
MagicaVoxel: A free voxel art editor and path tracing renderer - Tideflat
https://ephtracy.github.io/
======
matt2000
I highly recommend people check this out if you're interested in voxel
graphics, or a simple way to make 3D graphics if you're artistically
challenged like me. We used it to make a whole game and it was great:
[https://www.larvalabs.com/project/roadtrip](https://www.larvalabs.com/project/roadtrip)

Here are some other awesome things made with it:
[https://twitter.com/HuntingFluff/status/1046417418459975681](https://twitter.com/HuntingFluff/status/1046417418459975681)
[https://twitter.com/Sir_carma/status/1051867299303440384](https://twitter.com/Sir_carma/status/1051867299303440384)

And in general I recommend following Sir Carma for inspiration:
[https://twitter.com/Sir_carma](https://twitter.com/Sir_carma)

~~~
mattlondon
Nice looking game! The models look awesome!

Did you do any post-processing on the models from MagicaVoxel before using the
models in your game? E.g. does MagicaVoxel export a single optimised mesh, or
does it export a load of cube meshes?

~~~
mattlondon
Looks like it does export a single "optimised" mesh (at least when exporting
to OBJ) - i.e. it not just a load of individual cube meshes, but each separate
coloured face is optimised into 3 or 4 triangles. A face with different
colours is treated as a separate set of triangles though, so something like a
chess board pattern would be a lot of triangles, but a white cube would be
hardly any.

I had some trouble importing directly into Unity 2019, this is what I did for
anyone else wondering:

\- Export as OBJ in MagicaPixel

\- Import Obj & Png into Unity via drag-n-drop

\- In the prefab that is generated, on the model tab change the imported
model's scale factor to 0.1 and hit apply.

\- In the prefab that is generated, on the material tab click extract
materials and save in same folder.

\- Drag the Png texture you imported into the Albedo of the extracted texture.

You now have the textured MagicaVoxel model in Unity for whatever you want to
do with it. Yay.

~~~
matt2000
This process sounds a lot better than what we did a couple years ago when we
were working on that game. Our process involved Voxel Shop
[https://blackflux.com/node/11](https://blackflux.com/node/11) and a few
steps. I can dig up the notes if it's interesting, but it looks like your
process is better anyway.

I've also heard that this asset might be useful, but I haven't tried it yet:
[https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/modeling/magicav...](https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/modeling/magicavoxel-
to-unity-63336)

------
frenchie14
MagicaVoxel is great! Even though the program is not open source, the file
format is documented by the creator [0]. For a small game I'm working on I
read in the vox files and reconstruct the meshes in-game. I can then create
procedurally destructed variations by tweaking the vox data and re-generating
the meshes in-game [1]

[0] [https://github.com/ephtracy/voxel-
model/blob/master/MagicaVo...](https://github.com/ephtracy/voxel-
model/blob/master/MagicaVoxel-file-format-vox.txt)

[1]
[https://twitter.com/MaxBize/status/1048717357319745538](https://twitter.com/MaxBize/status/1048717357319745538)

~~~
gardaani
This is what every software should do. I don't care if software isn't free or
open source, but file formats should be documented so that they can be read
later or processed by other tools.

~~~
loudmax
I'd go a little further than "documented". MS Office's .docx and .pptx files
are "documented" but creating a compatible reader is a major undertaking. I
wish people would hold off until there's an existing open source project that
can at least decode the files enough to accurately convert the files to
another format. Avoid lock-in before has a chance to take root.

------
emmanueloga_
Few Questions:

* Who's [https://twitter.com/ephtracy](https://twitter.com/ephtracy)? Why did you create this? How are you using it this days? Are you making any games with this?

* How do you produce images like this? [1] Is the Ray Tracer to do that built in or do you have to import the models in a second software?

* What kind of support is there for the vox file format? (where/how to render outside the app).

1:
[http://ephtracy.github.io/image/snap2016-07-02-17-16-08.png](http://ephtracy.github.io/image/snap2016-07-02-17-16-08.png)

2: [https://github.com/ephtracy/voxel-
model](https://github.com/ephtracy/voxel-model)

~~~
pixelbath
The programmer is Sean T. Barrett:

* [https://github.com/ephtracy/stb](https://github.com/ephtracy/stb) * [https://nothings.org/](https://nothings.org/)

~~~
based2
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0QEaHn4FfM&list=PLcGCKovuXY...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0QEaHn4FfM&list=PLcGCKovuXYkWhOkwhbI2uHBas5-hAKIWq)
Buildbox 2 - First Walkthrough

[https://www.voxelquest.com/](https://www.voxelquest.com/)

[http://guillaumechereau.github.io/goxel/](http://guillaumechereau.github.io/goxel/)

~~~
Flenser
The Buildbox UI is very similar to Magicavoxel

------
sushisource
Please, creators, if you're reading this: Stop labeling things 8-bit that are
in no way 8-bit except there are some big squares/cubes involved.

~~~
nomel
In this context, "8-bit" is a well understood name of an art style. In this
context, it's well understood that this has nothing to do with the bus width
of processor architecture or misc color/data bit widths.

Think of it as a label like "modern art", which is art from 1860s to the
1970s.

~~~
rpdillon
The tag line is on the site says:

> A free lightweight 8-bit voxel art editor and interactive path tracing
> renderer.

Is the sentence in some way more clear with the modifier '8-bit'? What's being
clarified?

~~~
gbear605
That people are looking for “8-bit.” For instance, someone might google “8 bit
editor.”

~~~
PavlovsCat
Someone might also google "audio editor", so why not also call it an audio
editor to be on the safe side?

~~~
nomel
8-bit style voxel art can easily be made with this. In fact, that's the
intended use case.

This would be a very poor tool for creating audio, and anyone looking for an
audio tool would notice this immediately.

"8-bit voxel" is completely understood to the target audience. Anything
involving audio would not.

------
rayalez
Absolutely brilliant piece of software, I'm a huge fan. It's extremely easy to
get started with, and a very pleasant way to spend your time, whether you're a
professional artist or not. Imagine building stuff in minecraft but 10x more
convenient. And the developer keeps making it better and better.

A few things I've made with it:

[https://www.artstation.com/artwork/GY8D3](https://www.artstation.com/artwork/GY8D3)

[https://www.artstation.com/artwork/2VleJ](https://www.artstation.com/artwork/2VleJ)

[https://www.artstation.com/artwork/ryqk2](https://www.artstation.com/artwork/ryqk2)

Follow the developer for a lot of awesome and inspiring examples:

[https://twitter.com/ephtracy](https://twitter.com/ephtracy)

Also I've made a little collection of my favorite artworks:

[https://www.artstation.com/rayalez/collections/184272](https://www.artstation.com/rayalez/collections/184272)

------
coryfklein
Here's a time lapse of William Santacruz using MagicaVoxel to make some Mario
fanart [1]. I recommend playing at 2x speed.

Gives you a good idea of what the app can do as well as how voxel modelling is
different from traditional polygonal modeling like in Blender.

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPtw7L-lV7Y](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPtw7L-lV7Y)

------
binarycrusader
[https://github.com/ephtracy/ephtracy.github.io/issues/108](https://github.com/ephtracy/ephtracy.github.io/issues/108)

I understand the reasons, but it's always disappointing to see a project on
GitHub that doesn't actually plan on releasing source code.

~~~
fsloth
Strongly disagree.

GitHub is among other things a platform for sharing.

Sharing should not be obligatory.

When someone shares something, if you like it, be grateful, and if you don't,
just move along.

If you want to know how it's done just go and read some open source voxel
library - there are ton's of them. If you are interested on the path rendering
part there's lots of awesome didactic resources for that as well.

If you don't trust the author and are afraid that the code does something
nasty - just don't use it.

If the author feels he is not contributing - or not willing to contribute - to
the state of the art in voxel techniques or path rendering (both of which are
_totally fine stances_ ) then there really is no value in showing the source.

If someone creates a free tool for making art, their contribution should be
cherished, and their tool used for art, and appreciated for it's artistic
merits. Don't give shit for the author for releasing the free tool on his own
conditions. If you don't like those, move along. Or, if you are inspired, go
make your own and open source it!

By the way, that discussion is just horrible. The author lays open the reasons
why he does not want to release it and the other party just disagrees. "We
could help you with the patches... I would like to read the code that I run"..
Oh really? I wonder if he really has read through the entire codebase of the
operating system and all of the drivers and all of the programs he runs.

"Helping out with the patches" without adult supervision can lead to this:

[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/9491391/Elderly-
woma...](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/9491391/Elderly-woman-
destroys-19th-century-fresco-with-DIY-restoration.html)

I totally understand why the author would not like to nanny the internet's
eager contributors. An open source project needs a huge cultural effort to
collect and coordinate technically savvy key contributors before it can work.
That won't happen automatically. Not everybody yearns to be a benevolent
dictator for life of this or that.

~~~
pawelmurias
It'snot obligatory but it's still disappointing.

~~~
fsloth
Why is it disappointing? Sorry, I really don't understand and would like to.

~~~
VikingCoder
"disappointing: failing to fulfill someone's hopes or expectations."

I think you're viewing it from the "expectations" side, while binarycrusader,
pawelmurias, and I are viewing it from the "hope" side.

If this were open source under a license that makes sense to us, I think all
three of us were thinking we'd like to use the code to do other things. That's
just a hope.

~~~
pawelmurias
If it's on github you kind of expect it to be an open source.

------
pasta
For Linux users: the 64bit Windows version runs fine in Wine.

------
zapita
There's a cool little project called "particubes" that is a sort of
"magicavoxel lite" on iOS. It's pretty fun to sketch 3D scenes on the go on an
iphone. Authors are pretty responsive too.

------
Shinchy
I love this program, I find it so relaxing to simply listen to some music or a
podcast and create some unusual works or art with it. I would love for the
creator to make an iPad version one day though, I think using the stylus to
work with this tool would be fantastic.

------
billfruit
Last time I checked its canvas size was quite small. One could not construct
minecraft like landscapes in it.

~~~
applecrazy
You can adjust the canvas size. There's a place where you can enter the voxel
x voxel dimensions you want to work in.

Edit: in a recent update it added support for 1024 x 1024 scenes.

~~~
Flenser
For those like me that couldn't work out how to create bigger scenes, the
world editor is available by pressing TAB or clicking the TAB icon above the
top-right corner of the main view.

------
curyous
The speed and quality of the rendering is insane. I would love to know how it
is done.

------
VladimirGolovin
Looks cool! Is there a way to make the UI / fonts bigger on 4k monitors?

~~~
nokiz
You can scale the UI
[https://twitter.com/ephtracy/status/934877261135843331](https://twitter.com/ephtracy/status/934877261135843331)

