Open-source alternatives to Minecraft

Craft is a multiplayer voxel sandbox written in C. It utilizes an OpenGL voxel engine to render a block-based world and implements an infinite terrain generator that uses noise functions to create deterministic, procedural landscapes. The project features a networked environment where players can build and modify a shared world using socket-based state synchronization. To maintain consistency across sessions, it employs a voxel world database to store and retrieve modified block coordinates. The system covers a range of capabilities including 3D collision detection for character movement, to

Minetest Game is an open-source voxel sandbox engine that provides a foundational environment for building, exploring, and modifying procedurally generated worlds. It functions as a creative platform where users can construct complex structures and interact with a three-dimensional, block-based landscape without predefined goals or hostile entities. The project distinguishes itself through a modular architecture that separates game mechanics from the core engine. By utilizing a sandboxed scripting environment and event-driven hooks, it allows for the dynamic modification of game behavior, ena

Minetest is an open-source voxel game engine and platform used to create and share moddable 3D block-based games. It provides a framework for building interactive grid environments and generating custom voxel worlds. The project features a Lua-based modding framework that allows for the extension of game behavior and the addition of custom content without altering the core engine. This data-driven system supports a dedicated workflow for modifying game environments and logic. The engine supports multiplayer game hosting through a dedicated server architecture, enabling multiple players to co

This is a web-based 3D game engine designed for creating high-performance interactive experiences on web and mobile platforms. It functions as a real-time graphics renderer and physics engine, utilizing a component-based scene graph to organize entities and their properties for three-dimensional rendering. The engine includes a visual scene editor that allows for the design of environments through a graphical interface, which then exports these assets as executable code. Its broader capabilities cover real-time graphics rendering for 2D and 3D elements, physical world simulation for object c

Cubyz is a voxel game engine designed for building procedurally generated 3D sandbox worlds. It provides a framework for creating infinite landscapes with real-time terrain modification and exploration, supported by a dedicated voxel rendering engine. The project features a procedural terrain generator that utilizes a chunk-based system to allow for massive vertical construction without height or depth limitations. It optimizes performance through a distance-based rendering system that simplifies the geometric complexity of distant landscape elements to maintain wide view distances. The engi

Veloren is an open-source multiplayer RPG featuring a voxel-based action adventure in a procedurally generated fantasy world. It is built upon a voxel game engine that supports 3D rendering via Vulkan and Metal, utilizing a procedural world generator to create geography and ecosystems based on erosion algorithms and temperature maps. The project is distinguished by a sandboxed plugin system using WebAssembly, which allows for the addition of new game logic and equipment without recompiling the core engine. It also features a dedicated game server architecture designed to synchronize state, ma

Piston is a modular game engine and framework written in Rust for building two and three-dimensional graphical applications. It functions as a cross-platform windowing library and a system for managing input events and window loops across different operating systems. The project provides specialized rendering systems, including a voxel rendering engine for volumetric pixels and a skeletal animation system for deforming meshes via hierarchical bone structures. It also features an immediate mode user interface toolkit for creating responsive on-screen elements and a behavior tree AI framework t

This project is a high-performance 3D game engine implementation written in C++. Its primary purpose centers on game engine development and retro game preservation, allowing for the study and compilation of original source code from a classic title. The engine utilizes a custom asset pipeline that integrates 3D models and scene data from Maya via a specialized export plugin. It is designed to be compiled across Windows, Linux, and macOS through a platform-specific build abstraction. Technical capabilities cover real-time OpenGL rendering, state-based game logic, and binary resource packaging

Ogre is a high-level 3D rendering engine designed for creating games, simulations, and visualizations without requiring low-level graphics API code. It functions as a framework for real-time 3D graphics processing, providing a physically based renderer to simulate lifelike surfaces and lighting. The engine includes specialized systems for skeletal animation to control character movement and a terrain generation system for producing large textured landscapes. These features are supported by automatic levels of detail and distance-based mesh management to maintain performance. The project cove

This project is a browser-based game engine and implementation of a racing game built using a declarative component architecture. It provides a framework for constructing interactive three-dimensional environments and game objects by mapping hierarchical data structures to a persistent scene graph. The engine distinguishes itself by synchronizing game logic with high-performance rendering through a centralized data store. This approach ensures that physics calculations, player progress, and environmental variables remain consistent with the visual output of the scene. Developers can compose c

3d-force-graph is a WebGL-accelerated component for rendering interactive network graphs in three-dimensional space. Built on the ThreeJS library, it positions nodes using a force-directed physics simulation that can be driven by either a D3-force or ngraph engine, producing dynamic layouts that users can rotate, zoom, and pan using mouse, keyboard, or touch controls. The component distinguishes itself through comprehensive camera control capabilities, including programmatic positioning, animated transitions, automatic timed orbiting, and zoom-to-fit functionality that frames all nodes within

jMonkeyEngine is a Java-based 3D game engine and cross-platform graphics framework. It provides the core tools necessary for developing three-dimensional games and interactive simulations, focusing on real-time rendering and the management of spatial environments. The engine includes a dedicated 3D physics simulation toolkit for handling rigid body dynamics and collision detection. It also features a game asset pipeline for importing and managing 3D models, textures, and audio files during runtime. The framework covers broad capability areas including 3D scene rendering, physics-based simula

Oasis Engine is a web-based game engine and component-based game framework designed for creating real-time interactive 2D and 3D applications for web and mobile platforms. It functions as a real-time 3D renderer and a physics simulation engine capable of producing interactive visual environments. The framework includes a visual scene editor that allows artists and developers to build, layout, and export project scenes through a graphical interface. This system supports visual scene composition and converts these layouts into structured data for runtime reconstruction. The engine's capabiliti

Makie.jl is a high-performance Julia data visualization library and hardware-accelerated plotting engine used to create interactive 2D and 3D visualizations. It functions as a reactive visualization framework where plots update automatically via observables and compute graphs, and as a vector graphics generator for high-resolution academic output. The system is distinguished by its backend-agnostic rendering pipeline, which supports OpenGL, WebGL, and ray-traced scenes. It employs a grammar-of-graphics approach to map variables to aesthetic attributes and utilizes a hierarchical scene graph t

mujoco_menagerie is a curated library of physical robot specifications and XML model definitions designed for standardized dynamics and contact simulation. It provides a collection of high-quality robot model files for humanoids, quadrupeds, and manipulators, alongside detailed kinematic and inertial parameters used to reproduce real-world robot behavior in virtual environments. The project serves as a repository of robotics simulation assets and MJCF model definitions optimized for accuracy. It includes standardized model libraries specifically for bipedal, quadrupedal, and humanoid hardware

Malmo is a voxel-based simulation platform designed for artificial intelligence research and the study of autonomous agent behaviors. Built as a sandbox environment using Minecraft, it serves as a framework for multi-agent simulation and reinforcement learning research within a 3D grid of blocks. The project distinguishes itself through a multi-agent simulation framework that coordinates and synchronizes multiple autonomous agents to perform collaborative missions. It provides a standardized interface following reinforcement learning specifications, allowing it to function as an environment f

tModLoader is a modding framework and toolset designed for expanding game content and extending core game logic. It provides a polymorphic content API that allows for the creation of new items, NPCs, projectiles, and world assets through object-oriented inheritance. The project is distinguished by its advanced code modification capabilities, utilizing intermediate language bytecode patching and reflection-based private access to alter internal game behavior. It features a hot-reloading assembly runtime that enables developers to recompile and apply source code changes in real-time without res

Luanti is an open-source sandbox game engine designed for the creation and exploration of interactive three-dimensional voxel environments. It functions as a platform for building persistent digital spaces where users can modify block-based worlds and share custom content. The engine provides a framework for multiplayer interaction, utilizing a client-server architecture to synchronize world states across connected participants. It incorporates a scripting interface that allows for the integration of user-created modifications, alongside a centralized distribution system for managing and inst

This project is a cross-platform graphics and compute framework that provides a unified, hardware-agnostic abstraction layer for rendering and parallel processing. It enables developers to build high-performance applications that execute consistently across diverse operating systems and hardware backends, including Vulkan, Metal, and DirectX. By mapping high-level graphics commands to native APIs, it serves as a portable foundation for both real-time 3D rendering and general-purpose GPU computing. The framework distinguishes itself through a robust architecture that supports both native deskt

Open3D is a software toolkit designed for the processing, alignment, and reconstruction of three-dimensional data. It functions as a computer vision geometry engine that enables the manipulation of point clouds, meshes, and volumetric grids derived from sensor inputs. The library distinguishes itself through a high-performance computational core that executes geometric processing tasks in native code, paired with a binding layer that exposes these capabilities to high-level languages for rapid prototyping. It provides specialized algorithms for spatial registration, allowing users to merge mu

This project serves as a comprehensive educational framework and reference library for mastering high-performance graphics programming and parallel compute resource management. It provides a collection of practical implementations designed to demonstrate the explicit control required by the Vulkan API, covering the fundamental mechanics of modern graphics pipelines and cross-platform hardware interaction. The repository distinguishes itself by focusing on the low-level architectural requirements of modern GPU development, including manual memory allocation, multi-threaded command recording, a

This repository is a comprehensive collection of reference implementations and sample libraries for the Universal Windows Platform. It provides practical examples of how to use Windows Runtime APIs to build cross-device applications, including detailed guidance on XAML-based declarative user interfaces and DirectX-integrated rendering. The project distinguishes itself by providing a wide array of hardware integration suites, covering low-level communication with USB, Serial, I2C, SPI, and GPIO peripherals. It includes specialized implementations for mixed reality holographic rendering, advanc

Babylon.js is a JavaScript game engine and real-time graphics renderer designed for creating interactive three-dimensional visuals and applications. It functions as a web-based 3D framework and WebGL engine that enables the deployment of high-performance 3D content across various web platforms and devices. The project provides tools for web-based 3D game development, real-time graphics rendering, and the creation of browser-based interactive visualizations. It also supports the development of WebXR virtual and augmented reality experiences using standard web technologies. The framework cover

PyQtGraph is a scientific plotting and graphics framework built for PyQt and PySide applications, providing fast, interactive 2D and 3D visualizations with GPU-accelerated rendering. It serves as both a real-time signal monitoring system for streaming time-series data and a toolkit for constructing interactive data dashboards with dockable panels, parameter trees, and custom widgets. The library also includes a node-based visual flowchart tool for building data processing pipelines and a scientific graphics export system that saves plots as PNG, SVG, or CSV and converts items to Matplotlib for

f3d is a fast 3D model viewer and rendering engine designed for visualizing 3D meshes, CAD files, and point clouds. It operates across multiple deployment profiles, functioning as a lightweight desktop application, a scientific data visualizer for volumetric and scalar datasets, a headless rendering engine for automated image generation, and a WebAssembly-based renderer for web applications. The project distinguishes itself through specialized support for Gaussian Splatting scene reconstructions and the ability to visualize complex scientific formats such as VTK, NetCDF, and HDF. It features

Cocos Engine is a cross-platform game engine designed for building high-performance 2D and 3D interactive experiences for web, mobile, and desktop platforms. It features a multi-backend rendering engine and a 2D and 3D physics simulator, utilizing a core architecture that combines a C++ runtime for performance with TypeScript for game logic scripting. The engine distinguishes itself through a multi-platform deployment system that packages projects for native operating systems and instant-play web ecosystems. Its graphics system supports multiple APIs, employing physically based rendering and

MeshLab is an open-source 3D mesh processing system designed for editing and analyzing unstructured triangular meshes. It functions as a triangular mesh editor, a model visualization suite, and a conversion tool for transforming 3D mesh data between various file formats. The software provides tools for cleaning, healing, and optimizing large 3D models generated from raw digitization and scanning data. It enables the preparation of models for physical 3D printing and the application of surface textures to evaluate the visual appearance of digital models. The system covers a broad range of cap