# horde3d/Horde3D

Horde3D is a small 3D rendering and animation engine. It is written in an effort to create an engine being as lightweight and conceptually clean as possible.

Repository: https://github.com/horde3d/Horde3D
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/horde3d
Homepage: http://horde3d.org/
Language: C++
License Family: other
Topics: 3d-graphics, rendering-engine
Last push: 2026-07-30T20:48:15+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 66/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 95, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4744, "days_push": 34, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_license
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1584, forks 306 (observed 2026-08-28T04:05:07.320814+00:00)

## What it is
Horde3D is a lightweight, shader-based 3D rendering and animation engine written in C++ with a clean C-style API. It provides a unified scene graph, skeletal and morph-target animation, customizable forward/deferred rendering pipelines, and a content pipeline with COLLADA import.

## Use cases
- render 3D scenes with OpenGL in a C++ application
- embed a lightweight 3D engine in a game or simulation
- play skeletal and morph target animations on 3D models
- build custom forward or deferred rendering pipelines with post-processing effects
- import COLLADA assets from DCC tools into a game engine
- add real-time shadows, reflections, and particle effects to a 3D project

## When to choose
- you need a small, conceptually clean 3D rendering engine with minimal dependencies
- you want a C-style API callable from many programming languages
- you need cross-platform desktop and mobile support (OpenGL 2.0+ / OpenGL ES 3.0)
- you want hot-reloading of resources and pipelines during development
- you prefer a non-intrusive engine you can integrate into an existing codebase

## When to avoid
- you need a full-featured game engine with built-in physics, audio, and scripting
- you require Vulkan, DirectX 12, or modern low-level graphics APIs
- you need extensive documentation, a large community, or commercial support
- your target hardware lacks OpenGL 2.0 / OpenGL ES 3.0 support
- you want a ready-made editor and asset toolchain out of the box

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: active
- function: game-engine, graphics, animation
- domain: graphics, simulation
- platform: cross-platform, windows, cpp
- tags: 3d-rendering, opengl, rendering-engine, skeletal-animation, deferred-rendering, shader-based, collada, scene-graph, particle-systems, c-api, game-development, linux, macos, android, ios

## Member repositories
- horde3d/Horde3D (main) score 66

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:07.320814+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T03:55:57.266849+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/horde3d/Horde3D (fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:07.320814+00:00, sha b42384bdf14d)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.