

An Analysis of Minecraft-like Engines (2012) - galapago
http://0fps.net/2012/01/14/an-analysis-of-minecraft-like-engines/

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soup10
Optimizing voxel data read times is a small part of the puzzle.

The primary challenge of voxel engines is adapting the rendering engine to
accommodate for dynamic modifications. Light maps, shadow maps, bump maps,
occlusion maps, texturing, LOD geometry... whatever. All kinds of things that
are traditionally statically generated, need to be regenerated on the fly or
done without. Which is why minecraft went for the retro-aesthetic, there
wasn't really a choice in the matter back then. We're only now starting to see
full-fledged voxel engines that can support a non-retro look, but they are
still a long way behind the aesthetics that can be achieved with a normal
engine.

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asgard1024
> Which is why minecraft went for the retro-aesthetic

I though main reason why MC is retro is that Notch is not really an artist -
he just wanted to create graphics quickly. And he brilliantly turned this into
an advantage - I can't imagine MC without iconic square pigs and pixelated
pickaxes.

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soup10
Well he's not Michelangelo obviously, but low res pixel art is still art.
Compare it to some of the clones or infinimer and it's clear that care went
into the aesthetic.

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BatFastard
As someone who has work extensively with both mesh and voxel engines I can say
each has its good points. If you want to go for maximum visual acuity. Go the
mesh route, there are great tools for generating mesh content, the shaders are
well understood. Now if you want to go for maximum interactivity, emergent
behavior, and simplicity, the voxel route is by far the hands down winner. The
author of the original article only had a superficial understanding of voxel
engines and optimization techniques.

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grondilu
Talking about voxel engines, I used to follow the progress of a minecraf-like
game which, among its particularities, offered a spherical world, thanks to a
clever deformation of a large cube. IIRC it also offered basic physics
(falling trees). I'd like to check out where this game is at now, but I
totally forgot the name. Does it ring a bell for anyone?

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castell
Not sure, maybe [http://sea-of-memes.com](http://sea-of-memes.com) ?

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Gurkenmaster
That game reminds me of Shores of Hazeron.

It was a neat little game where you essentially strand on a planet and start
building your own city until you can build a rocket to leave the planet and
explore the rest of the solar system. Then build a city on the moon so you can
create custom spacecrafts to go even further into space.

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CmonDev
More like bloxels. Chunky blocks are not same as high-resolution voxels from
the point of view of gameplay. You can organize them way neater.

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mkesper
Issues of the linked implementation link to great site about voxels in your
browser (Free Software): [http://voxeljs.com/#what](http://voxeljs.com/#what)

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zamalek
> So, if you believe these estimates are reasonable, then you should be
> convinced that iteration by far dominates the performance of a Minecraft
> style game.

I'll believe it when I see the profiler results. A good article none-the-less.

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upvote-hero
I agree.

