List of first-person shooter engines
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is a sortable list of first-person shooter engines.
Early 1970s - Late 1980s: wireframes to flat-shaded 3D
| Game engine | First used for | Date | Other first-person shooters |
|---|---|---|---|
| N/a | Maze | 1973 | |
| N/a | Spasim | 1974 | |
| Arsys Software | Plazma Line | 1984 | Wibarm (1986), Star Cruiser (1988), Star Cruiser 2 (1992) |
| Freescape | Driller | 1987 | Dark Side (1988), Total Eclipse (1988), Castle Master (1990), Castle Master II: The Crypt (1990), Total Eclipse II: The Sphinx Jinx (1991) |
| N/a | The Colony | 1988 |
Early 1990s: 2.5D environments, sprites, and textures
Mid 1990s: True 3D Environments, texture mapping/polygons, sprites-to-per-vertex animation transition, beginnings of 3D Graphics hardware acceleration (3dfx glide-NVIDIA)
| Game engine | First used for | Date | Other first-person shooters |
|---|---|---|---|
| N/a | Geograph Seal | 1994 | |
| System Shock Engine | System Shock | 1994 | |
| N/a | Descent | 1995 | Descent II (1996), Descent 3 (1999) |
| RenderWare 1.x | CyberStreet (Tech Demo) | 1994 | |
| RenderWare 2.x | Active Worlds | 1995 | |
| XnGine | The Terminator: Future Shock | 1995 | The Terminator: SkyNET (1996) |
| Quake engine | Quake | 1996 | Hexen II (1997), Malice (1997), X-Men: The Ravages of Apocalypse (1997), Quake II (1999, N64 Only), Laser Arena (2000), Wrath: Aeon of Ruin (2019) |
| SlaveDriver | PowerSlave (Saturn) | 1996 | Quake (1997, Saturn), Duke Nukem 3D (1997, Saturn) |
| TEngine (Turok Engine) | Turok: Dinosaur Hunter | 1997 | |
| RareWare Engine | GoldenEye 007 | 1997 | Perfect Dark (2000) |
| Sith engine | Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II | 1997 |
Late 1990s: 32-bit color, per-vertex-animation-to-skeletal animation transition
Early 2000s: First GPU (GeForce 256)-GPUs become standard, Increasing detail, Hardware T&L, outdoor environments, skeletal animation-standard, baked/dynamic lighting, ragdoll physics
Mid 2000s: High-Dynamic Range (HDR) lighting, multi-threaded physics, programmable shader implementation
Late 2000s to 2010s: high-resolution textures, widescreen resolution, unified shader model
2020s: 8K, real-time ray-tracing
| Game engine | First used for | Date | Other first-person shooters |
|---|---|---|---|
| id Tech 7 | Doom Eternal | 2020 | Indiana Jones and the Great Circle (2024) |
| Source 2 | Half-Life: Alyx (2020) | 2015 | Counter-Strike 2 (2023) |
| Slipspace | Halo Infinite | 2021 | |
| Enfusion | Arma Reforger | 2022 | Arma 4 (Upcoming) |
| Unreal Engine 5 | Immortals of Aveum (2023) | 2022 | RoboCop: Rogue City (2023), The Finals (2023), Concord (2024), S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl (2024), Delta Force (2025, singleplayer), Squad (2020, updated to UE5 from UE4 in 2025), Borderlands 4 (2025), Halo: Campaign Evolved (2026), Bodycam (Upcoming) |
| id Tech 8 | Doom: The Dark Ages | 2025 | |
| CryEngine 6 | TBA | TBA | |
Specialized engines/engine middle-ware
Some features may be integrated into engines. For instance for trees and foliage a special "engine" is available, SpeedTree, that does just that (or could be integrated into general engines). The Euphoria character's 3D animating engine can be used independently but is integrated in the Rockstar Advanced Game Engine and the game Grand Theft Auto IV.