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Voxel Demo for 89
Posted by Michael on 18 January 2004, 14:24 GMT

[]Voxel2Space - Techdemo is an interesting 3-D demo for the 89 that displays a voxel world. What's a voxel? I'm glad you asked: A voxel is a combination of the words volume and pixel - the smallest particle in a 3-D world. This program doesn't actually do anything except look amazing, but perhaps it will lead to better games someday.

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Re: Voxel Demo for 89
gorion Account Info

Nice graphics would be enough for me to "watch and be amazed."

Reply to this comment    18 January 2004, 14:33 GMT

Re: Re: Voxel Demo for 89
Bill_pike Account Info

Lots of updates recently!!!

Reply to this comment    18 January 2004, 16:06 GMT


I am stupid
no_one_2000_  Account Info
(Web Page)

Yes! A new news article! Now, I'm sorry, but I still don't understand the "voxel" thing...

Reply to this comment    18 January 2004, 16:19 GMT

Re: I am stupid
no_one_2000_  Account Info
(Web Page)

Well, the title screens are cool- I like that effect, and the picture is nice, but I still don't really get it.

Reply to this comment    18 January 2004, 16:23 GMT


Re: Re: I am stupid
neo_0011001010101  Account Info

[The text of this article has been removed by a news editor due to violation of the acceptable use policy.]

Reply to this comment    18 January 2004, 16:41 GMT


It's from Zero Wing...
Ti-89_Coder Account Info

This voxel demo looks amazing! Now all we need is for it to be polished up and released as an SDK like the FAT engine. Flight-sims will come to the 89 in style!

Reply to this comment    18 January 2004, 20:16 GMT


Voxels, as I know them
cloudofstrife  Account Info

From what I know about voxels, each pixel on the screen has a volume in the game world. This is different than making a 3D skeleton and then layering textures over it. PC games abandoned them years ago because they were much less efficient and detailed than making 3D models.

Reply to this comment    18 January 2004, 18:43 GMT

I know them better
Ti-89_Coder Account Info

I'm afraid not... While voxels have been largely surpassed by polygonal graphics, they are still in limited use. (For example, NovaLogic used voxels for Delta Force 2) Also, with proper implementation, they can be even more efficient than polygons for rendering terrain, especially on limited hardware like a calculator. Unfortunatly, they generally require more memory and the results are not as pretty (although some people argue otherwise). However, the main reason for the decrease in voxel-usage is the availability of 3D-accelerators, which allow polygon-rendering to occur very quickly, while not assisting in voxel-rendering at all.

Reply to this comment    18 January 2004, 20:31 GMT


Re: Voxels, as I know them
Ben Cherry  Account Info
(Web Page)

i believe that the best way to think about voxels is in the sense of a standard coordinate system. On a 2d screen, you have an x and y axis, and you plot points in that as pixels. Voxels are points or pixels that are plotted in 3d, with an x, y, and z axis. In the sense of BASIC programming to think about it, you would write:
VoxelOn 5,74,83
or something like that. Of course i dont actually know how to use voxels and that is just an example to help with understanding of the basic idea, so that might not be the right way to think about it.

Reply to this comment    18 January 2004, 21:48 GMT


Re: Re: Voxels, as I know them
no_one_2000_  Account Info
(Web Page)

Okay, that makes sense, but that seems rather innefficient(sp) for generating pictures.

Reply to this comment    19 January 2004, 21:38 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Voxels, as I know them
sigma  Account Info

What you actually do, is have a height map (or a tile map) that indicates the height of a column of voxels. You then use a simple raycaster to render that column.

Reply to this comment    19 January 2004, 23:40 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Re: Voxels, as I know them
Ben Cherry  Account Info
(Web Page)

Yeah, i cant imagine actually turning on each voxel individually, that would be terrible

Reply to this comment    19 January 2004, 23:46 GMT


Re: Re: Voxel Demo for 89
angelboy Account Info
(Web Page)

Wow, these graphics are amazing!!

Reply to this comment    18 January 2004, 17:46 GMT

Re: Voxel Demo for 89
W Hibdon  Account Info

If I knew what the crap this was about, I might be as excited as I am about the 83+ thing.

-W-

Reply to this comment    18 January 2004, 17:17 GMT


Re: Re: Voxel Demo for 89
benryves  Account Info
(Web Page)

Voxels? They're pretty simple (as a concept, anyway -- not coding wise!)
In a 2D world, we have pixels, right? Now, imagine a world or object made up by sandwiching together loads of 2D bitmaps, a bit like the visible human project, but all together.
The technique was used to form objects in the game "Blood": try the "Web Link" button for a picture.

Reply to this comment    19 January 2004, 11:54 GMT

Re: Re: Re: Voxel Demo for 89
Chivo  Account Info

I think this Voxel Demo probably just uses a height for each "pixel" in the 2D bitmap, similar to some of Novalogic's games like Comanche.

Doing it this way takes far less memory, but it's also less flexible. For example, it doesn't let you make things like tunnels or caves (each [x,y] point has only one z value, just as each x value has only one y value in 2D functions). This isn't really much of a restriction, because terrain usually is one-to-one anyway, and caves/tunnels/other features can be produced with polygons or other tricks.

Reply to this comment    19 January 2004, 22:18 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Voxel Demo for 89
Drantin  Account Info

It is *really* hard to see that in 1600x1200...

Reply to this comment    21 January 2004, 01:58 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Re: Voxel Demo for 89
Ben Cherry  Account Info
(Web Page)

a voxel based game would most likely run in 640x480 or 800x600 resoultion, definitely not 1600x1200

Reply to this comment    22 January 2004, 02:35 GMT

Re: Voxel Demo for 89
angelboy Account Info
(Web Page)

You can view a java generated voxel application. (See link). This is similar to the program released.

Reply to this comment    19 January 2004, 01:53 GMT


Re: Re: Voxel Demo for 89
W Hibdon  Account Info

That is awesome!

I really liked flying through the mountain.

-W-

Reply to this comment    19 January 2004, 03:29 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Voxel Demo for 89
no_one_2000_  Account Info
(Web Page)

LOL! Me too... that seems complex and confusing to program with. Generating and using a 3D map, I think, would be hard.

Reply to this comment    19 January 2004, 21:40 GMT

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