Features

Just Works, Right out of the Box

No-hassle install:

• Convenient installer packages for Windows, macOS and Linux

• Supports Windows versions all the way from Windows Vista to Windows 10

• Supports OS X 10.9 “Mavericks” through macOS 11 “Big Sur”

• Only one external dependency: working graphics driver

• Sample programs run right out of Start Menu

• No compilation step needed

Full Python Integration

Automatically-generated wrappers expose full functionality of the engine.

• All Python versions from 3.7 to newest 3.10 supported

• Highly optimized: all core functionality in C++

• Thoroughly-tested: two commercial MMOs in Python

• Panda3D structures garbage collected when using Python

• Manual and sample programs use Python

Exposes Full Power of Graphics API

Modern OpenGL/DirectX features exposed directly to Panda3D user:

• High-level shader languages: GLSL, Cg

• Powerful interface between shaders and engine

• Support for render-to-texture, multiple render targets

• Use of depth/shadow/stencil textures

• Support for tessellation and compute shaders

Shader Generation

Many advanced rendering techniques now fully automatic:

• Special Maps: Normal Map, Gloss Map, Glow Map

• HDR Rendering: Tone Mapping, Bloom Filter

• Cel Shading: Threshold Lighting, Inking

• Shadow Mapping

• Fullscreen filters such as Bloom, Cartoon Inking, Volumetric Lightning, Blur/Sharpen and Ambient Occlusion, as well as the ability to use your own

• More to come

3D Pipeline

Get models from your 3d modeller to Panda3D easily:

• Powerful EGG/BAM format

• EGG exporters for Maya, Blender and 3ds Max

• Support for other 3d formats (collada, x, lwo, obj, dxf, wrl, flt)

• Converters between different 3d formats and EGG

Audio

Several options for adding sounds to your game:

• Support for the OpenAL audio engine

• Support for the FMOD audio engine

Physics

Several options for physics simulation:

• Built-in simple physics engine

• Support for the Bullet physics engine

• Support for the ODE physics engine

Particle Effects

Panda3D has its own Particle System:

• Particle effects can be stored in text files

• Particle editor included for creating and editing particle effects

GUI

Panda3D comes with a set of tools for the creation of a graphical interface:

• Native DirectGUI system

• Efficient text rendering system

• Various third-party library options

Artificial Intelligence

Simple AI library “PandaAI” included:

• Steering behaviors: Seek, Flee, Pursue, Evade, Wander, Flock, Obstacle Avoidance, Path Following

• Path Finding

• Navigation Mesh generator for EGG files

Performance Monitoring

Powerful performance monitoring and optimization tools:

• Identifies bottlenecks, both CPU and GPU

• CPU time use decomposed into more than 250 categories

• Counts meshes, polygons, textures, transforms, state changes, etc

• Allows user-defined CPU-usage categories

• Tools for batching and state-change minimization

• Tools to merge textures and minimize texture switches

• Times draw calls using GPU timer queries

Debugging Tools

Heavy emphasis on error tolerance and debuggable code:

• Extreme resistance to crashing, even when errors are made

• More than 5000 assertion-checks to catch errors early

• Reference-counted data structures minimize memory leaks

• Many tools to examine internal state (one shown here)

Mature, Complete System

Mature system used to deliver several commercial games. Contains everything you need, not just the “sexy” stuff:

• Converters for a number of file formats

• Font file importers

• Tools to package games into redistributables

• Means to pack art assets into encrypted bundles

• Lots of other boring but essential stuff