[RPD Guy]

This is the best thread I've ever seen in this forum. You guys are awesome.

[Doom64hunter]

Striker, on 19 December 2021 - 02:14 PM, said:

Maybe, but likely not easily. Polymost renders voxels by converting them to models when the renderer is initialized, meaning realtime alteration is difficult. Software does things much differently.

This conversion is also really inefficient and causes a massive delay at startup when larger voxels are used.

If this can be improved in the future, it would be greatly appreciated.

[Phredreeke]

Back in January I asked Lucius whether he would be willing to license the hardware voxel renderer from TFE under a Build compatible license once it's ready. He seemed open to the idea if there was interest.

[Doom64hunter]

Dzierzan, on 22 October 2021 - 09:18 AM, said:

Letters are ready as well, but there's a small issue I cannot figure out. And it seems the same issue money has as well, but it's less visable. I understand that the sprite is being flipped, but that I cannot understand. Is something happening code wise?

This issue will affect any voxel that has the cstat flip bits (4 and 8) set.

I opened an issue here: https://voidpoint.io...32/-/issues/230

Support for cstat flip was added by NukeYKT at some point, hopefully the issue was just an error and not a fundamental problem.

[0815Jack]

Phredreeke, on 28 December 2021 - 05:18 PM, said:

Back in January I asked Lucius whether he would be willing to license the hardware voxel renderer from TFE under a Build compatible license once it's ready. He seemed open to the idea if there was interest.

I'm aware that there will be voxel support for TFE, but not hardware acclerated one. Did Lucius publicly annouce this?

[Phredreeke]

There's no hardware renderer yet. It will come after 1.0 I think.

He did say that he plans for the hardware renderer to rasterise voxels directly, instead of converting to meshes first as GZDoom and Build does it.

[Micky C]

I was under the impression he had some voxel hardware acceleration, but in the experimental dev branch.

Hopefully we’ll find out in a few months.

[Ninety-Six]

Striker, on 19 December 2021 - 02:14 PM, said:

Polymost renders voxels by converting them to models when the renderer is initialized, meaning realtime alteration is difficult. Software does things much differently.

A bit of a late question, but I am curious. How different are we talking?

[Micky C]

Classic mode renders each individual voxel as a single-colour square that always faces the camera. This is quite noticeable when you look at it closely. Polymost’s voxel conversion represents voxels as cubes on a shared alignment.

[Striker]

Ninety-Six, on 01 January 2022 - 02:07 AM, said:

A bit of a late question, but I am curious. How different are we talking?

Aside from what Micky C above me said, the voxel is rendered directly from the voxel's data in memory in the software renderer, where in OpenGL, the voxels need to undergo conversion, are uploaded to the GPU via a VBO and must be kept static. (Means modifying parts of the model on the fly is a no-go)

[luciusDXL]

Phredreeke, on 31 December 2021 - 05:29 PM, said:

There's no hardware renderer yet. It will come after 1.0 I think.

He did say that he plans for the hardware renderer to rasterise voxels directly, instead of converting to meshes first as GZDoom and Build does it.

The hardware renderer will not become available until after version 1.0, though it has already been started. As for the voxel renderer, it will be open source and available for use if desired. It is not based on any Build or Ken code, I wrote it specifically for TFE. Basically, it renders voxels as textured columns that interact well with 1D z-buffer that Jedi uses for sprite/model vs wall sorting (with some extra work for caps) and "directly" renders the columns in the correct order without runtime sorting (given a list of points or columns on a grid, you can compute the exact ordering in either 2D or 3D without iterating over the data). Rendering with arbitrary pitch would obviously be slower but possible using a 3D line stepping algorithm (but that has not been implemented yet).

As for GPU-based rendering, it is definitely possible to rasterize voxels directly as columns or point clouds with no CPU-side geometry or vertex uploads required. The most difficult part of dealing with voxel rendering on the GPU is the data size (obviously the raw data needs to be uploaded when it changes), but that is not an issue with the size and number of objects we are dealing with in these old games. So that is the approach I plan on taking with TFE, I don't see the need to convert to a polygon mesh first - rendering won't be noticeably faster (and would actually be slower when further away from the voxel objects due to inefficiencies with small triangles).

[Borion]

Dzierzan, on 16 December 2021 - 07:22 AM, said:

Thats a damn good model, Dzierzan.

[NightFright]

Since we have reached a calm phase and it's been a while since RC1, I thought it's a good time for RC2 now.

Voxel Pack v2.0 RC2: Github | ModDB

There have been no changes compared to the last commit from Dec 21, 2021.

[NightFright]

(Accidental doublepost, ignore)

[Dzierzan]

Voxel shells:

[Radar]

Should consider adding a script to the voxel pack that retains the shells in-game when they fall to the ground, so that they can be admired after shooting.

[Danukem]

I disagree. I think the voxel pack should just be voxels. Then people can pick and choose which they want and add code to them if they want in their projects.

[Radar]

I agree in principle. I'm just suggesting that because the voxel pack already includes bits of code for visual tweaks.

[0815Jack]

my 2 cents: include the tweaks but disable them by default..... so you can choose.....

[NightFright]

There are exactly two scripts left in the voxel pack: One is for rotating pickups, which some may like since it looks cool or it's useful when maphacks are not available, and the other one is for the Pigcop Tank.

Both scripts are turned off by default and I think we all agree it should stay like that. In general, voxels should work without any scripts, and if they don't for whatever reason (it'd better be a good one, though), they'll be optional.

[Dzierzan]

[Jimmy]

One suggestion I would make for the voxel shells is actually providing an optional alternate sprite for the shotgun where the shotgun shell is removed from the loading animation frame. It's kind of weird to see it in 2D then it becomes 3D half a second later. I know I've made an edit of that myself. Somebody else probably has too, maybe Fox. If I had access to it, I'd provide the sprite I made. Hendricks266 probably has a copy of it, I know we used it in an abandoned project of ours. If someone has it they're of course welcome to share it and use it for this or any other reason.

As for all the new stuff, great work as always, guys.

[0815Jack]

I like the skywalker voxel... but I would make the torso a little bit thicker....



the same with the lawyer.... but just my personal opinion....

[Dzierzan]

I didn't want him to be the fatso-walker xD. Seriously though, I was rather careful with proper thickness, I didn't want him to be too thick. I had such version in fact, but I totally didn't like it.

[NightFright]

He fell into the trash compactor, what did you expect, man?

[0815Jack]

NightFright, on 14 March 2022 - 06:38 AM, said:

He fell into the trash compactor, what did you expect, man?

hehe, could be an explanation

[jkas789]

0815Jack, on 14 March 2022 - 05:37 AM, said:

I like the skywalker voxel... but I would make the torso a little bit thicker....

duke0002.jpg

the same with the lawyer.... but just my personal opinion....

IRL torsos of average not obese people are not that thick anyway.

[0815Jack]

jkas789, on 15 March 2022 - 09:05 AM, said:

IRL torsos of average not obese people are not that thick anyway.

well... i didn't say the skywalker should look like the Marshmallow Man ..... I just expressed my personal preferences and when Dzierzan says a thicker doesn't look good.....then its OK

[Dzierzan]

Voxel bars, although most likely you won't often see them voxelized in game. I am no mapper but I noticed that "window" objects are almost never rendered as voxels in any build engine game

[Aleks]

Dzierzan, on 16 March 2022 - 04:20 AM, said:

Voxel bars, although most likely you won't often see them voxelized in game. I am no mapper but I noticed that "window" objects are almost never rendered as voxels in any build engine game

Window elements won't appear as voxels if they are made with maskwalls (i.e. like forcefields or breakable glass in Duke 3D), but it's often more convenient to make them with flat sprites, so should work in this case. Also I wouldn't mind seeing more stuff labeled as "maskwall##" in Duke voxelized (all the catwalk elements, trusses etc.).