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If you're interested in what can be done with voxels with a more realistic aesthetic, have a look at the Atomontage engine: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CCZI

If you're interested in what can be done with voxels with a more realistic aesthetic, have a look at the Atomontage engine: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CCZIBDt1uM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CCZIBDt1uM

flawawa2 16y ago
There is nothing in the gaming future that excites me more than good old voxels. That game/engine looks amazing.
rorrr 16y ago
That's what minecraft should look like.
- mambodog 16y ago
  I've given it a lot of thought, and I don't think Minecraft would be so easy to pick up and play if in weren't so 'blocky'. At least not without some really good design. The size of the blocks in Minecraft really lend themselves to being able to put together things that approximate real life structures, while maintaining a sufficient level of simplicity. This simplicity makes reasoning and manipulating the game world less challenging, resulting in the game being more accessible to a wide variety of players.
  - dazzawazza 16y ago
    Similarly we don't give children atoms to play with, we give atoms constrained into lego blocks.
    - wlievens 16y ago
      Constraints give rise to creativity. Just compare that to the "1K" or "7 day" competitions.
      - 1337p337 16y ago
        Or even compared to, for example, the constraints on plays in the Elizabethan era when Shakespeare wrote, or the syllabic constraints on haiku. One would think that there would be a bigger "dancing bear" (it's amazing that the bear dances at all, not that the bear dances well) factor, but not many playwrights match Shakespeare, given fewer (or no) constraints. I've had to switch languages a lot when coding, but even in a constrained or flawed language, you see code that is beautiful and amazing. Constraints free up thought, as when you stop rebelling against a framework, you can excel in it. It's hard to push your brain into what feels like a hole; I can't get anything done in Perl because I spend too much time being repulsed, but some people embrace the language and produce great software. Having just praised restrictions like that, though, I still have to mention that this game looks really cool.
  - johnyzee 16y ago
    This is probably why the old 8- and 16-bit games seem to have so much more compelling gameplay than ultra-realistic modern games. Well, that or we are just cranky oldtimers.
- malkia 16y ago
  You don't wanna be in the Uncanny Valley - Minecraft is cute, because it's not real - hard from real. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley
- Splines 16y ago
  A thought that crossed my mind some time ago is some consequences of fine-detail in Minecraft. You would be able to create objects of higher complexity packed into a manageable size. Would you pay money to someone who created a really useful (or cool) object in high-fidelity Minecraft?
kevinelliott 16y ago
Very excited to see what becomes of the Atomontage Engine. For years I've been annoyed with static 3D environments where walls don't actually crumble when shot at, and windows never shatter. This engine will change the way we react to realism in virtual environments. Almost so much that it becomes easy to ponder if we're already in someone's 3D simulation ;)
- spitfire 16y ago
  Years and years ago (In the quake3 era) John Carmack talked about voxels being the future of 3d because of exactly thaty. Ray-traced voxel based worlds. Personally, I think voxels will be hard to manage for objects/characters. Someone smarter than me will have to solve that problem.
  - mambodog 16y ago
    Atomonontage still uses polygon-based rendering for some objects (the vehicle in that video is poly-based). I believe the appropriate expression is 'Horses for courses'.
  - InclinedPlane 16y ago
    There are ways around such problems, especially in terms of bridging the gap between convex smooth surfaced solid objects and collections of cubes. As the technology gets more mature more sophisticated approaches will be fielded. A classic way of solving the voxel vs. smooth object problem: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marching_cubes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marching_cubes
  - DrStalker 16y ago
    > Someone smarter than me will have to solve that problem. Someone smarter, or someone with specific knowledge of the relevant domain and a lot more time to invest on the problem? I see a lot of people assuming that someone who can do something they can't is inherently smarter, even if they do something just as complicated for their daily job and think nothing of it.
    - 16y ago

flawawa2 16y ago

There is nothing in the gaming future that excites me more than good old voxels. That game/engine looks amazing.

rorrr 16y ago

That's what minecraft should look like.

mambodog 16y ago
I've given it a lot of thought, and I don't think Minecraft would be so easy to pick up and play if in weren't so 'blocky'. At least not without some really good design. The size of the blocks in Minecraft really lend themselves to being able to put together things that approximate real life structures, while maintaining a sufficient level of simplicity. This simplicity makes reasoning and manipulating the game world less challenging, resulting in the game being more accessible to a wide variety of players.
- dazzawazza 16y ago
  Similarly we don't give children atoms to play with, we give atoms constrained into lego blocks.
  - wlievens 16y ago
    Constraints give rise to creativity. Just compare that to the "1K" or "7 day" competitions.
    - 1337p337 16y ago
      Or even compared to, for example, the constraints on plays in the Elizabethan era when Shakespeare wrote, or the syllabic constraints on haiku. One would think that there would be a bigger "dancing bear" (it's amazing that the bear dances at all, not that the bear dances well) factor, but not many playwrights match Shakespeare, given fewer (or no) constraints. I've had to switch languages a lot when coding, but even in a constrained or flawed language, you see code that is beautiful and amazing. Constraints free up thought, as when you stop rebelling against a framework, you can excel in it. It's hard to push your brain into what feels like a hole; I can't get anything done in Perl because I spend too much time being repulsed, but some people embrace the language and produce great software. Having just praised restrictions like that, though, I still have to mention that this game looks really cool.
- johnyzee 16y ago
  This is probably why the old 8- and 16-bit games seem to have so much more compelling gameplay than ultra-realistic modern games. Well, that or we are just cranky oldtimers.
malkia 16y ago
You don't wanna be in the Uncanny Valley - Minecraft is cute, because it's not real - hard from real. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley
Splines 16y ago
A thought that crossed my mind some time ago is some consequences of fine-detail in Minecraft. You would be able to create objects of higher complexity packed into a manageable size. Would you pay money to someone who created a really useful (or cool) object in high-fidelity Minecraft?

kevinelliott 16y ago

Very excited to see what becomes of the Atomontage Engine. For years I've been annoyed with static 3D environments where walls don't actually crumble when shot at, and windows never shatter. This engine will change the way we react to realism in virtual environments. Almost so much that it becomes easy to ponder if we're already in someone's 3D simulation ;)

spitfire 16y ago
Years and years ago (In the quake3 era) John Carmack talked about voxels being the future of 3d because of exactly thaty. Ray-traced voxel based worlds. Personally, I think voxels will be hard to manage for objects/characters. Someone smarter than me will have to solve that problem.
- mambodog 16y ago
  Atomonontage still uses polygon-based rendering for some objects (the vehicle in that video is poly-based). I believe the appropriate expression is 'Horses for courses'.
- InclinedPlane 16y ago
  There are ways around such problems, especially in terms of bridging the gap between convex smooth surfaced solid objects and collections of cubes. As the technology gets more mature more sophisticated approaches will be fielded. A classic way of solving the voxel vs. smooth object problem: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marching_cubes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marching_cubes
- DrStalker 16y ago
  > Someone smarter than me will have to solve that problem. Someone smarter, or someone with specific knowledge of the relevant domain and a lot more time to invest on the problem? I see a lot of people assuming that someone who can do something they can't is inherently smarter, even if they do something just as complicated for their daily job and think nothing of it.
  - 16y ago