Nova3D

Nova3D
Website	https://nova3d.openeggbert.com \| https://libnova3d.com
Programming language	C++
C++ standard	C++20
Licence	MIT
Based on	Urho3D / U3D (MIT, © 2008–2022 the Urho3D project)
Graphics backend	CNA (SDL 3 / OpenGL / OpenGL ES)

Nova3D is a modified version of Urho3D — a cross-platform, open-source, MIT-licensed 3D game engine. Nova3D reuses Urho3D source code directly (math, containers, scene graph, resource system, and more), and replaces Urho3D's native OpenGL/Direct3D backends with CNA — a C++ reimplementation of the XNA 4.0 API built on SDL 3.

The public C++ API uses namespace Urho3D. Game code written against Urho3D is intended to compile against Nova3D with minimal changes.

Architecture

Game code
      ↓
Nova3D public API   (namespace Urho3D, include/Urho3D/)
      ↓
Nova3D scene, resource, renderer, UI, physics
 — adapted from Urho3D source —
      ↓
IGraphicsBackend  (CnaGraphicsAdapter)
      ↓
CNA  —  C++ XNA 4.0 backend  (SDL3 / OpenGL / OpenGL ES)

Public API overview

Header	Class	Description
`Urho3D/Context.h`	`Urho3D::Context`	Subsystem registry and event dispatcher
`Urho3D/Engine.h`	`Urho3D::Engine`	Main loop and engine lifetime
`Urho3D/Application.h`	`Urho3D::Application`	Base class for user applications
`Urho3D/Scene/Scene.h`	`Urho3D::Scene`	Root of the scene graph
`Urho3D/Scene/Node.h`	`Urho3D::Node`	Scene-graph node with transform hierarchy
`Urho3D/Graphics/Camera.h`	`Urho3D::Camera`	Camera component
`Urho3D/Graphics/StaticModel.h`	`Urho3D::StaticModel`	Static mesh component
`Urho3D/Graphics/Light.h`	`Urho3D::Light`	Light component
`Urho3D/Resource/ResourceCache.h`	`Urho3D::ResourceCache`	Resource loading and caching

Platforms

Through CNA and SDL 3: Windows, Linux, MacOS, Android, Web (Emscripten).

Build

cmake -S . -B cmake-build-debug -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug -DBUILD_TESTING=ON
ninja -C cmake-build-debug

Attribution

Nova3D directly reuses Urho3D MIT-licensed source for: math, containers, IO, scene graph, resource system, graphics components. All adapted files carry the original Urho3D copyright notice plus the Nova3D contributor notice.