gdnative VS Nim

Compare gdnative vs Nim and see what are their differences.

Nim

Nim is a statically typed compiled systems programming language. It combines successful concepts from mature languages like Python, Ada and Modula. Its design focuses on efficiency, expressiveness, and elegance (in that order of priority). (by nim-lang)
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gdnative Nim
93 346
3,560 16,060
0.4% 0.8%
6.4 9.9
14 days ago 3 days ago
Rust Nim
MIT License GNU General Public License v3.0 or later
The number of mentions indicates the total number of mentions that we've tracked plus the number of user suggested alternatives.
Stars - the number of stars that a project has on GitHub. Growth - month over month growth in stars.
Activity is a relative number indicating how actively a project is being developed. Recent commits have higher weight than older ones.
For example, an activity of 9.0 indicates that a project is amongst the top 10% of the most actively developed projects that we are tracking.

gdnative

Posts with mentions or reviews of gdnative. We have used some of these posts to build our list of alternatives and similar projects. The last one was on 2023-06-27.
  • Can someone explain how exactly are multiple languages supported in a single game engine
    1 project | /r/godot | 12 Nov 2023
  • Will rust ever become a first class citizen in Godot?
    1 project | /r/godot | 6 Aug 2023
  • Non web-based crossplatform GUI frameworks focused on security
    2 projects | /r/rust | 27 Jun 2023
    It's a little less standard use, but Godot has been used to build application guis, which could be paired with rust bindings to implement app logic. I can't speak to reproducibility/scalability, but Godot's ui is extremely solid, and I'd probably choose that over Bevy until Bevy's ui progress matures.
  • What is Rust's potential in game development?
    12 projects | /r/rust | 15 Jun 2023
    Adding onto this, I successfully written a game in Godot using gdnative / gdext. I started with a split approach using gdscript and rust for CPU intensive but found that the API layer was slow at transferring large amounts of data (serialization?). I ended up rewriting it in all rust and it worked like a charm. I was able to target native and web assembly, the web assembly was much slower but worked on the browser.
  • Why is it so difficult to learn to use Bevy?
    3 projects | /r/bevy | 31 May 2023
    Check this: https://github.com/tomuxmon/bevy_roguelike if you are still into bevy. Scheduling is a bit bork and I have not found time to port it to latest bevy. But most of the systems should work fine(if used on latest bevy). But again. If you want faster result go with something like Godot. In fact, just go with Godot. It is mature, easy to start, no lock in(free and MIT license), a lot of learning material. Also with Godot you can also use Rust https://godot-rust.github.io/. Ditch Unity (do not have time to explain 😅). Have fun!
  • GDScript is fine
    4 projects | /r/godot | 7 Apr 2023
    Bevy Godot-Rust
  • Rust – Are We Game Yet?
    15 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 16 Mar 2023
    > Same for Godot.

    While likely true that it's "Unlikely to ever be as supported" as the 4 officially supported languages[0] ("GDScript, C#, and, via its GDExtension technology, C and C++."), Godot's GDExtension technology is specifically intended for use in adding support for other languages.

    The most relevant tracking issue for Rust is presumably:

    * <https://github.com/godot-rust/gdnative/issues/824>

    Which links to:

    * <https://github.com/godot-rust/gdextension>

    [0] https://docs.godotengine.org/en/4.0/getting_started/step_by_...

  • OK so whose gonna tell them
    5 projects | /r/rustjerk | 12 Mar 2023
    ...Godot v3.x has Rust support via godot-rust and Godot v4.0 is released as of this month?
  • Godot 4.0 is out
    3 projects | /r/linux | 1 Mar 2023
    I was curious, and looked it up. Nothing built in, but there's an interesting project that works with godot: https://godot-rust.github.io/
  • There's the Rust Player still going wrong subreddit?
    1 project | /r/ProgrammerHumor | 27 Feb 2023
    There's people working on it: https://godot-rust.github.io/

Nim

Posts with mentions or reviews of Nim. We have used some of these posts to build our list of alternatives and similar projects. The last one was on 2024-03-06.
  • Top Paying Programming Technologies 2024
    19 projects | dev.to | 6 Mar 2024
    22. Nim - $80,000
  • "14 Years of Go" by Rob Pike
    2 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 27 Feb 2024
    I think the right answer to your question would be NimLang[0]. In reality, if you're seeking to use this in any enterprise context, you'd most likely want to select the subset of C++ that makes sense for you or just use C#.

    [0]https://nim-lang.org/

  • Odin Programming Language
    23 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 1 Jan 2024
  • Ask HN: Interest in a Rust-Inspired Language Compiling to JavaScript?
    5 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 24 Dec 2023
    I don't think it's a rust-inspired language, but since it has strong typing and compiles to javascript, did you give a look at nim [0] ?

    For what it takes, I find the language very expressive without the verbosity in rust that reminds me java. And it is also very flexible.

    [0] : https://nim-lang.org/

  • The nim website and the downloads are insecure
    1 project | /r/nim | 11 Dec 2023
    I see a valid cert for https://nim-lang.org/
  • Nim
    5 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 6 Dec 2023
    FYI, on the front page, https://nim-lang.org, in large type you have this:

    > Nim is a statically typed compiled systems programming language. It combines successful concepts from mature languages like Python, Ada and Modula.

  • Things I've learned about building CLI tools in Python
    16 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 24 Oct 2023
    You better off with using a compiled language.

    If you interested in a language that's compiled, fast, but as easy and pleasant as Python - I'd recommend you take a look at [Nim](https://nim-lang.org).

    And to prove what Nim's capable of - here's a cool repo with 100+ cli apps someone wrote in Nim: [c-blake/bu](https://github.com/c-blake/bu)

  • Mojo is now available on Mac
    13 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 19 Oct 2023
    Chapel has at least several full-time developers at Cray/HPE and (I think) the US national labs, and has had some for almost two decades. That's much more than $100k.

    Chapel is also just one of many other projects broadly interested in developing new programming languages for "high performance" programming. Out of that large field, Chapel is not especially related to the specific ideas or design goals of Mojo. Much more related are things like Codon (https://exaloop.io), and the metaprogramming models in Terra (https://terralang.org), Nim (https://nim-lang.org), and Zig (https://ziglang.org).

    But Chapel is great! It has a lot of good ideas, especially for distributed-memory programming, which is its historical focus. It is more related to Legion (https://legion.stanford.edu, https://regent-lang.org), parallel & distributed Fortran, ZPL, etc.

  • NIR: Nim Intermediate Representation
    1 project | /r/hackernews | 2 Oct 2023
    9 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 30 Sep 2023

What are some alternatives?

When comparing gdnative and Nim you can also consider the following projects:

bevy - A refreshingly simple data-driven game engine built in Rust

zig - General-purpose programming language and toolchain for maintaining robust, optimal, and reusable software.

Godot - Godot Engine – Multi-platform 2D and 3D game engine

go - The Go programming language

RG3D - 3D and 2D game engine written in Rust [Moved to: https://github.com/FyroxEngine/Fyrox]

Odin - Odin Programming Language

macroquad - Cross-platform game engine in Rust.

rust - Empowering everyone to build reliable and efficient software.

wgpu - Cross-platform, safe, pure-rust graphics api.

crystal - The Crystal Programming Language

veloren - An open world, open source voxel RPG inspired by Dwarf Fortress and Cube World. This repository is a mirror. Please submit all PRs and issues on our GitLab page.

v - Simple, fast, safe, compiled language for developing maintainable software. Compiles itself in <1s with zero library dependencies. Supports automatic C => V translation. https://vlang.io