We want people to use Voxel Farm to create scenarios for their video projects. But this may also help for the content you create and experience in real time. For instance: any content from your game world, procedural or hand-made, could now appear rendered in very high detail. Since this does not need to run realtime anymore we have time to crank up the voxel resolution. Exporting to max and creating a high quality rendering can be a very effective way to showcase your work.
3ds max is where this project started. Before writing a single line of code, I used 3ds max for a while to prototype geometry and texturing. It is good to be back.
Thats interesting, never thought about using your technique in animated videos.
ReplyDeleteBut i would really like to see a video update on real-time animation and maybe news about your water-project.
greetings
excellent- i assume its just using max for render is that correct-?
ReplyDeletei assume no editing of the landscape (apart from with max standard tools)
Correct, still a long way to go in terms of exploiting all the possibilities. I would like to allow any polygonal asset in the max scene to be voxelized. You could use it as just voxels in the world, but also as an instance, so that mesh (a rock or a tree) will appear in many places now. Also the opposite, you could select a chunk of voxels and turn it into a 3ds max mesh object.
DeleteSo many features, so little time. :)
The 3ds max link is awesome! I have an autodesk package with 3ds max so this means I should be able to "easily" transfer data to and from inventor!
ReplyDeleteI wonder though, if you could find a way to import parametric geometry from 3d cad programs, your grammars would be super easy to implement.
DeleteYes should be no problem to pick any object from the max scene and make it one of the mesh instances used by the grammars.
DeleteHave you considered a Houdini link? Since it has volume/voxel support you could probably have some interesting two way workflows going on.
ReplyDeleteWhy not Houdini or Maya =_=
ReplyDeleteWe had experience with max's SDK. It was the low hanging fruit.
DeleteWhat no indie offering yet?
ReplyDeleteAh I see ... more "features" so you can crank up the price.
"had experience" is still not "have a working version" like you do with a Unity3D plugin now is it?
money related much?
He clearly has cash flow with his current business model since he is hiring. Why are you so sore about the indie market? Would you prefer he rush to the scene with a $20/mo subscription for his engine and be like UE4? Only... you know... without having his product nailed down tightly so people who use it get frustrated and vow to never use it again.
DeleteYes it is pretty much like Robin said. I know it is frustrating to wait, but believe me we are getting very close.
DeleteIt takes a lot of effort to make any tech into a product. If you are an indie you need a product that works as advertised, is properly documented, sets the basis for future backward compatibility and many other things.
And then there are many other aspects to navigate which are not necessarily engine related. Like licensing models, pricing, infrastructure to support users.
We are doing all that as fast as we can, and it is turning out to be a product that will make us very proud. And once we get it, you will too.
Personally I would be happy to get some of the toolkit now and wait for more later.
DeleteFor example:
Something that can simply scale well (as in handle a lot of voxels) in unity for a good low price would be welcome addition even if the there was only a basic "SetVoxel", "GetVoxel", and "GenerateMesh" type API right now, but, at the same I can see the reasoning for wanting to build a quality product instead of the Microsoft pattern of releasing the beta as "Version 1".
I get the impression that much is ready to go for sure.
Look at what the competition is in the unity asset store, I think that Voxelfarm could already stomp those out with very little work ... but that's a guess of course :)
Also, give me a job ... my skills are basically nothing ... but I bet there's a ton of knowledge in that team of yours Miguel.
DeleteI do this as a hobby, would love to see a voxel engine like this on a "free unless you make money" type licencing deal but I think I'm dreaming there :(
Keep up the good work though, it's a great read as always!
Thanks, you are right about that minimum set: "Something that can simply scale well (as in handle a lot of voxels) in unity "
DeleteThe thing is we do not have that yet. Unity is the last stretch we need to cover. Assuming we had it, it would be debatable whether we need better documentation, examples, etc.
Any Plans to work with Eyesmap together - for 3Dscanning live into your engine?
ReplyDeleteNot at the moment. There are many interesting things out there to plug into. We can only chase a few of them. But our SDK will allow anyone to do it. That is the master plan.
ReplyDeletehttp://procworld.blogspot.de/2012/03/what-would-you-like-to-come-out-of-this.html
ReplyDeleteyou have come a long way congratulations and as always keep up the mindblowing work