Voxel (atom) Engines

Voxel (atom) Engines

    So what are voxels?  Voxels, or atoms, are volume elements which represent a value on a plane in 3 dimensional space.  In lamens terms, it's a very small element or cube.  Now, voxels are incredibly small, and work exactly like atoms do.  Basically, how humans are built up of very small atoms, that are bound together to form us, voxels do they same thing.  Hence why they are also called atoms.

                                                             A Tiger sculpted using voxels

    

    Since you are building everything out of really tiny atoms, you can do some incredible things.  For instance, you can break away layers of a brick wall without having to re-render the wall.  You can also imprint tire tracks into the ground without having to apply a texture.  Check this video out to see some really neat tricks and advantages of using voxels:

                                             http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CCZIBDt1uM

    The downside is the fact that as you get close to the terrain or objects, it becomes out of focus.  The other problem is if the voxels are too big, geometry can become very blocky looking.  

    You can also see large landscapes and some sculpting with voxels here:

                                             http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYfBrNOi9VM

    Notice again, that as he gets extremely close to the geometry within the level, it starts to become out of focus and blocky.  However, from a distance it looks incredibly detailed and realistic.

    Voxels have already made an appearance in video games, although in a much smaller and less detailed way.  For instance, it is used in 3D dot game heroes to produce that awesome retro feel.  It is also used in Crysis in combination with height maps to produce their terrain system.

                                                                                              3D dot game heroes

    

    In short, voxels have a lot to offer to games, and I believe that as hardware advances, you will start to see voxels being implemented more and more as detail and realism becomes more apparent in our games.