Box3D

Simulates rigid body physics, collision detection, and joint constraints in three dimensions for game development

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Continuous Collision
Prevents fast-moving bodies from tunneling through thin geometry using time-of-impact interpolation and speculative contacts.
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Convex Hull Shapes
Supports capsules, spheres, triangle meshes, and height fields alongside convex hulls as collision geometry.
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Multi-Shape Bodies
Attaches multiple shapes to a single body to build compound collision geometry.
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Ray and Shape Casting
Provides ray casts, shape casts, and overlap queries for gameplay logic outside of rigid body simulation.
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Sensor System
Detects overlap between shapes and reports begin and end events without generating a physical collision response.
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Joint Library
Includes revolute, prismatic, distance, spherical, weld, wheel, motor, parallel, and filter joints with limits and springs.
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Soft Step Solver
Resolves contact and joint constraints with a sequential solver that runs in time proportional to the constraint count.
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Multithreaded SIMD Solving
Distributes physics computation across threads using SSE2 or Neon SIMD math to handle large numbers of bodies.
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Deterministic Output
Produces matching simulation results across platforms, enabling replay systems and networked physics synchronization.
...4 more features/limitations. Contact us to get a complete list of features and system requirements.

Platform

Desktop
Language
C++C

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System Requirements

#Minimum
1
Windows
2
x86 with SSE2 (SIMD can be disabled via BOX3D_DISABLE_SIMD)
3
  • CMake 3.22 or later
  • C17-compatible compiler (C++20-compatible compiler required to build the samples)
#Minimum
1
Linux
2
x86 with SSE2 or ARM with Neon (SIMD can be disabled via BOX3D_DISABLE_SIMD)
3
  • CMake 3.22 or later
  • C17-compatible compiler (C++20-compatible compiler required to build the samples)
#Minimum
1
macOS
2
x86 with SSE2 or Apple Silicon with Neon (SIMD can be disabled via BOX3D_DISABLE_SIMD)
3
  • CMake 3.22 or later
  • C17-compatible compiler (C++20-compatible compiler required to build the samples)

Ratings

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Developer

Written in

C, C++

Initial Release

2026-06-30

Repository

License

Categories

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Notes

  • Box3D is alpha, pre-1.0 software from Erin Catto, the creator of the 2D physics engine Box2D; the manual itself cautions it is a work in progress ahead of v1.0.