FIFE

Flexible Isometric Free Engine (FIFE) is a multi-platform isometric game engine written in C++. It comes with Python bindings allowing users to create games using Python as well as C++. The engine is extendable and enables you to add any feature you can imagine to your project.

Website | Changelog | Releases | Docs | Developer Manual | C++ API | Python API

Continuous Integration	Windows	Linux	Mac	Python Wheels
Build Status			👷🏼

Table of contents

1. Features
2. Releases
3. License
4. How to Build
5. Tests
6. Python Demos
7. Python Tutorials
8. C++ Tutorials
9. Troubleshooting
10. Feedback

1) Features

A detailed feature list for FIFE is documented in the user manual.

2) Releases

Latest Release

You find the latest releases on Github Releases.

Development Releases

We also provide releases for the latest successful build on Github Actions CI.

Availability in Package Repositories

Fifengine is also already available from the following package repositories:

3) License

The source code (*.cpp, *.h & *.py) is licensed under LGPL v2.1 or newer.

Content was taken from a lot a lot of different 3rd party sources. Therefore each client directory comes with a separate LICENSE file that states the origin of the content, the author and the actual license it was published under.

4) How to Build

Linux

FIFE uses CMake and Ninja for building. The build process requires several dependencies that can be installed as system packages or via vcpkg.

Prerequisites

• CMake 3.15 or newer
• C++20 compatible compiler (GCC, Clang, MSVC 17 or 18)
• vcpkg package manager (optional)

Install Dependencies

1. Install vcpkg if not already installed:

   git clone https://github.com/Microsoft/vcpkg.git
   cd vcpkg
   ./bootstrap-vcpkg.sh
   ./vcpkg integrate install

2. Install required system packages:

   sudo apt-get update
   sudo apt-get install libglu1-mesa-dev

3. Install FIFE dependencies via vcpkg:

   ./vcpkg install --triplet x64-linux

   Or run the provided script:

   ./vcpkg.sh

Build Steps

1. Configure the build using CMake presets:

   cmake --preset clang20-x64-linux-rel -DENABLE_FIFEGUI=OFF -DBUILD_PYTHON_BINDINGS=OFF -DBUILD_LIBRARY=ON

   This creates the build directory out/build/clang20-x64-linux-rel and configures for:

   • Release build with Clang 20
   • Disabled fifechan GUI library
   • Disabled Python bindings
   • Enabled shared library build

2. Build the library:

   cmake --build out/build/clang20-x64-linux-rel

3. (Optional) Install the library:

   cmake --install out/build/clang20-x64-linux-rel

The built library libfife.so will be located in out/build/clang20-x64-linux-rel/.

Alternative Build Options

• To build with fifechan GUI support: -DENABLE_FIFEGUI=ON
• To build Python bindings: -DBUILD_PYTHON_BINDINGS=ON
• For debug build, use preset clang20-x64-linux-dbg
• For different compilers, use appropriate presets (see CMakePresets.json)

Build Targets

To list all available build targets:

cmake --build <build-dir> --target help

Existing Targets:

Target	Description	CMake Options Required

1. fife | C++ library | -DBUILD_LIBRARY=ON
2. fife.headers | Custom target for headers |
3. fife.swig-wrappers | Custom target for SWIG wrappers |
4. fife_swig | Python extension for FIFE | -DBUILD_PYTHON_BINDINGS=ON
5. fifechan_swig | Python extension for fifechan | -DBUILD_PYTHON_BINDINGS=ON -DENABLE_FIFEGUI=ON
6. test_* | Various C++ tests | -DBUILD_LIBRARY=ON -DBUILD_TESTS=ON

Build commands (example):

Build SWIG Python modules

cmake -B build -S . -DBUILD_PYTHON_BINDINGS=ON
cmake --build build --target fife_swig fifechan_swig

Build C++ library + tests

cmake -B build -S . -DBUILD_LIBRARY=ON -DBUILD_TESTS=ON
cmake --build build

5) Tests

The folllowing tests are available:

• fife_test (tests/fife_test/): Custom runner run.py
• swig_tests (tests/swig_tests/): Uses unittest
• extension_tests (tests/extension_tests/): Uses unittest
• core_tests (tests/core_tests/): Uses Catch2 (C++)

The test tool can be found within the <FIFE>/tests/fife_test directory. You can launch it by running run.py. Open the console with F10. To run a test enter run and the test name like PathfinderTest.

Prerequisites:

1. Build fife_swig (and optionally fifechan_swig)
2. Install or set PYTHONPATH to include the built modules

Running C++ Core Tests

C++ tests use Catch2 and require the fife library target to exist.

Prerequisites:

1. Configure with -DBUILD_LIBRARY=ON -DBUILD_TESTS=ON
2. Build the targets

Running tests:

Via CTest (after building)

cd build
ctest --test-dir . -L core -V

Or run directly

./test_dat1 ./test_dat2

6) Python Demos

The Python demos are located in the demos directory. Each demo has its own folder and can be launched by running run.py in the respective folder.

For details about each demo, please refer to the demo's README file.

7) Python Tutorials

Our Python tutorials demonstrate how to use the engine when working with Python.

8) C++ Tutorials

There is also a set of C++ tutorials that demonstrate how to use the engine when working with C++.

9) Troubleshooting

Video Card/Driver Issues

Certain driver and graphics card combinations are known to cause issues with FIFE. Users may experience blank screens or blurred images. If you encounter this, please report it on our issue tracker.

Please include your graphics card, driver, and operating system information in your report. Currently, the workaround is to edit your settings.xml file and set both GLUseFramebuffer and GLUseNPOT to False (they are True by default).

Audio

Win32 users tend to suffer from problems with the OpenAL drivers. If you don't hear sound while running a FIFE client, run oalinst.exe that ships with the Win32 FIFE Development Kit. This is the latest OpenAL driver for Win32.

10) Feedback

We appreciate every kind of feedback concerning the release, the project in general and the bundled techdemo. Feedback is a great way to help us to improve FIFE. If you would like to get in contact with us or provide feedback, you can post in the discussions section.