Indeed, calling these "voxels" is a bit misleading, as is saying that Minecraft uses voxels. Both define their base models as a 3D grid of cubes (which is how voxels in general work) but they render the images using polygons, and allow elements to move unconstrained by the original grid. Just as you can't "rotate a pixel", you would not be able to rotate a voxel. A cubic polyhedron isn't a voxel, just as a square polygon isn't a pixel.
Recent update from Humble Bundle... source code for Introversion games avaliable! :D also SVN repository access!!!! *nerdgasm* Really hope this source code is avaliable, making it open to the worlds developers was a fantastic idea. Open-source FTW! Come on people... dive in there and get involved. My first thought... lets make Uplink a multiplayer!
+ about CPU/GPU power: Do most systems have processors dedicated to physics processing or utilise PhysX? In <5 years it could be common technology.
The maximal objects rendered in this video seems to be only around the order of a thousand, is that the limit of this program, or can it handle around at least 10 or 100 thousand?
@QuininSane All down to efficiency of code. Realistically its never going to be 100% perfectly optimised code, theres always room for improvement. But strangely, it does struggle to compute a smaller amount of cubes than I had expected. Not that I could do better, I'm just curious why that is... I wouldve thought cubes (having very simple collision geometry) would need little processing. Its just 'gravity' and an outwards force from an explosion, on simple collision boxes with no texture :/
@QuininSane one point in the video it says 69216 quads... divide that by 6 and you have 11,536 which I thought should be the amount of cubes but thats not right cause the value changes throughout the vid. As one cube is added at 0:16 it increases by 4, because 2 sides are in contact, so its one mesh that breaks into seperate cubes when needed. Explains why theres odd numbers too. So in theory a detailed box 1000x1000 'voxels' wide would be processed as just 1 cube until broken apart. I think :P
All the 'voxels aren't designed for' stuff is irrelevant - these aren't voxels, they're cubes. Voxels are constrained to grid positions and don't rotate... Using the word voxel is still good, though, because the layperson doesn't know better.
@Broden124 Voxels arent designed for that... says who?! You cant define a system by on one or two developers or games. Heres some news for you: Pixels were never designed to be used for computer games. Basically whats being proposed is that the voxels shouldnt float in free air, which makes sense. Like the sand and gravel of minecraft? Ive played old games before which worked with the same principle. X-Com Apocalypse... tower block full of enemies... planted explosives on the buildings supports
@JTickett It's much much much more complicated than that. I'm not going to explain it but take it from a programmer. It will be a very long time before we see this implemented into mainstream gaming.
@Broden124 The situation that AliFREAKINGJewers describes commonly takes place in the game Ace of Spades. The game simply checks if any blocks are not connected to the ground blocks or connected to any blocks connected to blocks touching ground blocks. It's not actually physics, but it is voxels, and it does happen all the time. ace-spades(.)com
@Broden124 I am also a programmer. Giving yourself that term doesnt make you a trustwirth authority...If you're a wise coder then offer something intelligent and constructive. Its not going to be a long time, this is the same tech in minecraft + the blocks that are selected (or in blast zone) are subject to physics systems. I'm not insulting the tech demo or developers by saying that simply it isnt as advanced as youre implying. A few games would be cool but who wants the majorty to be voxels?
@JTickett This will be a long time until introduced into mainstream gaming, systems just cannot handle that many objects if you were to decrease the size of a block (to the size that the mass would considered the graphics to be "realistic"). Currently games with similar technology are all indie games, and commercial companies do not seem to desire these games as no one would want to buy a game which had minecraft quality graphics for over $75.
@QuininSane I think Broden124 misunderstood the comment he was replying to (that the terrain would be tiny tiny voxels simulating realistic looking matter), and I misunderstood what was meant about why it wouldnt be made in mainstream gaming. I thought he was saying its not possible, but I get that 'mainstream gaming' only invests in ideas that are tried and tested (recycled) ideas because they arent risky investments, innovation usually only comes from the indie developers these days.
@Broden124 X-Com Apoc was released in 1997 and in used squares of space on multiple levels, and if you destroyed the supporting structure of a building, then the whole thing collapsed. Structural integrity was a core concept of Red Faction: Guerilla, and Im still having hours of fun watching the structural integrity of a building fail, and approaching demolition strategically. Applying this concept to 'voxels' (cubes) is not advanced, I could, and probably will do this. Still <3 Introversion!
@Broden124@guitarskills2@JTickett@danta7777 That was all actually quite interesting to read, thanks lol. I know absolutely nothing about real programming myself, but this technology seems really interesting. Know anywhere i could find out some more about voxels?
I am pretty sure these are voxels. To me its looks like a rigid cube gets instantiated whenever a voxel gets destroyed.
Inkooognito 1 day ago
That's amazing ! This is an engine that any developper can buy and make a game with it, right ?
AtomicSushi92130 2 months ago
so when does it hit infdev?
pedenulle 2 months ago
Crashing the demo was fun.
Error52QFG 2 months ago
I wish when you blow up the bottom the rest fell...That would have made the tech demo amazing!
fishchunksgaming 2 months ago in playlist More videos from humblebundle
Can we stop arguing whether this is is voxels or not and just agree that this is cool and has a lot of potential? :)
Lordofcookiejars 3 months ago 2
Indeed, calling these "voxels" is a bit misleading, as is saying that Minecraft uses voxels. Both define their base models as a 3D grid of cubes (which is how voxels in general work) but they render the images using polygons, and allow elements to move unconstrained by the original grid. Just as you can't "rotate a pixel", you would not be able to rotate a voxel. A cubic polyhedron isn't a voxel, just as a square polygon isn't a pixel.
RFC3514 3 months ago 3
Recent update from Humble Bundle... source code for Introversion games avaliable! :D also SVN repository access!!!! *nerdgasm* Really hope this source code is avaliable, making it open to the worlds developers was a fantastic idea. Open-source FTW! Come on people... dive in there and get involved. My first thought... lets make Uplink a multiplayer!
+ about CPU/GPU power: Do most systems have processors dedicated to physics processing or utilise PhysX? In <5 years it could be common technology.
JTickett 3 months ago
The maximal objects rendered in this video seems to be only around the order of a thousand, is that the limit of this program, or can it handle around at least 10 or 100 thousand?
QuininSane 3 months ago
@QuininSane All down to efficiency of code. Realistically its never going to be 100% perfectly optimised code, theres always room for improvement. But strangely, it does struggle to compute a smaller amount of cubes than I had expected. Not that I could do better, I'm just curious why that is... I wouldve thought cubes (having very simple collision geometry) would need little processing. Its just 'gravity' and an outwards force from an explosion, on simple collision boxes with no texture :/
JTickett 3 months ago
@QuininSane one point in the video it says 69216 quads... divide that by 6 and you have 11,536 which I thought should be the amount of cubes but thats not right cause the value changes throughout the vid. As one cube is added at 0:16 it increases by 4, because 2 sides are in contact, so its one mesh that breaks into seperate cubes when needed. Explains why theres odd numbers too. So in theory a detailed box 1000x1000 'voxels' wide would be processed as just 1 cube until broken apart. I think :P
JTickett 3 months ago
Hey that's not funny, that's how my family died.
TheTodarac 3 months ago
Also, this is honestly one of the prettiest tech demos I've seen. Needs some serious color to it, but it's ballin' as fuck and looks awesome.
8bitrising 3 months ago
WALL O' TEXT BELOW
8bitrising 3 months ago
All the 'voxels aren't designed for' stuff is irrelevant - these aren't voxels, they're cubes. Voxels are constrained to grid positions and don't rotate... Using the word voxel is still good, though, because the layperson doesn't know better.
EmoryMDotCom 3 months ago 18
@w0rdpad its a voxel tech demo which was inspired by minecraft, quit trolling.
JezzBentham 3 months ago
@JezzBentham What!? I wasn't even trying.
w0rdpad 3 months ago
Imagine an FPS with terrain made entirely out of this....
Sniper in the top window? no worries, i'll just tear the base of the building apart
:D
AliFREAKINGJewers 3 months ago
@AliFREAKINGJewers Doesn't work like that.
Broden124 3 months ago
@Broden124 Yes it would... If the building collapses, the sniper dies, right?
guitarskills2 3 months ago
@guitarskills2 Not that. Voxels aren't designed for the scenario that guy brought up (much to my dismay)
Broden124 3 months ago
@Broden124 Why not?! D:
guitarskills2 3 months ago
@Broden124 Voxels arent designed for that... says who?! You cant define a system by on one or two developers or games. Heres some news for you: Pixels were never designed to be used for computer games. Basically whats being proposed is that the voxels shouldnt float in free air, which makes sense. Like the sand and gravel of minecraft? Ive played old games before which worked with the same principle. X-Com Apocalypse... tower block full of enemies... planted explosives on the buildings supports
JTickett 3 months ago
@JTickett It's much much much more complicated than that. I'm not going to explain it but take it from a programmer. It will be a very long time before we see this implemented into mainstream gaming.
Broden124 3 months ago
@Broden124 The situation that AliFREAKINGJewers describes commonly takes place in the game Ace of Spades. The game simply checks if any blocks are not connected to the ground blocks or connected to any blocks connected to blocks touching ground blocks. It's not actually physics, but it is voxels, and it does happen all the time. ace-spades(.)com
danta7777 3 months ago
@Broden124 I am also a programmer. Giving yourself that term doesnt make you a trustwirth authority...If you're a wise coder then offer something intelligent and constructive. Its not going to be a long time, this is the same tech in minecraft + the blocks that are selected (or in blast zone) are subject to physics systems. I'm not insulting the tech demo or developers by saying that simply it isnt as advanced as youre implying. A few games would be cool but who wants the majorty to be voxels?
JTickett 3 months ago
@JTickett This will be a long time until introduced into mainstream gaming, systems just cannot handle that many objects if you were to decrease the size of a block (to the size that the mass would considered the graphics to be "realistic"). Currently games with similar technology are all indie games, and commercial companies do not seem to desire these games as no one would want to buy a game which had minecraft quality graphics for over $75.
QuininSane 3 months ago
@QuininSane I think Broden124 misunderstood the comment he was replying to (that the terrain would be tiny tiny voxels simulating realistic looking matter), and I misunderstood what was meant about why it wouldnt be made in mainstream gaming. I thought he was saying its not possible, but I get that 'mainstream gaming' only invests in ideas that are tried and tested (recycled) ideas because they arent risky investments, innovation usually only comes from the indie developers these days.
JTickett 3 months ago
@Broden124 X-Com Apoc was released in 1997 and in used squares of space on multiple levels, and if you destroyed the supporting structure of a building, then the whole thing collapsed. Structural integrity was a core concept of Red Faction: Guerilla, and Im still having hours of fun watching the structural integrity of a building fail, and approaching demolition strategically. Applying this concept to 'voxels' (cubes) is not advanced, I could, and probably will do this. Still <3 Introversion!
JTickett 3 months ago
@Broden124 Sorry for mass text, but "Voxels not designed for..." bothers me a lot. 2 questions:
Who do you think "designed" the voxel?
Why does their original intent have any impact on what other coders want to do?
I mean no disrespect, but from one coder to another: THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX! (no pun intended)
JTickett 3 months ago 8
@JTickett couldn't have said it better! this is amazing so who cares if the "how" is unorthodox
codytrando 3 months ago
@Broden124 @guitarskills2 @JTickett @danta7777 That was all actually quite interesting to read, thanks lol. I know absolutely nothing about real programming myself, but this technology seems really interesting. Know anywhere i could find out some more about voxels?
AliFREAKINGJewers 3 months ago
OMG YOU CAN ADD CUBES THIS IS A MINECRAFT RIPOFF!!1!1
w0rdpad 3 months ago
Comment removed
w0rdpad 3 months ago
Humble Bundle... I can't resist to buy your game packs... amazing games, AND CHEAP!
annavi13 3 months ago
@annavi13 cheap but give as much as possible as it goes to both the creators and charity
Trozz 3 months ago
This has been flagged as spam show
@annavi13 Only as cheap as you want it.
Oirad16 3 months ago