Erin Catto who has been developing the Box2D 2D physics engine for games announced the release of Box3D. Box3D is now providing a new open-source 3D physics engine that is forked off from the Box2D code.

Box3D exposes a C API, a nearly identical architecture to Box2D, and a wide variety of physics capabilities. Box3D began development after having issues with the native physics built into the Unreal engine. Interestingly the new Box3D code is derived in part from "Rubikon-Lite" as an offshoot of the physics engine for Half-Life: Alyx.

Box3D has already seen uptake by a few games and game engines/platforms. Even so right now it's considered alpha software with its initial debut this week.

A video demo of Box3D is embedded below.

Those wishing to learn more about the Box3D physics engine can do so at Box2D.org. The Box3D code is open-source under an MIT license on GitHub.