Stride is an open-source C# game engine designed for realistic rendering and VR. Highly modular, it aims to give game makers more flexibility in their development. Stride comes with an editor, Game Studio, which allows you to create and manage the content of your games or applications visually and intuitively. To learn more about Stride, visit stride3d.net.
This README is intended for users who want to build the Stride engine from source or contribute to its development. If your goal is to create games using Stride, we recommend visiting the Get started with Stride guide. There, you'll find detailed instructions on downloading, installing, and getting started with game development in Stride.
For questions and general discussions, please join our Discord server or participate in GitHub Discussions.
To report bugs or propose features, please use the Issues section on GitHub.
We welcome code contributions via pull requests. Issues tagged with good first issue are great starting points for code contributions.
You can help us translate Stride; check out our Localization Guide.
If you are a developer with solid experience in C#, rendering techniques, or game development, we want to hire you! We have allocated funds from supporters on Open Collective and can pay for work on certain projects. More information is available here.
Our Roadmap communicates upcoming changes to the Stride engine.
- Latest Git with Large File Support selected during setup. For convenience, you might also use a Git UI client like GitExtensions.
- .NET 8.0 SDK
- Run
dotnet --infoin a console or PowerShell window to see which versions you have installed.
- Run
- Visual Studio 2022 (the Community edition is free), with the following workloads. Follow this link if you would rather use a different IDE or the command line.
- .NET desktop development with .NET Framework 4.7.2 targeting pack (should be enabled by default)
- Desktop development with C++ with:
- Windows 11 SDK (10.0.22621.0) or a later version (should be enabled by default)
- MSVC v143 - VS2022 C++ x64/x86 build tools (Latest) (should be enabled by default)
- MSVC v143 - VS2022 C++ ARM64/ARM64EC build tools (Latest) (not enabled by default, click Individual components tab to select or search)
- C++/CLI support for v143 build tools (Latest) (not enabled by default)
- Optional (to target iOS/Android): .NET Multi-platform App UI development and the Android SDK setup individual component (enabled by default). Then, in Visual Studio, go to
Tools > Android > Android SDK Managerand install NDK (version 20.1+) from theToolstab. - Optional (to build the VSIX package): Visual Studio extension development
Note
The installation of Visual Studio with the required components may require up to 14 GB of disk space, depending on your system and selected components.
Warning
If this is your first time installing the .NET SDK, you might need to restart your system after the installation so that the system can recognize the new environment variables.
- Clone the repository using a Git UI client or from the command line:
git lfs clone https://github.com/stride3d/stride.git
- Open the solution:
- Open
<StrideDir>\build\Stride.slnwith Visual Studio 2022. - Build the
Stride.GameStudioproject in the60-Editorsolution folder (it should be the default startup project) or run it directly from Visual Studio's toolbar. - Optionally, open and build
Stride.Android.sln,Stride.iOS.sln, etc.
- Open
Warning
Do NOT use GitHub -> Code -> Download ZIP option, as this won't include the LFS files.
- Install Visual Studio Build Tools with the same prerequisites listed above.
- Add MSBuild to your system's PATH:
- Add MSBuild's directory to your
PATHenvironment variable (e.g.,C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\BuildTools\MSBuild\Current\Bin).
- Add MSBuild's directory to your
- Clone the repository:
git lfs clone https://github.com/stride3d/stride.git
- Build using the command line:
- Navigate to the
/builddirectory in the command prompt and run:
msbuild /t:Restore Stride.sln
- Then run:
compile.bat
- Navigate to the
- Some errors for test projects are normal, GameStudio will start anyway.
- The Visual Studio extension might fail to build if you are missing the Visual Studio SDK, but Game Studio will start anyway.
- If you skipped any of the Prerequisites thinking you already have the latest version, please update to the latest to be sure.
- Visual Studio might have issues building properly if an older version is present alongside 2022. If you want to keep those versions, ensure they are up to date and that you are building Stride using Visual Studio 2022.
- Your system's
PATHshould not contain older versions of MSBuild (e.g.,...\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\BuildTools\MSBuild\Current\Binshould be removed). - Some changes might require a system reboot. Try that if you haven't yet, for example, if you see these errors:
Could not find a compatible version of MSBuild.Path to dotnet executable is not set.
- Ensure that Git, Git LFS, and Visual Studio can access the internet.
- Close Visual Studio, clear the NuGet cache (
dotnet nuget locals all --clear), delete the hidden.vsfolder inside\buildand the files insidebin\packages, kill anymsbuildand other Visual Studio processes, then build the whole solution and run GameStudio.
Warning
Test solutions might fail, but this should not prevent you from building Stride.GameStudio.
Please check our Contributing Guidelines.
| Branch | master |
|---|---|
| Windows D3D11 | |
| Windows D3D12 | |
| Windows Vulkan | |
| Windows OpenGL | |
| Windows OpenGL ES | |
| iOS | |
| Android | |
| Linux Vulkan | |
| Linux OpenGL | |
| Tests Windows Simple | |
| Tests Windows D3D11 |
The Stride documentation is organized across different locations. Here's how it's structured:
- Stride Game Engine - The main repository for Stride.
- Contributing to Stride - A guide for developers interested in contributing to or developing the Stride engine.
- Stride Website - The official site showcasing Stride, featuring:
- Stride Docs - The official documentation, including:
- Manual
- Tutorials
- Release Notes
- Ways to contribute
- API Reference
- Community Resources - Demos, articles, shaders, physics examples, and more.
- Contributing to the Docs - Guide for contributing to the Stride documentation.
- Stride Community Toolkit - A set of C# helpers and extensions to enhance your experience with the Stride game engine.
- Contributing to Toolkit - Contribute to or explore the toolkit's source code.
This project is supported by the .NET Foundation.
Stride is covered by the MIT License unless stated otherwise (i.e. for some files that are copied from other projects). You can find the list of third-party projects here. Contributors need to sign the following Contribution License Agreement.
Thanks to all these wonderful people who have contributed to Stride!
This project follows the all-contributors specification. Contributions of any kind welcome!