
filament
Filament is a real-time physically based rendering engine for Android, iOS, Windows, Linux, macOS, and WebGL2
The Lens
Filament is Google's real-time physically based rendering engine, the part of a 3D app that turns models, materials, and lights into the picture on screen. It runs on Android, iOS, Windows, Linux, macOS, and the web through WebGL2 and WebGPU, with backends for OpenGL, Metal, and Vulkan. Apache-licensed and completely free. Google uses it in its own products, which is about the strongest endorsement a graphics engine can get.
This is a rendering engine, not a game engine. No physics, no audio, no scripting, no full editor. You work in C++, with Java bindings for Android and a JavaScript path for the web, plus a material compiler you run at build time. Prebuilt releases ship through Maven Central and CocoaPods, so you don't have to compile it yourself unless you want to. It's built to be small and fast, with a clear bias toward mobile where every millisecond and megabyte counts.
If you're building a 3D viewer, an AR feature, or a custom app that needs PBR-quality visuals without dragging in Unity or Unreal, this is the lean option. Solo and small teams: a great fit if you can write C++ or use the web bindings. Larger teams shipping cross-platform graphics get one engine that covers every target.
The catch is that rendering-only means you build everything around it. Scene management, input, asset pipeline, gameplay logic: all on you. Filament draws beautifully and does nothing else. If you want batteries included, reach for Godot or a full engine instead.
Free vs Self-Hosted vs Paid
fully freeFree: The entire engine, every platform, every backend, under Apache 2.0.
Self-hosted: Not applicable in the server sense. You ship it inside your app. Prebuilt binaries via Maven Central and CocoaPods, or build from source with CMake.
Paid: None. There is no commercial tier and no hosted service.
Completely free and open source under Apache 2.0. No paid tier, no hosted service, no cost catch.
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License: Apache License 2.0
Use freely. Patent grant included.
Commercial use: ✓ Yes
About
- Owner
- Google (Organization)
- Backed by
- Google / Alphabet
- Stars
- 20,089
- Forks
- 2,181
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