Hello Bluesky! I'm developing a renderer that uses very small voxels and displacement mapping to modernize the retro aesthetic of games like Doom and Quake. I posted this elsewhere last May, but figured I'd upload the clip on here as well. #voxels #gamedev #rendering - ThreadSky

dan5sch.bsky.social • 48 days ago

Hello Bluesky! I'm developing a renderer that uses very small voxels and displacement mapping to modernize the retro aesthetic of games like Doom and Quake. I posted this elsewhere last May, but figured I'd upload the clip on here as well.

#voxels #gamedev #rendering

Comments

goldenaxedoom.bsky.social•45 days ago

this looks amazing!

glovemiester.bsky.social•47 days ago

GZDoom would explode if it saw those voxels, goddam!!

rajelaran.cyberelf.space•45 days ago

Neat! I remember the last video and was quite impressed, looking forward to the progress!

carlbateman.bsky.social•46 days ago

That looks amazing!

stevelee.bsky.social•3 days ago

Nice - are you able to somehow show this in action with Quake itself?

dan5sch.bsky.social•3 days ago

Importing something like Quake geometry unmodified wouldn't work too well -- you have to be more mindful of texture choice and alignment along hard edges compared to non-displaced geometry, and the look I'm going for really benefits from having smooth normals on things like arches

dan5sch.bsky.social•48 days ago

The full video is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xFEbXWstCM

dan5sch.bsky.social•48 days ago

For more details or to get in touch, see this blog post: https://blog.danielschroeder.me/2024/05/voxel-displacement-modernizing-retro-3d/

dan5sch.bsky.social•48 days ago

I've continued to work on this project since last May. I plan to upload another video in the next few months showing more recent progress.

meuns.bsky.social•46 days ago

I really like your work. Voxels are grids and grids are quite good for computing lighting with no requirement for hardware ray tracing. It would be fun to demonstrate competitive quality with materials and lighting with no triangle being harmed... ^^

dan5sch.bsky.social•46 days ago

Thanks! With respect to lighting: because the voxel-scale details here are formed by displacing the surface of a low-poly mesh, even a single object's geometry is more complicated than belonging to one voxel grid. So it's less friendly for ray traversal than typical voxel geometry

meuns.bsky.social•45 days ago

Agreed, I was just dreaming big... ^^

svkj.bsky.social•47 days ago

Looks very cool. Is there a playable demo?

dan5sch.bsky.social•46 days ago

I haven't shared any builds at this point. Continuing to flesh out more of the tech you'd need in order to create a full gameplay experience in this visual style

svkj.bsky.social•46 days ago

I think a small demo would really show the potential of this style compared to a video so was just curious. I'm trying to find a unique style for my game and there's not a lot that haven't already been done to death. So well done on finding a new one!

chandonvicarious.bsky.social•48 days ago

Looks dope as hell

phoenixdsteele.bsky.social•46 days ago

Gives it a real surreal look. Almost a "Myst" vibe.

Would love to see how to plays with some of the already phenomenal trenchbroom maps I've seen.

cataramadobedev.bsky.social•48 days ago

Saw a video a while back. So good, can't wait to see what new progress u have.

bgolus.bsky.social•45 days ago

The single most impressive part of this is how you're handling sharp mesh edges.

It's one thing to have proper silhouettes, but another to have the texture round out the edge based on the displacement magnitude. I'm legitimately flummoxed by how you're doing that, very impressive.

bgolus.bsky.social•45 days ago

Watching the video went like this:
Floor: That looks nice.
Wall pillar: Oh, nice rounded edge handling. Can see the limits of using displacement though.
Ceiling arches: Wait...
Ledge & Steps: WTF! HOW!
*no longer pay attention stuck pondering steps*

dan5sch.bsky.social•45 days ago

Thank you! And yeah, handling the sharp edges was by far the hardest part of building what you see in the video. I spent a questionably wise amount of time solving that problem, but it really is essential to allow the intended visual style (and environment modeling workflow) to work.

bgolus.bsky.social•45 days ago

Well, that work elevated it beyond the usual parallax occlusion mapping with well implemented silhouette handling (be it fins or curvature estimation) to something beyond that.

worldoffoo.bsky.social•45 days ago

Is this applicable to pre-existing textures? Or does it need to be done manually? Looks amazing!

uk-resistant.bsky.social•5 days ago

Absolutely bad ass work

dan5sch.bsky.social•5 days ago

Thank you!

piouspigeon.bsky.social•48 days ago

Heyyy that’s pretty neato

gord.games•46 days ago

I remember seeing this last time! Very, very neat! Is it destructible, ala Red Faction?

dan5sch.bsky.social•46 days ago

In short: no. My goal with this project is to modernize the aesthetic of classic 3D games, so my use of voxels is about art style, not gameplay (e.g., destruction). This also allows me to model the environment more efficiently, as low poly meshes plus displacement; I only need the *surface* voxels

gord.games•46 days ago

Gotcha! 👍

b3nt.bsky.social•3 days ago

I love this still

cailin.dev•46 days ago

This is pretty rad!

keyboardmoss.bsky.social•47 days ago

I've been away from rendering world for a while but that old post on how it worked was one of my favorite reads on rendering last year, glad to see it's still doing cool stuff

caaz.me•48 days ago

Blows my mind every single time I see it! Reminds me of when I discovered noita, it just feels so impossible.

stekerrigan.bsky.social•46 days ago

The rock looks really good, like it has texture to it. Nice chunky look to it.

felipechalreo.bsky.social•46 days ago

Reminds me of Hexen 2

dan5sch.bsky.social•46 days ago

I went for a "medieval / castle" theme for this demo environment because it's a common setting in classic 3D games and it has surfaces (like stone block walls) where the three-dimensionality of the displacement will be obvious. And because it's fun :)

rovertos.bsky.social•47 days ago

That looks pretty cool

azzurraleamonde.bsky.social•46 days ago

📌

barebones3d.bsky.social•48 days ago

Very cool idea!

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