2d and 3d game and rendering engines for python
By: Jens in game development | pygame | python
Thanks to the nice feedback i got for 2D Game Engines for Python i decided to compile a list of 2d and 3d game development possibilities with python i found so far. It might not be complete, but i'll maintain the list from time to time when i find new engines or get tips from you. Your feedback is generally very appreciated.
Last update on 07.09.2009
2D Game and Rendering engines:
- PyGame Python binding for sdl and more
- pyglet 2D games with opengl. No external dependencies, besides python of course ;-) Uses OpenGL
- Pycap The PopCap Game Framework for Python
- SpriteCraft Small game engine with python bindings
- ika RPG game engine with python scripting
- FIFEngine platform independent game engine with python scripting
- cocos2d framework for 2d game and graphical/interactive applications; uses pyglet
- Construct Gamebuilder like tool which supports Scripting in python, uses directx - windows only
- marishco A 2D casual game framework (DirectX & OpenGL).
Tile and Sprite engines for Pygame and pyglet
- PGU - Phil's pyGame Utilities supports isometric and hex too
- Waldi Tile Engine simple tile engines with sprite support (incl. animation) and collision detection. stores map in xml
- Rabbyt fast sprite engine, can use either pygame or pyglet
- Spryte is a sprite enigne for pyglet and can be found in their svn
3D Game and Rendering engines
- PyOpenGL pure binding to opengl
- Python-Ogre Ogre 3D for python, supports various libs like ODE too
- Panda3D full game engine in C++ with python integration
- Pyrr binding to the irrlicht engine
- Blender Game Engine
- Soya 3D object oriented "high level" 3D engine for Python
- Delta3D Open Source Game and Simulation engine with python scripting
- PyCrystal binding for Crystal Space
- Sylphis3D commercial game engine with GPL version available
- pyglet Uses OpenGL and can therefor do 3D too
- Construct Gamebuilder like tool which supports Scripting in python, uses directx - windows only
- PySoy 3D game engine based on C/python. AGPLv3
- Eden Eden is a high-level wrapper and extender for the Panda 3D rendering engine. BSD/LGPL
26 August 2008 | 
Comments (7)
on 17 September 2008 at 03:03 Andre said …
Most of 3d engines can also do 2d. They have to for the UI and the
HUD and are usually quite faster at it.
Also Panda3d is written in C++ where python is first class citizen
(C++ second) unlike its close competitor Ogre3d.
on 18 September 2008 at 06:41 Jens said …
Sure 3d engines can do 2d stuff, but imho they aren't necessarily faster. And they add some complexity too. It's not worth for most of the simple 2d games out there. But any way has its tradeoffs.
Fixed the panda3d entry.
on 10 November 2008 at 02:50 PythonNutter said …
You forget pyglet also lets you do 3D/OpenGL work and excels rather well at it but you need to know what you are doing in OpenGL if you want great performance at very high resolutions. In otherwords studying a good OpenGL book.
You also are missing Sylphis3D which is one of Pythons hidden gems. See videos on youtube for a major Wow factor and ths is imho a true 3d framework while others tend to throw in media or 2D api's. Even more impressive is its all Python in the framework.
For 2D I found the fastest across platforms is Pygley for few sprites that dont move much. The fastest with lots of sprites is Pyglet + Rabbyt combined. The most books will be Pygame but it took the most CPU and was nearly a 60MB install for itself and all its depencies on my platform. If I was on windowd with the beefiest hardware I could buy I wouldn't mind it bit it showed the warts on less beefy hardware that Pygley+Rabbyt absolutely ran fastest with least CPU.
I still want to give Panda3D a try, but have been doing mostlt 2d/sprites lately.
on 15 November 2008 at 18:09 Jens said …
Your right, should have mentioned that pyglet does do 3d too. Fixed it and added Sylphis3D.
With my first tile map test i found pyglet and pygame similiar in speed, of course pyglet gets much faster when one uses opengel and not the provided blitting. btw i use windows and 4 years old hardware. But maybe one day i'll like to learn opengl :-)
on 23 May 2009 at 06:41 Kingsley said …
Funtrench's Eden is a good 3D development framework. Works as a front end for Panda3D. You can download it at:
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfi...
Eden allows development of 3D games in Python.
on 28 July 2009 at 09:03 Monteiro said …
Hello there, Jens!
Thanks for a great compilation of game engines using python!
Just to point out, Sylphis3d is available under GPL2, with an option for a more flexible commercial licence, so in my humble opinion you could change the link and point it to: http://devnet.sylphis3d.com/ where you can get a SVN copy of the project and download it for free (the commercial website seems to "hide" this info).
Cheers,
Julio Monteiro
on 14 August 2009 at 06:55 Jens said …
Thanks. I did update the list accordingly.