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Update 05 / 20 / 2015

5/20/2015

19 Comments

 
Picture
Edit: I am soon going to a writeup on the rendering. I wrote this post in haste so have not gotten a chance to write much yet but in as few words as possible the new rendering is much faster because it only calculates visible surfaces instead of volumes.  It is based on cell marching and distance field marching.  More info to come soon!

Since the last update:
  • Implemented an entirely new ray-based rendering method which includes such benefits as...
  • No more chunk loading.  All scene data appears instantly
  • No more refreshing of chunks. Changes can occur in realtime, at 60+ FPS.
  • Vastly Increased performance and draw distance.
  • "Infinite detail" (limited only by floating point precision and algorithmic complexity).
  • Ability to dynamically animate any surface or object.
  • Successfully integrated with much of the old pipeline which optionally includes various screen-space effects, material rendering, and so forth.
  • I also implemented complex fluid dynamics, which include such features as...
  • Constant fluid volume (impossible to destroy matter (unless intended)).  Fluids maintain correct proximity and do not lose or gain water.
  • Water pressure.  Fluids will balance out (i.e. fill a U-bend evenly) and simulate correct pressure and distribution.
  • Free of most artifacts but still needs work.  Particularly notable is that the water does not jitter around as it does in many constant fluid simulations.


I have been fairly busy with "real life" issues, which seems to be the norm these days, but I have managed to get quite a bit done regardless.

Below is one of the earlier tests I put together - rendering terrain based on VQ's generated map.
Picture

Fluid works quite well now. Constant volume, pressure, multithreaded, 2 mil units. #gamedev pic.twitter.com/mYUoF9L9wj

— Gavan Woolery (@gavanw) May 20, 2015
Added in bilinear filtering to smooth out the water (sorry for all the twitter embeds, I am lazy):

Added bilinear filtering and HOLY $@#?%! #gamedev pic.twitter.com/DIc7KnDFBR

— Gavan Woolery (@gavanw) May 20, 2015
And one more demo of the smooth water:

cc voxel peeps @atomontage_com @Data01 @bartwerf @JonOlick @lexaloffle @rianflo @paniq @ephtracy etc :) pic.twitter.com/r9bgxbbYNx

— Gavan Woolery (@gavanw) May 20, 2015
19 Comments
Travis
5/20/2015 02:39:36 am

Excellent fluid dynamics! Keep up the really cool work. As someone from a science background, it is very refreshing to see a game engine that uses realistic physics instead of shortcuts; good on you for doing the research!

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Gavan Woolery
5/20/2015 02:45:22 am

Thanks - to be fair its not completely realistic - it behaves in a rather "ideal" manner as far as elasticity to make computation cheap and lacks certain things like acceleration right now.

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Miguelito link
5/20/2015 03:39:42 am

Banana

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Mozalbete
5/20/2015 06:03:33 am

Physics, here we go

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Gavan Woolery
5/20/2015 08:38:31 am

don't get me started please!

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Vitalij
5/20/2015 04:28:26 pm

Will be you rendering method documented somehow?

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Gavan Woolery
5/21/2015 02:36:28 am

Yes, documented in the code and doing a writeup on it soon as well. :)

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Mark
5/21/2015 07:28:24 am

Nice! Keep up the good work, Gavin. I hope your "real life" stuff sorts out for the best.

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Gavan Woolery
5/21/2015 09:47:09 am

Thanks! Will do :)

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BetaByter
5/24/2015 09:46:05 am

Amazing! =) This project is looking great. Keep doing the awesome work you do!

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Gavan Woolery
5/27/2015 10:52:36 am

Thanks! :)

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jimmyff
5/26/2015 05:20:05 pm

Wow! Gavan this is now screaming for a wetrix remake! I used to love that game.

I might even have a bash at it once you get your mod support out!

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Gavan Woolery
5/27/2015 10:56:04 am

I completely forgot about Wetrix! :D

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Noc
5/27/2015 09:48:33 am

As an aspiring programmer have no idea how you do what you do, but I am impressed and delighted every time you go out of your way to perfect a system meticulously. This engine is getting scary good; I think in a couple months you can start on the "real game"! I just hope there's some modding options for those of us who have no chance of replicating an engine as powerful as this one.

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Gavan Woolery
5/27/2015 10:57:16 am

Thanks! Full source should be there, so it should be relatively easy to mod or tweak anything in the engine (even resources probably won't be compressed, so you can edit sounds/images/config files/etc easily).

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Guy
5/27/2015 12:00:18 pm

Wow man, this is incredible! I can't believe this has come so far!

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Gavan Woolery
5/27/2015 12:23:29 pm

Thanks!

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Troy_Costisick link
5/28/2015 10:03:58 pm

Heya Gavin,

I just wanted to let you know I name dropped you in my most recent article on eXplorminate. Hope that's okay with you, I'm really really excited about your project, man! :)

Link: http://explorminate4x.com/2015/05/29/kickin-aint-easy-an-exposition/

Peace,

-Troy

Reply
Vladimir Jankovic link
5/29/2015 05:40:54 am

Awesome work with water and new rendering. Really good performance for such a quality. Thanks for sharing!

Reply



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