A custom game engine built from scratch for voxel-style games like Minecraft and Terraria — optimized for procedural world generation, chunk rendering, and simulation performance.
This engine is designed specifically for Minecraft-like voxel games, focusing on performance, chunk management, and real-time procedural generation — without the overhead of general-purpose engines like Unity or Unreal.
By narrowing the engine’s scope, development can target core voxel mechanics (terrain, lighting, rendering, and physics) with maximum efficiency.
- OpenGL-based rendering of squares and cubes using the Blinn–Phong lighting model — optimized to draw entire scenes in a single draw call.
- Integrated Dear ImGui for lightweight, real-time UI controls and debugging interfaces.
- Basic window management, input handling, and rendering loop via C++/OpenGL backend.
- Configurable camera controls and shader-based material system.
- Additional Primitive Support — spheres, cylinders, cones, and more.
- Procedural Generation Algorithms — Perlin Noise, Simplex Noise, and hybrid terrain methods.
- World Generation Techniques — Chunked LOD, Greedy Meshing, seamless world streaming.
- Basic Physics System — rigid bodies, collisions, and forces.
- Physics-Driven Animation — ragdoll, procedural motion, and dynamic interaction.
git clone https://github.com/zong4/MinecraftEngine.gitMake sure XMake is installed on your system.
cd MinecraftEngine
xmake run -y💡 xmake will automatically download and compile all required dependencies on first run.
“Focus on what matters for voxel games.”
This engine deliberately avoids unnecessary systems (animation controllers, complex asset pipelines, etc.) to prioritize:
- Efficiency — small codebase, optimized memory layout
- Clarity — clean architecture for rapid iteration
- Flexibility — modular design for future expansion
The goal is to understand — and control — every piece of a voxel-based engine from the ground up.
- 📘 OpenGL Tutorials – LearnOpenGL.com
- 🧠 Game Engine Architecture (by Jason Gregory)
- 🧱 Hazel Engine (by TheCherno)
| Category | Technology |
|---|---|
| Language | C++17 |
| Build System | XMake |
| Rendering | OpenGL |
| UI Layer | Dear ImGui |
| Lighting | Blinn–Phong model |
| Physics (planned) | Custom lightweight solver |
| Platform | Windows & MacOS |