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Voxel Quest January 2016 Update

voxelquest.com

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Re: Voxel Quest January 2016 Update

#81

Post by anonova »

BatFastard wrote: post #10

Wow, I was high sceptical that you would be able to scale this up past the short view distance. But not only have you managed to get a good view distance, but you also added in a nice animation system. Congrats to you! This is coming from someone who has spent years designing their own voxel platform. Please get this out to users to let them start building things, you will be amazed at what they can create.

NovaLogic's Delta Force (1998) and Delta Force 2 (1999) had a "voxel game engine [that allowed for a] nearly unlimited draw distance" [1]. Though the other objects in the game were rendered with polygons, has a far view distance been difficult with modern voxel engines?

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta_Force_2#Game_engine

Re: Voxel Quest January 2016 Update

#82

Post by sounds »

gavanwoolery wrote: post #69
zksv wrote: post #65

why not open source the engine and develop a game around it? It'll not only gain exposure, take a lot of the optimizations off your belt, but let you focus on the long-term development of a marketable game.

I am going to open source it :) There will be a license for the first few years at least, but the source will be public. I'd like to figure out a way to do it with no license at all.

Don't worry too much about the actual open sourcing of it. Just push to github and forget. There will basically be two responses to the source code: either tinkerers or project managers.

Tinkerers will just want to poke around the code, and maybe make a youtube video.

Project managers will try to "fix" issues, "suggest" new directions, and basically try to get you to do things they want. :-P

Re: Voxel Quest January 2016 Update

#83

Post by kbenson »

xsmasher wrote: post #41

From a technical point of view it's amazing. Artistically, the voxels are too big to look impressive to anyone used to polygon graphics, and too small to give off the "pixel-art" aesthetic of Minecraft or Terarria. I want to play the game evoked by the banner at the top of the page, but not the one I see in the video.

There are portions that look like that[1], he's just been showing off the terrain in the last few updates. Check his videos page[2], about 2/3's the way down.

1: https://youtu.be/gW04jTU5FQw

2: http://www.voxelquest.com/videos.html

Re: Voxel Quest January 2016 Update

#85

Post by kbenson »

k__ wrote: post #67
nightcracker wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because every voxel needs processing, and you've only got 16.7ms to process every voxel every frame.

Is it possible to scale them like pixels? Like a "voxel resolution" that can be adjusted if you got a better PC etc.

From viewing earlier demos I believe it can be, possibly in real time. That said, reducing a voxel by half in each dimension yields eight times as many voxels, reduced by however efficient his algorithm for determining what needs to be visible and drawn is, so I think it might need to be quite an upgrade to see a big difference.

Re: Voxel Quest January 2016 Update

#86

Post by viraptor »

This looks amazing. I imagine this could create amazing games based on at least 2 titles:

- ultima - Great customisation / open world, but that's already mentioned on the kickstarter page.

- LBA - I would love for someone to create next version in this engine. Can't explain why, but it seems to match so well in my mind. Especially after LBA2 went 3d.

Re: Voxel Quest January 2016 Update

#87

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

anonova wrote: post #81
BatFastard wrote: post #10

Wow, I was high sceptical that you would be able to scale this up past the short view distance. But not only have you managed to get a good view distance, but you also added in a nice animation system. Congrats to you! This is coming from someone who has spent years designing their own voxel platform. Please get this out to users to let them start building things, you will be amazed at what they can create.

NovaLogic's Delta Force (1998) and Delta Force 2 (1999) had a "voxel game engine [that allowed for a] nearly unlimited draw distance" [1]. Though the other objects in the game were rendered with polygons, has a far view distance been difficult with modern voxel engines? [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta_Force_2#Game_engine

It's not a true voxel engine, just a 2D heightfield renderer. Note the lack of holes or undercut walls.

Re: Voxel Quest January 2016 Update

#88

Post by skybrian »

gavanwoolery wrote: post #64
stcredzero wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a notion that it's possible to have a "somewhat directed sandbox" game. I'm working on a combat/survival open world game with a procedurally generated tech tree to go along with the procedurally generated world. There is a "difficulty direction" (down) and the farther you go that way, the environment becomes exponentially more difficult, while the items/powerups become exponentially more powerful. (With the en…

Interesting. Welp, looks like I'm going to have to resort to adding sex to the game. :) But seriously, the idea of a "direction" for difficulty had only vaguely occurred in my mind (for whatever reason, I am drawn to games where you ascend or descend to progress, most notably Spelunky).

I'd be interested in seeing a voxel game involving defensive architecture (preparing for disasters). When I started playing Minecraft, I was interested in making buildings, lighted streets, etc that would make it easier to survive at night.

It turned out to be somewhat pointless because once you know how, you can easily skip the night phase altogether. A game where you can't do that might be interesting.

Also: preparing for floods. What happens when the river overflows or the storm surge hits?

Re: Voxel Quest January 2016 Update

#89

Post by WhiteNoiz3 »

gavanwoolery wrote: post #45
munificent wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many many many game developers get sucked into the infinite vortex of trying to "find the fun". A computer is a very large blank canvas and the set of all possible games is infinite. It can be overwhelming trying to decide what game to make. Often, developers wander off to "make an engine" partially as an excuse to put off making those scary decisions. But an engine isn't a game and if you want to ship something peop…

Thanks Bob! Totally agree with you - it really is a battle of fighting against my "engineering instinct" which just wants to build stuff all day, no matter how useless it is. I have deliberated over this internally with myself and others for a long time. In fact, half way into the character animation I was kicking myself for even beginning working on it. I tend to justify things (whether rational or not) as a content…

I also struggle with adding extra features to a game I'm working on. I've added "You're not going to need it" to the top of my to-do list as a way to force myself to think everytime I add something on there. ;) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_aren%27t_gonna_need_it

Have you ever heard of the game Magic Carpet? See http://www.gog.com/game/magic_carpet . It had insanely good destructible terrain, base building and exploration. I think something like that might work extremely well with your engine and also there has never been another game quite like it that combined exploration and resource gathering with the almost RTS like base elements (and of course the fun of creating volcanoes and dropping asteroids on your opponent's base).

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