This page gives an overview of FPS graphics engines and the games that use them. Engines that included games that have first person view and a third person view are included. Some these hybrid TPS/FPS run on what are othwerwise FPS graphics engines. For more on graphic engines in general and other types of game engine see Game engine.

Early FPS graphics engines

1973-1991 Widely varying requirements and characteristics, but with with game rendering point intended to be from the first person perspective and with the need to shoot things.

• Maze War (1973)
• Battlezone (1980)
• MIDI Maze (1987)

From wireframes to 3D Worlds and Textures

An Imp from Doom - a pixelated sprite

1991-1995 Planar worlds (rectangular grid in Wolfenstein 3D, sector-based plane levels in Doom) with sprite objects. Average Video Hardware requirements: CPU powered software rendering.

• Hovertank 3D (1990), Catacomb 3D (1991)
• Wolfenstein 3D (1992)
• Doom (1993) (Doom engine), Doom II (1994)
• Marathon(1994)

The rise of 3D Models

Gunner from Quake II - a texture skewed over a 3D model

1996-1999. For the first time, game engines recreated true 3D worlds with arbitrary level geometry. Instead of sprites the engines used simply textured (single-pass texturing, no lighting details) polygon objects. Average Video Hardware requirements: first 3D-accelerators (Voodoo, Voodoo 2).

• Duke Nukem 3D (1996) (Build engine)
• Quake (1996), Quake II (1997), Quake III Arena (1999) (Quake Engine)
• Unreal (1998) (Unreal engine)
• Goldeneye 007 (1997)
• Half-Life (1998) (modified Quake engine)

New capabilites, increasing detail

A Skaarj warrior from Unreal 2 - texture filtered and textured mapped polygons in plain light

2000-2003. New graphics hardware provided new capabilites, allowing new engines to add various new effects, such as particle effects, fog, coloured lightning, as well as increase texture and polygon detail. Many games featured large outdoor environments, vehicles, rag-doll physics. Average Video Hardware requirements: GeForce 2 (or similar).

• Return to Castle Wolfenstein (2001),
• Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory (2003),
• Call of Duty (2003), (Quake 3 engine)
• Grand Theft Auto 3 (2001)
• Max Payne (2001), Max Payne 2 (2003)
• Alien vs. Predator 1 and 2 (1999 and 2001), No One Lives Forever 1 and 2 (2000 and 2002), Global Operations (2002) (Lithtech engine)
• Codename Eagle (2000), Battlefield 1942 (2002) (Refractor engine )
• Unreal II: The Awakening (2002),Unreal Tournament 2003, Unreal Tournament 2004 (Unreal engine)
• Mafia (2002), Vietcong (2003) LS3D engine

The approach to photorealism

A Hell Knight from DOOM 3 - self-shadowing and bump mapping

2004-2006 (est.). Developers of this era of 3D engines often tout their increasingly photorealistic quality. The maps may feature seamlessly integrated indoor-outdoor environments. Some, or all of the Pixel shader-based textures, bumpmapping , vertex shaders used for animations, lighting and shadowing technologies are common. Average Video Hardware requirements: GeForce 3 (or other cards with shader support).

• Painkiller (2004) (PAIN engine )
• Far Cry (2004) (CryENGINE)
• Doom 3 (2004)
• Half-Life 2 (2004) (Source engine)
• F.E.A.R. (Q2 2005*) (FEAR engine )
• Battlefield Vietnam (2004), Battlefield 2 (Q3 2005*)
• S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl (Q4 2005*) (X-Ray engine)
• Quake IV (2005*)
• Operation Flashpoint 2 (2006*)

Titles marked with * are not released yet. Release dates are estimates.

The future

Berserker from Unreal 3 technology demo - a detailed model, bump-mapping, and real-time soft self-shadowing

2007+ (est.). According to Epic Games, games based on Unreal 3 engine can be expected around 2006. These games are likely to include some of the technology showcased in existing technology demos (including those from graphics card manufacturers), including realistic shader-based materials with predefined physics, environments with procedural and vertex shader-based objects (vegetation, debris, human made objects such as books or tools) universally destructible and interactive levels, procedural animation, cinematographic effects (depth of field, motion blur, etc.), realistic lighting and shadowing.

John Carmack, the lead programmer for id Software, has repeatedly stated his opinion that it will likely be possible by 2010 to do a real-time video-realistic rendering of a static real-world-like environment. According to development plans announced by id Software, their second next 3D engine may attain such capabilities.