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[gavanw]

Much more detailed/faster rendering, video link and a picture

https://twitter.com/gavanw/status/590884138871230464



Picture above is just a scene with a bunch of test objects which I use for stress testing.  Still have some work to do to get the old objects/scenes rendering with the new method.  I also use 1-3 passes of a median filter in the shader to optionally smooth things out, but the filtering needs to be "smarter" i.e. based on depth or difference or something.

[marcgfx]

looks crazy! I'm really impressed how you can change the entire geometry seemingly on the fly. love it

[gavanw]

looks crazy! I'm really impressed how you can change the entire geometry seemingly on the fly. love it

Thanks

[JobLeonard]

How?! I demand eagerly look forward to the blog post describing this!

[gimymblert]

now you are entering euclidion hype territories, except now it's realer

Can you do animated voxel? the graal of voxel?

[gavanw]

How?! I demand eagerly look forward to the blog post describing this!

Haha, its pretty basic ray math + distance fields + cell division.  Nothing really "new" - just using old tricks in a "smart" way.   But I will have more details in a post soon.

[gavanw]

now you are entering euclidion hype territories, except now it's realer

Can you do animated voxel? the graal of voxel?

Yes, nothing preventing voxel animation.  Certain things it would be good for (like water), but not others (like animated characters).  Can still throw traditional poly characters or items in the scene though.

[gavanw]

New update with fluid dynamics:

http://www.voxelquest.com/news/update-05-20-2015

[JobLeonard]

"Infinite detail" (limited only by floating point precision and algorithmic complexity).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadruple-precision_floating-point_format

[gavanw]

"Infinite detail" (limited only by floating point precision and algorithmic complexity).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadruple-precision_floating-point_format

[JobLeonard]

I mean, surely you planned on a simulation a few orders of magnitude more precise than Plank length?

[filharvey]

How are you handling the new rendering method, I would definitely be interested in a write up of how you are do it.

Thanks

Phil

[gavanw]

I mean, surely you planned on a simulation a few orders of magnitude more precise than Plank length?

Obviously 

[gavanw]

How are you handling the new rendering method, I would definitely be interested in a write up of how you are do it.

Yep I'm going to post one pretty soon, stay tuned!

[gimymblert]

that's amazing all around, when the ps5 will be out you will be ready for the future

[Schrompf]

I'm very impressed. It did look a lot like raymarching through distance fields in the videos, but calculating distance fields on such a voxel field is just as demanding as building meshes :-) So I'm really curious how you achieved this render performace! Fluid simulations wouldn't be possible to display otherwise.

[slarti88]

Whoa this is really interesting for its technical complexity. Would love to see posts on the rendering techniques you use. But what's even more interesting to me is the procedural story generation. I'm hoping to go after that 'holy grail' sometime in the future 

Uptil now (based on what I've understood) you've spoken of using AI techniques to model NPC thinking and actions. But what about overall story? To an extent I guess it is generated out of the player and the NPC actions... but do you have any thoughts on making an overarching plot develop out of these actions? Generating climactic situations etc? Or is that too vague/subjective to attempt?

In any case would love to see some more detailed technical write-ups on the things you're doing!

[gavanw]

I'm very impressed. It did look a lot like raymarching through distance fields in the videos, but calculating distance fields on such a voxel field is just as demanding as building meshes :-) So I'm really curious how you achieved this render performace! Fluid simulations wouldn't be possible to display otherwise.

It uses a hybrid of cell marching and distance field marching.  So it marches through a given cell, sees if any objects are in that cell, narrows down the intersection through ray math, and then does a detail pass with distance field marching.

[gavanw]

Whoa this is really interesting for its technical complexity. Would love to see posts on the rendering techniques you use. But what's even more interesting to me is the procedural story generation. I'm hoping to go after that 'holy grail' sometime in the future 

Uptil now (based on what I've understood) you've spoken of using AI techniques to model NPC thinking and actions. But what about overall story? To an extent I guess it is generated out of the player and the NPC actions... but do you have any thoughts on making an overarching plot develop out of these actions? Generating climactic situations etc? Or is that too vague/subjective to attempt?

In any case would love to see some more detailed technical write-ups on the things you're doing!

Thanks! Technical writeup is coming soon as I get a few spare hours.

As for overarching plot, this is really something that is fabricated from smaller events (even if those events are "major").  First of all it revolves largely around chain of command.  So if one lord gets angry at another lord, he might send an army to fight that lord, which dictates the motivation of many NPCs through one action (the commander has orders to follow, he orders his troops, his troops way the cost of fleeing vs the cost of remaining loyal, etc).  But a lot of it just boils down to personal relations and single motivations, as seen in books/shows like Game of Thrones.

[eigenbom]

I love that weirdly bubbly world. Also .. cool to see you've got a devlog here now Gavan.