Irrlicht Engine - A free open source 3D engine

Welcome to the Irrlicht Engine

The Irrlicht Engine is an open source realtime 3D engine written in C++. It is cross-platform, using D3D, OpenGL and its own software renderers. OpenGL-ES2 and WebGL renderers are also in development. It is a stable library which has been worked on for nearly 2 decades. We've got a huge community and Irrlicht is used by hobbyists and professional companies alike. You can find enhancements for it all over the web, like alternative terrain renderers, portal renderers, exporters, world layers, tutorials, editors, language bindings and so on. And best of all: It's completely free.

03-Feb-04GUI Enhancements & 3D Game Editor

As you can see at the screenshot on the left, I am currently working on huge improvements of Irrlicht’s user interface environment. I already fixed lots of API problems and made it easier to use. And I added new widgets:

  • Menus: complete with submenus and also cabable of being used as context menu (when you do a right click for example)
  • Editboxes: with support for clipboard copy & pasting, scrolling, unicode text, short cuts and a lot more.
  • Tabcontrols: everything you need to get more user interface elements on the screen.

These will be included in the next release, hope you’ll find it useful. I added the screenshot to theĀ screenshot page.
The shot also shows the prototype of a 3D game editor I am working on. I am just testing and playing around, it doesn’t mean that I’ll create a generic 3d game editor for the Irrlicht Engine. šŸ™‚

By CuteAlien | Posted in News | Comments Off on GUI Enhancements & 3D Game Editor

31-Jan-04Email problem & updates

I am constantly getting more emails. Besides about 150 spam mails, there are also 5-10 mails from Irrlicht Engine users every day. I am using some very agressive configured spam scanners to get rid of the spam, and in this way some of real mails might get lost. I am trying to answer each mail sent to me, and this is consuming a lot of time. So if you only have a basic question, consider posting it into theĀ forum, you might get an answer more quickly.
If you didn’t get an answer from me per mail after 3-5 days, simply send it again, maybe I didn’t recieve it. I updated theĀ author page with a similar text like in this news item, and I added 3 new answers to theĀ FAQ. They are describing for exampleĀ why there is no CVS, and when theĀ next release will be available. I also updated theĀ development page with the current status of the development, here some details:

  • Working on the .x animation player, loading, triangulation and mesh optimization is already done.
  • Modifying the GUI environment a little bit, also considering some useful hints by saigumi.
  • Refactoring the internal engine. Trying to add some missing features spottet out by keless.

And last, but not least: I added a link to a new project of keless:Ā IrrLichtRPG – Erring Light. I updated other parts of theĀ link page too, for example the ICE Framework now has a new icon.

By CuteAlien | Posted in News, Projects | Comments Off on Email problem & updates

22-Jan-04No more holes anymore

A lot of users were discovering strange holes in some Quake 3 levels when they were loaded and displayed with the Irrlicht Engine. Last night I debugged the whole thing and fixed the bug. I posted the code for this into theĀ forum, and the fix will of course be included in next release.
The screenshots to the left (and also the new shot of the week) show a gothic style level created by Myth, with which I tested the bug. It now works perfectly. And as you can see on the shots, I also added a new material type: Because my onboard gfx adapter is not able to display texture + lightmaps modulated by 4, I added a material in which the lightmap is not multiplied but added to the texture. As always I added these nice shots to theĀ screenshot gallery. I’m sorry for the bad render quality, but my onboard gfx adapter is trying its best. šŸ™‚

By CuteAlien | Posted in News | Comments Off on No more holes anymore

19-Jan-04Animated .x file wanted

There is no skeletal animated mesh included in the Irrlicht SDK, to show of what the engine is able to do with skeletal animated meshes. Because I am currently working on .x file loading and displaying, and I want to add a new tutorial in the upcoming Irrlicht 0.5 SDK, I need a free animated .x file.
Yago already sent in his model of a dwarf, you can see it on the left. But to make it fair, I’ll announce this here in public.
If you think your animated model is also nice or even better, it should be included in the next SDK and your name placed in the credits, then send it toĀ me (remove the .nospam in the adress).
You can create it in any 3d animation package, which is able to export .x files, like Maya or 3DS MAX. The exporter is included for example in the full DX9.0 SDK in DX90SDK\Extras\Direct3D\Plug-Ins\, or you can download it separetely as DXSDK Extras fromĀ microsofts homepage. To check if you exported it correctly, you can open it with Microsofts mesh viewer, also included in the DX9 SDK at DX90SDK\Bin\DXUtils\mview.exe. Note that some other 3d packages have native support for .x file exporting, and don’t need the exporter plugin.

By CuteAlien | Posted in News | Comments Off on Animated .x file wanted

11-Jan-04Related Projects

Again, there are some new Irrlicht Engine related and very interesting projects and addons, which Irrlicht Engine users might find useful:

  • ICE – IrrLicht Common Engine Framework: is an attempt to provide a framework for Irrlicht which will enhance rapid production of new projects. It has its ownĀ homepage.
  • 2D Image and Sprite classes: Extremely useful library extending Irrlichts 2d capabilities. Can be downloaded with documentation, examples and a cool demo from itsĀ homepage.
  • Irrlicht Particle Editor: It does not have its own homepage yet, but you can find any informations at thisĀ thread in the forum, there are someĀ cool screenshots available, and you can download it fromĀ here.
  • AVI Reader, created by rt. Take a look at the full code and the tutorial inĀ this andĀ this thread in the forum.
  • Opengame.org, a member organization formed to promote the development and use of opensource 3D game software. On theĀ opengame.org homepage you can find links to Irrlicht, and to its competition, like fly3d, neo and ogre. [Hello from Irrlicht to all, if you read this! ;)]

As always, I added links to the projects with homepage on theĀ link page.

By CuteAlien | Posted in News, Projects | Comments Off on Related Projects

07-Jan-04New SotW

Time for a new shot of the week. This time, it shows two screenshots fromĀ FMORG, a Free Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game, using the Irrlicht Engine.

Some people keep asking me, how ‘Irrlicht Engine’ is pronounced. As I already posted into the forum, there is aĀ .wav file in which you can hear a girl speaking it out correctly. I’m sorry for the bad quality, I don’t own a good microphone. (Send me better .wav’s if you like.) I also added a link to the file in the FAQ.

By CuteAlien | Posted in Contests, News | Comments Off on New SotW

04-Jan-04More new projects

After I posted the long list of new projects (see below), I received some mails, pointing me to more projects using the Irrlicht Engine. So here are 3 more:

  • FMORG, a Free Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game, with itsĀ homepage at sourceforge.
  • Galactic Racer, a racing game with futuristic racing cars/ships. There is aĀ homepage with a downloadable demo already.
  • Irrlicht Tetris, a tetris game made by Paul Zirkle, complete with source, downloadable from itsĀ homepage.

I added links to the projects with homepages at theĀ link page. Didn’t I list your game or irrlicht related homepage? Just send me aĀ mail (remove the ‘no.spam.’ in the adress).

By CuteAlien | Posted in News, Projects | Comments Off on More new projects

02-Jan-04New Projects using Irrlicht

Happy new year 2004! Time to update the list of projects which are using the Irrlicht Engine. I googled the web a little bit and found these new projects:

  • Aitolikon, an interactive, fun simulation of a fantasy world. They also created a MD3 loader for Irrlicht, available on theirĀ homepage.
  • Imperial Guard, a FPS with RPG elements. Has a nice designedĀ homepage which unfortunately doesn’t work with my Opera browser.
  • Project Aqua, a Schleichfahrt orĀ Aquanox-style game, with aĀ homepage at sourceforge. Attention: it’s in german language.
  • Heroes, a game developed by Dark Wood Games. Its a mix of Action, Strategy and RPG game, visit theirĀ homepage for more information. Attention again: Also a german page.
  • Dusty Engine, a task engine based on Irrlicht, created by Dave Andrews, with its ownĀ homepage.
  • 3D Pong, a game by Friedrich Schick. Its name says everything, but it is unfinished yet:Ā Download.
  • Centaur Force, a FPS. For more information readĀ this thread.
  • Razial Game, a kind of fighting game with aĀ homepage at saigumisĀ eve corp.

I added links to the projects with homepages at theĀ link page. Didn’t I list your game or irrlicht related homepage? Just send me aĀ mail (remove the ‘no.spam.’ in the adress).

By CuteAlien | Posted in News, Projects | Comments Off on New Projects using Irrlicht

26-Dec-03.X file loader

Anyone knows the girl on the left screenshot? Right, it is Microsofts well known tiny.x model from the DirectX SDK. During my very short holidays I implemented a .x file loader. It cannot play .x animations yet, but already loads ASCII .x files very fast. It only needs 50 ms to parse and create a model from the tiny.x file, which is 1.4 MB ASCII text. Because Microsoft created a very excellent .x exporter for Maya 2.5, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0 and 3DS Max 3,4 and 5, it is now very easy to create content for Irrlicht with these professional 3d gfx packages. The reader will be included in next release.

By CuteAlien | Posted in News | Comments Off on .X file loader

22-Dec-03Merry X-Mas

During the next week, you won’t get any answers from me in the forum or per mail. I’ll spent the holidays in the deep mountains of Austria, without any internet, so don’t get angry if I don’t answer you as quick as usual. But you can mostly count on other Irrlicht Engine users, for example in theĀ forum. Happy Holidays!
There is a new shot of the week as you can see: Robomaniac sent it in. It seems to be a 1st person shooter, anyway it simply looks cool. šŸ™‚

By CuteAlien | Posted in News | Comments Off on Merry X-Mas