Wikipedia

Draft:Carbon (game engine)

  • Comment: Please note to any prospective reviewers that the article creator has self-declared a WP:COI and on their talk page discussed in detail the strongest sources they believe contribute to notability after they expanded the article. ＶＲＸＣＥＳ (talk) 12:05, 26 May 2026 (UTC)
  • Comment: This is an impressive and well-researched technical article. But sadly, the article's vast details are assembled from primary sources (CCP Games, EVE Online) or unreliable sources (Nosy Pixel, Game World Navigator). Other than the ShackNews open-source article, there's nary a reliable source to be found that seems to mention the Carbon engine in any depth. There's some reliable sourcing about 'time dilation', but not how this relates to the engine itself. Could you identify what the main sources are that are reliable and talk about the Carbon engine in depth? Otherwise this article may need more work and sourcing. ＶＲＸＣＥＳ (talk) 09:13, 24 May 2026 (UTC)
CARBON
DevelopersFenris Creations, formerly CCP Games
Initial release6 May 2003
Written inC++, Python
Operating systemMicrosoft Windows, macOS
Platformx86-64
TypeGame engine
LicenseMIT, Apache-2.0 & PSF 2.0
Website

CARBON is a game engine framework developed by Fenris Creations, formerly CCP Games. It originated from the technology used to operate Eve Online, the studio's massively multiplayer online game, and has also been used in the development of EVE Frontier.

The technology was first presented publicly under the CARBON name in 2010, after CCP had begun consolidating common engine work through its Core Technology Group. In March 2024, CCP announced plans to release parts of the CARBON development platform as open-source software. Several components have since been published through the carbonengine organisation on GitHub.[1][2]

History

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Origins in Eve Online

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The codebase that later became CARBON was developed by CCP Games for Eve Online, which launched on 6 May 2003. Eve Online's server architecture has been discussed in academic and industry sources as an example of a large-scale persistent online world built around a single shared universe.[3][4]

CCP used Stackless Python for both server and client logic, which provided tasklet- and channel-based concurrency. Stackless Python maintainer Richard Tew identified CCP Games as one of the project's most prominent commercial users in a 2009 PyCon presentation.[5]

Core Technology Group

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By 2008–2009, CCP had established a Core Technology Group to consolidate technology work that had previously been developed within the Eve Online team. In an August 2010 developer blog, CCP described the Trinity2 graphics engine as "the first piece of Carbon technology", although it had not originally been known by that name.[6]

The CARBON name was used publicly at the China Game Developers Conference (CGDC) in Shanghai in July 2010, where Hilmar Pétursson gave a presentation that included the platform.[7][8] CCP's 2010 developer blog introduced CARBON to Eve Online players as a framework supporting multiple projects within the studio.[6] Rock Paper Shotgun covered the platform under the name "Carbon Framework" the same month.[9]

Later development

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In 2011, CCP introduced Time Dilation, a server-side system that slows in-space simulation under heavy load rather than dropping player commands. The feature was covered by Engadget and PC Gamer as a response to performance problems in large fleet battles.[10][11] During the January 2014 Bloodbath of B-R5RB, The Register reported that the game simulation slowed to one-tenth real-time speed during the battle.[12]

In December 2014, CCP introduced physically based rendering to Eve Online through the Rhea expansion.[13] In the early 2020s the studio moved the Eve Online client to a 64-bit architecture. Support for DirectX 9 was removed, with DirectX 11 becoming the minimum supported graphics API.[14]

Python 3 migration

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CCP later migrated CARBON from Stackless Python 2.7 to newer versions of Python. A 2025 technical presentation at EVE Fanfest described a two-stage migration: first to Stackless Python 3.8.1 in 2023, and then to standard Python 3.12 in 2024.[15][16] Following the move away from Stackless Python, CARBON retained a tasklet- and channel-based programming model implemented on top of Greenlet.[17]

Technical focus

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CARBON was built for persistent online worlds, not as a general-purpose game engine. The studio (then CCP, now Fenris Creations) used it for Eve Online and is now using it for EVE Frontier. Coverage of Eve Online's architecture has focused on its single-shard design, distributed server systems, and the scale of player gatherings it supports in one shared universe.[18]

In a 2024 interview reported by Game World Observer, Hilmar Veigar Pétursson described CARBON as being suited to "making spaceships at serious scale", while noting that a studio making a first-person shooter would need a strong reason not to use a commercial engine such as Unreal Engine.[19]

Architecture and components

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CARBON combines C++ engine systems with Python-based game and tool logic. Its principal components, as described in the studio's own materials and in industry coverage, include:

  • Trinity — the rendering and graphics subsystem. Trinity was introduced with the 2007 EVE Online: Trinity expansion.[20] It later added support for physically based rendering.[13]
  • Destiny — the physics and movement-simulation framework associated with Eve Online's large-scale fleet engagements and server simulation.[21]
  • CarbonAudio — audio systems and related tooling, including a Wwise spatial-audio clustering plugin released as an open-source component.[22]
  • Python runtime — the scripting and concurrency layer, historically based on Stackless Python and later migrated to standard Python with Greenlet-based scheduling.

CCP has also presented related server architecture work at the Game Developers Conference, including a session on Eve Online's original server technology and a later session on Quasar, a gRPC-based architecture used to extend EVE's server systems beyond the original monolithic design.[23]

Open-source release

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On 13 March 2024, CCP Games announced plans to release parts of the CARBON development platform as open-source software. The announcement was made alongside the unveiling of Project Awakening, later renamed EVE Frontier.[24]

Hilmar Pétursson later framed the decision in terms of long-term maintenance and community involvement, citing open technology projects such as Linux and source-available commercial engines such as Unreal Engine as examples of code that can remain useful over long periods when accessible to a wider developer community.[19]

Released components are published through the carbonengine organisation on GitHub under the MIT License, with some components under Apache-2.0 and other open-source licenses where appropriate. The first published component was a Wwise plugin for spatial audio clustering. Other repositories in the organisation include components for scheduling, networking, resource handling, mathematical primitives and low-level cross-platform abstractions.

Games using CARBON

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TitleYearDeveloperNotes
Eve Online2003CCP Games / Fenris CreationsOriginal codebase from which CARBON was extracted; Windows and macOS versions remain supported, while the Linux client was discontinued in 2009.[25][26]
World of DarknessCancelled in 2014CCP GamesMMO project based on the World of Darkness setting; reported to use CARBON before its cancellation.[27]
EVE FrontierIn developmentCCP Games / Fenris CreationsDeveloped using the Python 3.12 version of CARBON.[28]

CCP and Fenris Creations have used other technology for some games set in the Eve universe. Dust 514, Eve: Valkyrie and Eve Vanguard were developed using Unreal Engine rather than CARBON.

See also

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References

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  1. ↑ "CCP Games announces plans to make EVE Online's Carbon Engine open source". Shacknews. 13 March 2024. Retrieved 20 May 2026.
  2. ↑ "CARBON Development Platform". GitHub. CCP Games. Retrieved 20 May 2026.
  3. ↑ Steed, Anthony; Oliveira, Manuel Fradinho (2009). Networked Graphics: Building Networked Games and Virtual Environments. Burlington, Massachusetts: Morgan Kaufmann. ISBN 978-0123744234.
  4. ↑ Halldor Fannar Guðjónsson; Kristján Valur Jónsson. The Server Technology of EVE Online: How to Cope with 300,000 Players in One World (Conference presentation). Game Developers Conference. Retrieved 20 May 2026.
  5. ↑ Tew, Richard (November 2009). Stackless Python 101 (Conference presentation). Kiwi PyCon. Retrieved 20 May 2026.
  6. 1 2 CCP Unifex (19 August 2010). "Carbon and the Core Technology Group". Eve Online. CCP Games. Retrieved 20 May 2026.
  7. ↑ "CGDC演讲人介绍：Hilmar Petursson". 新浪游戏 (in Chinese). 13 October 2010. Retrieved 20 May 2026.
  8. ↑ "Warp Drive Active – EVE Online news, July 2010". Warp Drive Active. July 2010. Retrieved 20 May 2026.
  9. ↑ Gillen, Kieron (21 August 2010). "CCP Show Off Fanciness". Rock Paper Shotgun. Retrieved 20 May 2026.
  10. ↑ "EVE's anti-lag Time Dilation concept explained". Engadget. 22 April 2011. Retrieved 20 May 2026.
  11. ↑ "Eve Online's mad time dilation tech beats lag". PC Gamer. February 2012. Retrieved 20 May 2026.
  12. ↑ "EVE Online erects mashed-up memorial to biggest space fight in history". The Register. 31 January 2014. Retrieved 20 May 2026.
  13. 1 2 "CCP dev blog talks PBR and 'making EVE look real'". Engadget. 8 December 2014. Retrieved 20 May 2026.
  14. ↑ "Improving The Foundation". Eve Online. CCP Games. 24 November 2021. Retrieved 20 May 2026.
  15. ↑ CCP Aporia (18 May 2025). EVE Fanfest 2025 - Upgrading CARBON to Python 3 (Conference presentation). CCP Games. Retrieved 20 May 2026.
  16. ↑ "CCP Games' Carbon Engine Moves To Python 3". The Nosy Gamer. 20 March 2025. Retrieved 20 May 2026.
  17. ↑ "scheduler". GitHub. CCP Games. Retrieved 20 May 2026.
  18. ↑ "A look into the nuts-and-bolts of EVE Online's single-shard architecture". Engadget. 10 August 2010. Retrieved 20 May 2026.
  19. 1 2 "CCP on open sourcing Carbon engine: "When you give tools to people in a community, they will make awesome things"". Game World Observer. 4 July 2024. Retrieved 20 May 2026.
  20. ↑ "EVE Online Gets Next-Gen-Looking Expansion - Trinity". Softpedia. 17 October 2007. Retrieved 20 May 2026.
  21. ↑ "Carbon". Fenris Creations. Retrieved 20 May 2026.
  22. ↑ "spatial-audio-clustering". GitHub. CCP Games. Retrieved 20 May 2026.
  23. ↑ Online Game Technology Summit: Quasar, Brightest in the Galaxy: Expanding 'EVE Online's' Server Potential with gRPC (Conference presentation). Game Developers Conference. Retrieved 20 May 2026.
  24. ↑ "CCP Games reveals first details about Project Awakening and announces PHASE III playtest" (Press release). CCP Games. 13 March 2024. Retrieved 20 May 2026.
  25. ↑ "EVE Online released for Macintosh". Macworld. 6 November 2007. Retrieved 20 May 2026.
  26. ↑ "EVE Online gives up Linux, but Mac support continues". Macworld. 11 February 2009. Retrieved 20 May 2026.
  27. ↑ "After Eight Years In Development, World Of Darkness Is No More". Kotaku. 14 April 2014. Retrieved 20 May 2026.
  28. ↑ "CCP Games Announces Founder Access for EVE Frontier" (Press release). CCP Games. 5 December 2024. Retrieved 20 May 2026.
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Category:Video game engines Category:Proprietary software Category:CCP Games Category:Software using the Python programming language Category:2003 software

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