFL SDK
perso.orange.fr/pierre.g/xnview/engfl.html
Description: GFL SDK is a free library (used by XnView) for developers who would like to support graphics image formats easily.
License: Free for non-commerical use
Added: September 17, 2007
glpng
www.wyatt100.freeserve.co.uk
Description: A utility library for loading PNG files and bind them to an OpenGL texture with one simple call.
Author: Ben Wyatt
Added: February 29, 2008
GTL - Game Texture Loader
tgtl.sourceforge.net
Description: The Game Texture Loader is very much just as it says, a library for loading texture formats commonly used in games.
License: zlib
Added: September 17, 2007
ImageMagick
www.imagemagick.org/script/index.php
Description: ImageMagick® is a software suite to create, edit, and compose bitmap images. It can read, convert and write images in a variety of formats (over 100) including DPX, EXR, GIF, JPEG, JPEG-2000, PDF, PhotoCD, PNG, Postscript, SVG, and TIFF. Use ImageMagick to translate, flip, mirror, rotate, scale, shear and transform images, adjust image colors, apply various special effects, or draw text, lines, polygons, ellipses and Bézier curves.
License: GPL-compatible license
Added: September 17, 2007
jpegxx
www.mr-edd.co.uk/?page_id=35
Description: jpegxx is a library for loading and saving JPEG compressed images.
Author: Edd Dawson
License: Boost software license version 1.0
Added: October 8, 2007
libjpeg
www.ijg.org
Added: October 31, 2004
libpng - Portable Network Graphics
www.libpng.org/pub/png/
License: zlib
Added: October 31, 2004
LibTIFF
www.remotesensing.org/libtiff/
Description: TIFF Library and Utilities.
Added: September 17, 2007
LodePNG
members.gamedev.net/lode/projects/LodePNG/
Description: LodePNG is a PNG image decoder and encoder, all in one, no dependency or linkage to zlib or libpng required. It's made for C (ISO C90), and has a C++ wrapper with a more convenient interface on top.
Author: Lode Vandevenne
Added: February 26, 2008
Paintlib
www.paintlib.de/paintlib/
Description: A portable C++ class library for image loading, saving and manipulation. Images can be loaded from BMP, GIF, IFF, JPEG, PCX, PGM, PICT, PNG, PSD, SGI, TGA, TIFF and WMF files and saved in BMP, JPEG, PNG and TIFF formats. Image manipulation can be done either through filters implemented in filter classes or by directly accessing the bitmap bits.
Author: Ulrich von Zadow
Added: October 31, 2004
SDL_image
www.libsdl.org/projects/SDL_image/
Description: An image file loading library. It loads images as SDL surfaces, and supports the following formats: BMP, PNM, XPM, LBM, PCX, GIF, JPEG, PNG, TGA.
Authors: Sam Lantinga, Mattias Engdegard
License: LGPL
Added: October 31, 2004
SOIL - Simple OpenGL Image Library
lonesock.net/soil.html
Description: SOIL is a tiny C library used primarily for uploading textures into OpenGL.
License: Public domain
Added: September 17, 2007
stbi
www.nothings.org/stb_image.c
Description: A public domain JPEG/PNG reader (reads JPEG, PNG, BMP, TGA, PSD, HDR, and writes BMP, TGA).
Author: Sean Barrett
License: Public domain
Added: January 8, 2008
Titan
titan.sourceforge.net
Description: For still images, Titan can load/save most varieties from .TGA, .BMP, .PCX, .PNG and .JPG.
Author: Dan Brown
License: zlib
Added: September 17, 2007
Blitz++
www.oonumerics.org/blitz/
Description: Blitz++ is a C++ class library for scientific computing.
License: Blitz++ Artistic License
Added: September 14, 2007
CML - Configurable Math Library
cmldev.net
Description: The CML (Configurable Math Library) is a free, open-source C++ math library designed for use in games, graphics, computational geometry, and related applications. It includes vector, matrix, and quaternion classes, and a large library of functions for manipulation of these types.
Author: Jesse Anders
License: Boost Software License
Added: March 27, 2008
Fast Math Routines
developer.nvidia.com/object/fast_math_routines.html
Description: Collection of good fast math routines.
Author: nVIDIA
License: Free
Added: October 31, 2004
Fixed Point
www.trenki.net
Description: A small fixed point math library which consists of various functions for dealing with fixed point numbers (multiplication, division, inversion, sin, cos, sqrt, rsqrt). It also contains a C++ wrapper class which can be used to simplify working with fixed points numbers greatly. I used this fixed point number class in conjunction with my vector_math library to obtain a fixed point vector math library. Doing so made the 3D computations a lot faster compared to the floating point version.
Author: Markus Trenkwalder
Added: September 14, 2007
GLM
members.tripod.com/markus_ilmola/
Description: A math library for OpenGL with over 500 useful math functions for OpenGL.
Author: Markus Ilmola
Added: September 14, 2007
GMP
gmplib.org
Description: GMP is a free library for arbitrary precision arithmetic, operating on signed integers, rational numbers, and floating point numbers.
License: LGPL
Added: October 8, 2007
MathGL++
mathgl-pp.sourceforge.net
Description: MathGL++ is a class library for fast C++ maths for use in OpenGL C++ projects. Easy to use and similar to the OpenGL API. Matricies, Vectors, Quaternions, Linear polynomials with eigen systems are all going to be included.
Author: Jacques Gasselin
License: LGPL
Added: October 31, 2004
Mersenne Twister Random Number Generator
www-personal.engin.umich.edu/~wagnerr/MersenneTwister.html
Description: The Mersenne Twister is an algorithm for generating random numbers. It was designed with consideration of the flaws in various other generators. The period, 2^19937-1, and the order of equidistribution, 623 dimensions, are far greater. The generator is also fast; it avoids multiplication and division, and it benefits from caches and pipelines.
Author: Rick Wagner
License: Free
Added: October 31, 2004
Vector Math
www.trenki.net
Description: The vector_math library (formerly math3d++) is a C++ 3d math library.
Author: Markus Trenkwalder
License: Free
Added: October 31, 2004
VMath - Matrix Template Class
www.paulnettle.com
Description: VMath is a powerful NxM matrix template class which includes full support for matrices, vectors, points, homogenous transforms and more.
Author: Paul Nettle
License: Free
Added: October 31, 2004
Mesh Optimization and Preprocessing
ACTC - The Triangle Consolidator
www.plunk.org/~grantham/public/actc/index.html
Description: ACTC makes triangle strips and fans out of independent indexed triangles.
Author: Brad Grantham
License: free
Added: April 29, 2008
GTS - GNU Triangulated Surface Library
gts.sourceforge.net
Description: GTS stands for the GNU Triangulated Surface Library. It provides a set of useful functions to deal with 3D surfaces meshed with interconnected triangles including collision detection, multiresolution models, constrained Delaunay triangulations and robust set operations (union, intersection, differences).
License: LGPL
Added: January 29, 2006
Mesh SDK
home.earthlink.net/~mmchow/meshsdk/meshsdk.html
Description: The mesh sdk (gmeshsdk) is a useful geometry library for manipulating 3D meshes and geometry data. It is currently being used on a variety of graphics projects including real-time graphics viewers, 3D paint systems, visualizing complex 3D datasets, and optimizing graphics hardware performance.
Author: Mike Chow
Added: April 29, 2008
NvTriStrip Library
developer.nvidia.com/object/nvtristrip_library.html
Description: NVTriStrip is a library for vertex cache aware stripification of geometry.
Author: nVIDIA
Platforms: API and OS independent
Added: October 31, 2004
Model Handling & 3D Character Animation
Animadead
animadead.sourceforge.net
Description: Animadead is a skeletal animation library designed to load and play skeletal animations. It supports models that are composed of several swappable meshes bound to a single skeleton that can be driven by multiple animations.
Author: John Butterfield
License: LGPL
Added: January 29, 2006
Cal3d
cal3d.sourceforge.net
Description: Cal3d is a skeletal based 3d character animation library written in C++ in a platform-/graphic API-independent way.
Author: Bruno Heidelberger
License: LGPL
Platforms: Windows, SGI Irix, various flavors of Linux, Mac OS X
Added: October 31, 2004
GPUmesh
www-evasion.imag.fr/Membres/Sylvain.Lefebvre/GPUmesh/
Description: The purpose of GPUmesh is to provide developers with a simple mechanism to send geometry to the GPU.
Author: Sylvain Lefebvre
License: Free
Platforms: Windows, Linux
Added: October 31, 2004
lib3DS
lib3ds.sourceforge.net
Description: lib3ds is a free ANSI-C library for working with the popular "3DS" 3D model format. lib3ds loads and saves Atmosphere settings, Background settings, Shadow map settings, Viewport setting, Materials, Cameras, Lights, Meshes, Hierarchy, Animation keyframes. It also contains useful matrix, vector and quaternion mathematics tools. lib3ds usually integrates well with OpenGL.
Author: Jan Eric Kyprianidis
License: LGPL
Platforms: Windows, Linux, Unix
Added: October 31, 2004
libASE
interreality.org/projects/libase
Description: LibASE is a library for parsing and reading information out of ASE files, the "ASCII Scene Export" format of the 3D Studio and 3ds Max 3D modelling programs.
Author: Peter Amstutz
License: LGPL
Platforms: GNU/Linux, MacOS X
Added: October 31, 2004
Trimeshloader
trimeshloader.sourceforge.net
Description: A flexible ANSI C trimesh loader.
Author: Gero Müller
License: zlib
Added: September 14, 2007
Allegro
www.talula.demon.co.uk/allegro
Description: Allegro is a game programming library for C/C++ developers which provides many functions for graphics, sounds, player input, and timers. It also provides fixed and floating point mathematical functions, 3D functions, file management functions, compressed datafile and a GUI.
License: Giftware License
Platforms: DOS, Unix, Windows, QNX, BeOS, MacOS X
Added: October 31, 2004
ClanLib Game SDK
www.clanlib.org
Description: ClanLib is a cross platform C++ framework. Essentially the library offers a series of different functionality under a streamlined API. Its primary focus is on games, although its not limited for that usage only.
License: LGPL
Added: October 31, 2004
PLIB - A Portable Games Library
plib.sourceforge.net
Description: PLIB includes sound effects, music, a complete 3D engine, font rendering, a simple Windowing library, a game scripting language, a GUI, networking, 3D math library and a collection of handy utility functions.
Author: Steve J. Baker
License: LGPL
Added: October 31, 2004
OSDL - Object-oriented Simple DirectMedia Layer
osdl.sourceforge.net
Description: The OSDL project has for goal to provide a free portable high-level open-source library for multimedia and game programming.
License: LGPL
Added: October 16, 2007
PopCap Games Framework
developer.popcap.com
License: Popcap License
Added: October 31, 2004
SDL
www.libsdl.org
Description: Simple DirectMedia Layer is a cross-platform multimedia library designed to provide low level access to audio, keyboard, mouse, joystick, 3D hardware via OpenGL, and 2D video framebuffer.
Author: Sam Lantinga
License: LGPL
Platforms: Linux, Windows, BeOS, MacOS Classic, MacOS X, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, BSD/OS, Solaris, IRIX, and QNX
Added: October 31, 2004
SFML - Simple and Fast Multimedia Library
sfml.sourceforge.net
Description: SFML is a free multimedia C++ API that provides you low and high level access to graphics, input, audio, etc.
Author: Laurent Gomila
License: zlib/png
Added: October 8, 2007
High-level
GNE - Game Networking Engine
www.gillius.org/gne/
Description: GNE, or the Game Networking Engine, is a cross-platform, multithreaded, C++ networking library with an API specifically addressing the needs of game networking.
Author: Jason Winnebeck
License: LGPL
Added: April 20, 2008
Net2
www.gameprogrammer.com/net2/net2-1.html
Author: Bob Pendleton
License: LGPL
Added: September 25, 2007
OpenPlay
developer.apple.com/opensource/internet/openplay/index.html
Description: OpenPlay is a cross-platform network abstraction layer designed to simplify the task of creating programs which communicate across multiple computers.
License: Apple Public Source License
Added: September 17, 2007
OpenTNL - Torque Network Library
www.opentnl.org
Description: The Torque Network Library is a robust, secure, easy to use, cross-platform C++ networking API designed for high performance simulations and games. The network architecture in TNL has powered some of the best internet multiplayer action games to date. Whether you're writing a multiplayer game, developing a complex simulation, or just need a solid foundation for network apps, TNL will meet your needs.
License: GPL (or indie or commercial)
Added: September 25, 2007
Raknet
www.rakkarsoft.com
Description: Raknet is a cross platform C++ network library designed to allow programmers to add response time-critical network capabilities to their applications. It is mostly used for games, but is application independent.
License: Free for non-profit applications
Added: September 17, 2007
ReplicaNet
www.replicanet.com
Description: ReplicaNet is an object oriented C++ library that is engineered to help the developer of applications that require a stable and low maintenance middleware solution to networking. Any project that is designed to use a network of machines, for example multiplayer computer games, need to consider very carefully how to approach the design problems associated with networking.
License: Free for non-commerical usage
Added: September 25, 2007
Zoidcom
www.zoidcom.com
Description: The Zoidcom network library is a high-level, UDP based networking library providing features for automatic replication of gameobjects and synchronization of their states over a network connection in a highly bandwidth efficient manner.
Author: Jörg Rüppel
License: Free for non-commerical usage
Added: September 25, 2007
Low-level
DyConnect
www.junction.bafsoft.com/#dyconnect
Author: Dave Stash
License: zlib
Added: September 25, 2007
ENet
enet.bespin.org
Description: ENet's purpose is to provide a relatively thin, simple and robust network communication layer on top of UDP (User Datagram Protocol). The primary feature it provides is optional reliable, in-order delivery of packets.
License: Free
Added: September 25, 2007
Etwork
www.mindcontrol.org/~hplus/etwork/
Description: Etwork is a simple message-based network library, suitable for shuffling messages between a server and many clients, either using realiable, in-order delivery (TCP) or unreliable, out-of- order, possibly-duplicated delivery (UDP).
Author: Jon Watte
License: MIT
Added: September 25, 2007
HawkNL - Hawk Network Library
www.hawksoft.com/hawknl/
Description: HawkNL is a fairly low level API, a wrapper over Berkeley/Unix Sockets and Winsock.
License: LGPL
Added: September 17, 2007
libcurl
curl.haxx.se/libcurl/
Description: libcurl is a free and easy-to-use client-side URL transfer library, supporting FTP, FTPS, HTTP, HTTPS, SCP, SFTP, TFTP, TELNET, DICT, LDAP, LDAPS and FILE. libcurl supports SSL certificates, HTTP POST, HTTP PUT, FTP uploading, HTTP form based upload, proxies, cookies, user+password authentication (Basic, Digest, NTLM, Negotiate, Kerberos4), file transfer resume, http proxy tunneling and more.
License: curl license
Added: September 25, 2007
Pegasus Network Library
plib.sourceforge.net/net/index.html
Description: Pegasus is a C++ library for making networked games. Pegasus is based on Medusa and is part of PLIB. Pegasus, like Medusa, runs as a single process, multiplexing I/O with its various client and server connections within a single process/thread.
Author: Steve J. Baker
License: LGPL
Added: October 31, 2004
SDL_net
www.libsdl.org/projects/SDL_net/
Description: This is a small sample cross-platform networking library, with a sample chat client and server application. The chat client uses the GUIlib GUI framework library.
Authors: Sam Lantinga, Roy Wood, Masahiro Minami
License: LGPL
Platforms: All platforms supported by SDL.
Added: October 31, 2004
Box2D Physics Engine
www.box2d.org
Description: Box2D is a 2D rigid body simulation library for games and written in portable C++.
Author: Erin Catto
License: zlib
Added: April 20, 2008
Bullet
www.continuousphysics.com/Bullet/
Description: Bullet is a 3D Collision Detection and Rigid Body Dynamics Library for games and animation.
Author: Erwin Coumans
License: zlib
Added: September 14, 2007
Cyclone Physics Simulator
www.procyclone.com
Author: Ian Millington
Added: March 22, 2008
EZPhysics - Physical Rigging
www.ezphysics.org
License: LGPL
Added: September 25, 2007
Flatland
flatland.sourceforge.net/
Description: Flatland is an object-oriented 2D collision library.
License: BSD
Added: September 14, 2007
Havok
tryhavok.intel.com
License: Free for non-commercial use (requires registration)
Added: July 1, 2008
Newton Game Dynamics
www.newtondynamics.com
Description: Newton Game Dynamics is an integrated solution for real time simulation of physics environments. The API provides scene management, collision detection, dynamic behavior and yet it is small, fast, stable and easy to use.
Authors: Julio Jerez, Alain Suero
License: Newton Game Dynamics SDK Setup License
Platforms: Windows, Linux, MacOS X
Added: October 31, 2004
OPAL
ox.slug.louisville.edu/~o0lozi01/opal_wiki/index.php/Main_Page
Description: OPAL is a high-level interface for low-level physics engines used in games, robotics simulations, and other 3D applications. Features a simple C++ API, intuitive objects (e.g. Solids, Joints, Motors, Sensors), and XML-based file storage for complex objects.
Added: October 31, 2004
Open Dynamics Engine
www.ode.org
Description: ODE is an open source, high performance library for simulating rigid body dynamics. It is fully featured, stable, mature and platform independent with an easy to use C/C++ API. It has advanced joint types and integrated collision detection with friction. ODE is useful for simulating vehicles, objects in virtual reality environments and virtual creatures. It is currently used in many computer games, 3D authoring tools and simulation tools.
Author: Russell Smith
License: BSD
Platforms: Windows
Added: October 31, 2004
Physical
physical.alecrivers.com
Description: Physical is a game creation system based on the foundation of an innovative 2D physics engine.
Author: Alec Rivers
License: Free
Added: January 29, 2006
PhysX (formerly Novodex)
www.ageia.com/developers/downloads.html
Description: AGEIA's PhysX Technology revolutionizes physics simulation with technologies designed for the future of console and PC gaming. The advances in next generation consoles and PC processors are staggering. The future is in multi-threaded, asynchronous, massively parallel-processing architectures.
Author: AGEIA
License: Free for non-commerical use
Platforms: Windows
Added: October 31, 2004
Tokamak Game Physics
www.tokamakphysics.com
Description: Tokamak Game Physics SDK is a high performance real-time physics library designed specially for games. It has a high-level, simple to use programming interface. With Tokamak, game developers and designers are empowered to produce the next generation of interactive games.
License: Free
Platforms: Windows
Added: October 31, 2004
True Axis Physics SDK
www.trueaxis.com
Description: The True Axis Physics SDK is a fast and solid real world physics simulation system designed for demanding games and virtual interactive environments.
Authors: TRUE AXIS PTY LTD, Australia
License: Free for non-commercial use
Platforms: Windows
Added: January 29, 2006
Cpw
www.mathies.com/cpw/about.html
Description: Cpw is a application framework library for OpenGL applications and games. It is designed with speed, simplicity, and portability in mind.
Author: Jim Mathies
License: Free
Added: October 6, 2007
FreeGLUT
freeglut.sourceforge.net
Description: FreeGLUT is a completely OpenSourced alternative to the OpenGL Utility Toolkit (GLUT) library which allows the user to create and manage windows containing OpenGL contexts on a wide range of platforms and also read the mouse, keyboard and joystick functions.
Author: Originally written by Pawel W. Olszta with contributions from Andreas Umbach and Steve Baker
License: X-Consortium License
Added: October 31, 2004
FTGL
homepages.paradise.net.nz/henryj/code/index.html
Description: A font rendering library for OpenGL.
Author: Henry Maddock
License: LGPL
Added: September 14, 2007
GLFT_Font
www.cs.rit.edu/%7Ejpt2433/glftfont/
Description: GLFT_Font allows programmers to use fonts in their OpenGL applications with great ease on any platform for which both FreeType2 and OpenGL are available.
Authors: James Turk, Marijn Haverbeke
License: zlib
Added: September 14, 2007
GLFW
glfw.sourceforge.net
Description: Free, open source, portable framework for OpenGL application development. In short, it is a link library that constitutes a powerful API for handling operating system specific tasks, such as opening an OpenGL window and reading keyboard, mouse and joystick input.
Author: Marcus Geelnard
License: zlib
Platforms: Windows, Linux, IRIX, FreeBSD, Solaris, QNX, MacOS X, AmigaOS, MS-DOS
Added: October 31, 2004
GLH - Graphics Library Helper
www.geocities.com/vmelkon/glhlibrary.html
Description: glh is kind of like OpenGL's GLU but contains extra functions and optimized functions.
Author: Vrej Melkonian
License: Free
Added: March 28, 2005
glpng
www.wyatt100.freeserve.co.uk
Description: A utility library for loading PNG files and bind them to an OpenGL texture with one simple call.
Author: Ben Wyatt
Added: February 29, 2008
Ivf++ - Interactive Visualisation Framework
gorkon.byggmek.lth.se/ivfweb/
Authors: Jonas Lindemann, Carl-Johan Lejdfors, Pierre Olsson
License: LGPL
Added: October 31, 2004
libQGLViewer
artis.imag.fr/Membres/Gilles.Debunne/QGLViewer/
Description: libQGLViewer is a C++ library based on Qt that eases the creation of OpenGL 3D viewers. It provides some of the typical 3D viewer functionalities, such as the possibility to move the camera using the mouse, which lacks in most of the other APIs.
License: Dual Licensing
Added: July 1, 2008
LibUFO
libufo.sourceforge.net
Description: LibUFO is a C++ core library for forms respectively graphical user interfaces (GUI). It is mainly used as OpenGL GUI toolkit.
License: LGPL
Added: September 17, 2007
OpenGL Window Framework
oglwfw.sourceforge.net
Description: Framework for creating and controlling windows capible of holding an OpenGL rendering context in it.
Author: Rob Jones
License: zlib
Added: October 31, 2004
OpenGLUT
openglut.sourceforge.net
Description: OpenGLUT is an open source project to evolve the GLUT (OpenGL Utility Toolkit) C/C++ API. OpenGLUT uses the freeglut code base as a foundation for extending, enhancing and refining the API.
Authors: Richard Rauch, Nigel Stewart, John F. Fay
Added: October 31, 2004
SDL
www.libsdl.org
Description: Simple DirectMedia Layer is a cross-platform multimedia library designed to provide low level access to audio, keyboard, mouse, joystick, 3D hardware via OpenGL, and 2D video framebuffer.
Author: Sam Lantinga
License: LGPL
Platforms: Linux, Windows, BeOS, MacOS Classic, MacOS X, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, BSD/OS, Solaris, IRIX, and QNX
Added: October 31, 2004
SOIL - Simple OpenGL Image Library
lonesock.net/soil.html
Description: SOIL is a tiny C library used primarily for uploading textures into OpenGL.
License: Public domain
Added: September 17, 2007
GLee
elf-stone.com/glee.php
Description: The OpenGL Easy Extension library (GLee) makes life easier for OpenGL developers by automatically linking OpenGL extensions and core functions at initialisation time. This saves programmers the effort of manually linking every required extension, and effectively brings the OpenGL library up to date.
Author: Ben Woodhouse
Added: October 31, 2004
GLEW - The OpenGL Extension Wrangler Library
glew.sourceforge.net
Description: The OpenGL Extension Wrangler Library (GLEW) is a cross-platform C/C++ extension loading library. GLEW provides efficient run-time mechanisms for determining which OpenGL extensions are supported on the target platform. OpenGL core and extension functionality is exposed in a single header file.
License: BSD
Added: October 31, 2004
OglExt
www.julius.caesar.de/oglext/
Description: OglExt is a free OpenGL extension library, enabling the easy access of all functionality up to OpenGL version 1.5 as well as API functions of more than 200 OpenGL extensions.
Author: Research Center Caesar
License: LGPL
Added: October 31, 2004
Angelcode Scripting Library
www.angelcode.com/angelscript/
Author: Andreas Jönsson
License: zlib
Added: September 13, 2007
GameMonkey Script
www.somedude.net/gamemonkey/
Description: GameMonkey is a embedded scripting language that is intended for use in game and tool applications. GameMonkey is however suitable for use in any project requiring simple scripting support. GameMonkey borrows concepts from Lua (www.lua.org), but uses syntax similar to C, making it more accessible to game programmers. GameMonkey also natively supports multithreading and the concept of states.
Authors: Matthew Riek, Greg Douglas
License: MIT
Added: September 13, 2007
Lua
www.lua.org/
Description: Lua is a powerful, fast, light-weight, embeddable scripting language.
License: MIT
Added: September 13, 2007
Python Programming Language
www.python.org
Added: September 13, 2007
Ruby
www.ruby-lang.org/en/
Description: A dynamic, open source programming language with a focus on simplicity and productivity. It has an elegant syntax that is natural to read and easy to write.
Added: September 13, 2007
Squirrel
squirrel-lang.org
Description: Squirrel is a high level imperative/OO programming language, designed to be a powerful scripting tool that fits in the size, memory bandwidth, and real-time requirements of applications like games.
License: zlib
Added: September 13, 2007
SDL - Simple DirectMedia Layer
OSDL - Object-oriented Simple DirectMedia Layer
osdl.sourceforge.net
Description: The OSDL project has for goal to provide a free portable high-level open-source library for multimedia and game programming.
License: LGPL
Added: October 16, 2007
SDL
www.libsdl.org
Description: Simple DirectMedia Layer is a cross-platform multimedia library designed to provide low level access to audio, keyboard, mouse, joystick, 3D hardware via OpenGL, and 2D video framebuffer.
Author: Sam Lantinga
License: LGPL
Platforms: Linux, Windows, BeOS, MacOS Classic, MacOS X, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, BSD/OS, Solaris, IRIX, and QNX
Added: October 31, 2004
SDL_Console
sdlconsole.sourceforge.net
Description: A drop down console that can be easily added to any SDL application. It is similar to Quake and other games consoles. A console gives you the ability to interact with your program in an easy way by executing predefined commands. You can also have more than one console at a time.
Authors: Garret Banuk, Boris Lesner, Clemens Wacha
License: LGPL
Platforms: All
Added: October 31, 2004
SDL_draw
sdl-draw.sourceforge.net
Description: SDL_draw is a simple library to draw basic elements, like points, lines and circles, on SDL surfaces.
Authors: Mario Palomo, José de la Huerga, Pepe González
License: LGPL
Added: October 8, 2007
SDL_image
www.libsdl.org/projects/SDL_image/
Description: An image file loading library. It loads images as SDL surfaces, and supports the following formats: BMP, PNM, XPM, LBM, PCX, GIF, JPEG, PNG, TGA.
Authors: Sam Lantinga, Mattias Engdegard
License: LGPL
Added: October 31, 2004
SDL_mixer
www.libsdl.org/projects/SDL_mixer/
Description: A sample multi-channel audio mixer library.
Authors: Sam Lantinga, Stephane Peter, Ryan Gordon
License: LGPL
Platforms: Windows, MacOS X, Linux
Added: October 31, 2004
SDL_net
www.libsdl.org/projects/SDL_net/
Description: This is a small sample cross-platform networking library, with a sample chat client and server application. The chat client uses the GUIlib GUI framework library.
Authors: Sam Lantinga, Roy Wood, Masahiro Minami
License: LGPL
Platforms: All platforms supported by SDL.
Added: October 31, 2004
SDL_sound
icculus.org/SDL_sound/
Description: SDL_sound is a library that handles the decoding of several popular sound file formats, such as .WAV and .MP3.
Author: Ryan C. Gordon
License: LGPL
Platforms: Windows, Linux, MacOS X, FreeBSD, BeOS
Added: October 31, 2004
SDL_ttf
www.libsdl.org/projects/SDL_ttf/
Description: This is a sample library which allows you to use TrueType fonts in your SDL applications. It comes with an example program "showfont" which displays an example string for a given TrueType font file.
Author: Sam Lantinga
License: LGPL
Added: October 8, 2007
libQGLViewer
artis.imag.fr/Membres/Gilles.Debunne/QGLViewer/
Description: libQGLViewer is a C++ library based on Qt that eases the creation of OpenGL 3D viewers. It provides some of the typical 3D viewer functionalities, such as the possibility to move the camera using the mouse, which lacks in most of the other APIs.
License: Dual Licensing
Added: July 1, 2008
Visualization Library
www.visualizationlibrary.com
Description: Visualization Library is an open source C++ middleware for 2D/3D graphics applications based on OpenGL 2.1, designed to develop portable applications for the Windows XP, Windows Vista and Linux/X11 operating systems.
Author: Michele Bosi
License: Dual licensing model: GNU GPL 3/Commercial license
Added: July 1, 2008
FLTK - Fast Light Toolkit
www.fltk.org
Description: FLTK is a cross-platform C++ GUI toolkit and provides modern GUI functionality without the bloat and supports 3D graphics via OpenGL and its built-in GLUT emulation.
License: LGPL
Added: July 1, 2008
FOX Toolkit
www.fox-toolkit.org
Description: The FOX toolkit is an open source, cross-platform widget toolkit, that is, a library of basic elements for building a graphical user interface.
License: LGPL
Added: July 1, 2008
Qt
trolltech.com/products/qt/
Description: Qt is a cross-platform application framework for desktop and embedded development. It includes an intuitive API and a rich C++ class library, integrated tools for GUI development and internationalization, and support for Java™ and C++ development.
Author: Trolltech
License: Qt Licensing
Added: July 1, 2008
wxWidgets
www.wxwidgets.org
Description: wxWidgets lets developers create applications for Win32, Mac OS X, GTK+, X11, Motif, WinCE, and more using one codebase. It can be used from languages such as C++, Python, Perl, and C#/.NET. Unlike other cross-platform toolkits, wxWidgets applications look and feel native. This is because wxWidgets uses the platform's own native controls rather than emulating them. It's also extensive, free, open-source, and mature.
Added: July 1, 2008
Expat XML Parser
expat.sourceforge.net
Description: Expat is an XML parser library written in C. It is a stream-oriented parser in which an application registers handlers for things the parser might find in the XML document.
License: LGPL
Platforms: Cross-platform
Added: October 31, 2004
ezXML
ezxml.sourceforge.net
Description: ezXML is a C library for parsing XML documents inspired by simpleXML for PHP. As the name implies, it's easy to use. It's ideal for parsing XML configuration files or REST web service responses. It's also fast and lightweight (less than 20k compiled).
Author: Aaron Voisine
License: MIT
Added: January 29, 2006
irrXML
www.ambiera.com/irrxml/index.html
Description: irrXML is a simple and fast open source xml parser for C++.
Author: Nikolaus Gebhardt
License: irrXML License
Added: September 17, 2007
Libxml2
www.xmlsoft.org
Description: A XML C parser and toolkit developed for the Gnome project.
License: MIT
Platforms: Linux, Unix, Windows, CygWin, MacOS, MacOS X, UNIX, OS/2
Added: October 31, 2004
TinyXml
www.grinninglizard.com/tinyxml/index.html
Description: A simple, small, C++ XML parser that can be easily integrating into other programs.
Author: Lee Thomason
License: zlib
Added: October 31, 2004
Xerces-C++
xerces.apache.org/xerces-c/
Description: Xerces-C++ is a validating XML parser written in a portable subset of C++. Xerces-C++ makes it easy to give your application the ability to read and write XML data.
License: Apache Software License
Added: September 17, 2007
XMLite
www.codeproject.com/cpp/xmlite.asp
Description: Easy to access and simple XML parser.
Author: Kyung-min Cho
Platforms: Windows
Added: October 31, 2004
XMLParser
www.applied-mathematics.net/tools/xmlParser.html
Description: Small, simple, cross-platform, free and fast C++ XML Parser
Author: Frank Vanden Berghen
License: Aladdin Free Public License (AFPL) (other licenses on request for free)
Platforms: Solaris, Linux, Windows
Added: February 6, 2008
The Demo Effect Collection
demo-effects.sourceforge.net
Description: This is not only a collection of demo effects from the early days of the demo scene (for instance the Amiga demo scene in the late eighties ) but also a multi-layered run-time pluggable demo effects system, with support for filters and transition effects. which can be used to create demo's.
Author: W.P. van Paassen
License: GPL
Platforms: Windows, any Unix flavoured OS
Added: October 31, 2004
GUL - Geometry Utility Library
gul.sourceforge.net
Description: GUL is a library of C++ functions. It mainly contains basic functions for tesselating and manipulating NURBS curves and surfaces, as well as functions for interpolating and approximating data points with NURBS curves and surfaces.
Added: July 1, 2008
Hermes
www.clanlib.org/hermes/
Description: Hermes is a pixel conversion library. Its only purpose is to take a buffer full of pixels and convert it into a target buffer full of pixels. The two can differ both in size and in format. Hermes is primarily intended for fast graphics display and it is optimized for that.
License: LGPL
Added: October 31, 2004
libavg
www.libavg.de
Description: libavg is an effort to do for multimedia installations what the Gimp did for image editing.
Author: Ulrich von Zadow
Platforms: Linux
Added: October 31, 2004
libsigc++
libsigc.sourceforge.net
Description: libsigc++ implements a typesafe callback system for standard C++. It allows you to define signals and to connect those signals to any callback function, either global or a member function, regardless of whether it is static or virtual.
Authors: Tero Pulkkinen, Karl Nelson, Murray Cumming, Martin Schulze
License: LGPL
Platforms: Windows, Linux, Unix
Added: January 8, 2006
METIS - Serial Graph Partitioning and Fill-reducing Matrix Ordering
glaros.dtc.umn.edu/gkhome/metis/metis/overview
Description: METIS is a set of serial programs for partitioning graphs, partitioning finite element meshes, and producing fill reducing orderings for sparse matrices.
Author: George Karypis
License: Free
Added: October 30, 2007
Loki
sourceforge.net/projects/loki-lib/
Description: A C++ library of designs, containing flexible implementations of common design patterns and idioms.
License: MIT
Platforms: Portable
Added: January 29, 2006
Particle System API
www.particlesystems.org
Description: The Particle System API allows you to easily include dynamic simulations of groups of moving objects. This is especially useful for eye candy in games, virtual environments and other interactive graphics apps, but can also be used in off-line animation software.
Author: David K. McAllister
Platforms: Windows
Added: October 31, 2004
Pixel Toaster
www.pixeltoaster.com
Description: Open Source C++ library for realtime software rendering.
Author: Glenn Fiedler
Added: October 31, 2004
SPL - Simple Plugin Layer
www.unitedbytes.de/go.php?site=spl
Description: The SPL (Simple Plugin Layer) library is an open source SDK for plugin development. With SPL you can extend every application written in C/C++ to use your own plugins, SPL will do all the managing, loading and unloading stuff for you. Additionally, the whole framework is fully multi-platform capable, so you don't have to develop multiple versions of the same plugin for platforms provided by SPL.
Author: United Bytes
License: LGPL
Platforms: Windows, Linux, Solaris
Added: October 31, 2004