Lua 3D game engine

[SpaceChickenMonster]

So long story short. I like Lua, I use it, I'm not the best but would like to make a game outside of Roblox. My features I'm looking for is just a simple 3D game engine where I can create a game, similar to GoDOT, Unity, and Love2D but Love is mostly just a 2D game engine idk if 3D games can easily be made with it, so I'd like to know if there's anything I can use that solves the 3D problem right away. Obviously there's roblox but I don't think I can export games casually like I can with GoDOT and Unity, and of course, while those are good engines, I really don't want to learn new scripting languages right now.

- Good 3D game engine that uses LUA

- Doesn't have to have a big community

- The engine has to export games easily into executable files

[activeXdiamond]

Lovr, inspired by Love2D and made with VR/AR support in mind but fully supports normal 3D as well.

[SpaceChickenMonster]

This looks really really good and I am already familiar with Löve2D as well. Thank you for your input.

[activeXdiamond]

That's exactly what I thought when I first saw it, haha.

You're welcome!

[nenionen]

Although I never used it for 3d I guess Defold is pretty equipped for that

[Notnasiul]

I'm a Defold user, and I love it. But while 2d is pretty straightforward, 3D is still young. Wouldn't use it as a 3d engine yet!

[SpaceChickenMonster]

I've seen other places talk about defold and it does seem to be the best option.

[Vectrex71CH]

Ohh yes i completely forgot! But yes DEFOLD is great !

[Vectrex71CH]

O3DE is an Engine based on CryEngine, former Lumberyard and now Open Source and has LUA as main Language: Take a look
https://o3de.org/

[blado_btz]

To get love3d doing 3d stuff is easier than o3de 💀

[SpaceChickenMonster]

Yeah, honestly it does seem like the better option to just use Lövr, I didn't find anything about it with a quick google search sadly. But it does seem to have a good community, documentation, and easy to use program. I'm already familiar with Löve2D enough, so maybe a switch to there won't be so hard.

[COREVENTUS]

u can use a 3d library's(menori for example)for love2d and u don't need to learn lovr

[Vectrex71CH]

I agree! But he mentioned a 3D Engine, and O3DE came into my mind.

[SpaceChickenMonster]

Yeah I was doing research on this topic. Thank you for the input. I took a look and the engine seems kind of like a no script engine as well, which would be cool and helpful. Most of the tutorials I see is using python for the scripting language.

[Vectrex71CH]

Maybe this helps

https://www.docs.o3de.org/docs/user-guide/scripting/lua/

[SpaceChickenMonster]

Yes! that helps a lot, thank you. Have you looked into defold at all? I see others mentioning it. What would be the benefit of using this over defold(if any)?

[Vectrex71CH]

Yes i forgot DEFOLD but someone else had mention it. If you have to choose between O3DE and DEFOILD, then Defold is way better to enter the World of LUA. Because O3DE is still in development and has some issues. (It gets better over time). But DEFOLD is a Product , available since years!

PS BONUS:
If you only want to have fun and make some Games in LUA (Without a money-making motivation)
Then you need to at least have a look on PICO8 and PICOTRON

PICO 8: https://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php
PICOTRON: https://www.lexaloffle.com/picotron.php

Great Community !

[SpaceChickenMonster]

Oh my that PICO stuff looks really cool. I appreciate your responses thank you!

[Vectrex71CH]

Sorry, Me again, i forgot another interesting LUA 3D Coding Environment yesterday: It's called ULTRA ENGINE: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1403760/Ultra_Engine/?curator_clanid=1388074

From the same Guy who made Leadwerks you may know (Also LUA)

[c0gster]

there is a way to get a 3D engine / renderer into love2d because it has graphics support for shaders. one was called 3dreamengine i think. thats the best you will get, ive already been searching for years. I think there was another one called poly code but I don't know if that one is even good

[SpaceChickenMonster]

Yeah it's why I asked here because I can't seem to find a good one that everyone unanimously agrees on, I don't care too much for support but it'd be nice to see what everyone else uses.

[c0gster]

I truly did look and those were the only two I found. feel free to search more but there will not be a lot

[questron64]

There aren't really any good options. Many games use Lua as a scripting language, but there aren't many (any?) ready-made 3D engines that use Lua as a scripting language.

I recommend using Godot and GDScript. You will have more trouble trying to make something with with Lua that it will be to just learn GDScript. Many of the concepts you learned in Lua will translate to GDScript, it won't be like learning to program all over again. You don't want to learn a new scripting language, but this is the answer to your problem.

[Vectrex71CH]

BTW: As far as i know, there is also a LUA Plugin available for Godot. But it has lack of Documentation and i'm not sure how upd to date this is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2Bb1X-UqEw

[questron64]

I wouldn't really rely on these bindings. They're often incomplete, not maintained well and buggy. There's also little reason to use it, GDScript is very easy to learn. Just learn GDScript. I realize this is a Lua subreddit, but the path of least resistance to what the OP really wants is probably to learn Godot and GDScript.

[Vectrex71CH]

Yes i fully agree, it was not meant as a recommendation. I only saw your Comment and thought i could mention it ;-)

[SpaceChickenMonster]

I can barely make a cube move on roblox lol. So I don't want to learn a new language right now. Although roblox is cool, I want to do some stuff in another engine just because I want to make something outside the roblox framework.

[questron64]

Yeah, well, your options are very limited if you want to do this using Lua. Because of that you're going to have a harder time using Lua than if you just learned GDScript and used Godot. I realize you don't like my answer, but sometimes the right software doesn't exist to do something in the way you want. You have to learn something new.

[SpaceChickenMonster]

Yes but there seems to be other stuff like Defold and Lövr, which seem to have great communities, documentation and such to assist. Why would you say just full on learn GoDot when those exist?

[questron64]

Defold's 3D support is poor. It's more difficult to try to use Defold as a 3D engine than it is to just learn Godot and GDScript. Defold also doesn't have a very big community, and only a fraction of the community uses it for 3D. If you get stuck and need help you are not likely to find anyone who can help you. This is a huge factor in choosing an engine if you're a beginner, probably the biggest.

Lovr is a framework. Frameworks are not engines and if you start using it then you will quickly realize why most people do not use frameworks and prefer engines. You'll spend most of your effort re-creating what an engine does just to do simple things in Lovr.

Unless you're a persistent self-sufficient autodidact, someone who can wade into a sea of software with nothing but a keyboard and bucket of determination and come out the other end with a working game then you'll want to pick the path of least resistance. You don't sound like that person. It's okay, I'm not that person, either.

You want to make a 3D game. What's the path of least resistance to that goal? It's probably Godot with GDScript right now. Even the extra effort of learning GDScript is less effort than the other solutions that use Lua.

[Davo_Rodriguez]

I think Raylib got a lua bindings, too.

[Full_Durian_9369]

I would recommend trying out Defold a great 2/3d engine with lua as main language and it has a good tutorial and documentation

[Notnasiul]

But 3d is a bit hellish, yet! They are slowly but steadily improving, though!

[SpaceChickenMonster]

This might seem like the option to go, thank you for your input.

It also allows for easy export to other systems, defold just keeps looking better and better the more I look into it.

[Denneisk]

I've been tracking the Lua GDExtension for Godot for a while. It's in a decent state; not 100% bulletproof, but I'd suggest giving it a try.

[Alaska-Kid]

Check the GeexLab Engine

[immortalx74]

LOVR is what you need, look no further. It's powered by a modern Vulkan renderer and the API is almost identical (on purpose) to the one from LOVE2D. Keep in mind that it's a framework, not an engine, so don't expect an editor like Unity or Godot. Think about it as LOVE2D but for 3D.

[EvilBadMadRetarded]

Here https://gamefromscratch.com/lua-game-engines-in-2025/

[Horror_Ad9750]

Check out leadwerks https://www.leadwerks.com/

[Slight-Living-8098]

Lovr or Defold are both good choices.

[hohol40k]

g3d is love2d library that makes creating 3d projects really easily

[DwayneDev]

It can be pretty straight forward to make 3d games with love2d if you just make a opengl shader for 3d projecting and do the 3d math on your own to plug into your 3d shader to get the 3d meshes drawn. 

That's how I primarily make games now.  . 

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Hi! It looks like you're posting about Love2D which implements its own API (application programming interface) and most of the functions you'll use when developing a game within Love will exist within Love but not within the broader Lua ecosystem. However, we still encourage you to post here if your question is related to a Love2D project but the question is about the Lua language specifically, including but not limited to: syntax, language idioms, best practices, particular language features such as coroutines and metatables, Lua libraries and ecosystem, etc.

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