Explore Voxels in Godot

[acs]

During a first exploration, it seems this is the right project to follow:

https://github.com/Zylann/godot_voxel

And his main developer is pretty active now, after 4 years working in the project. Great commitment.

It is not a general voxels tool: «A C++ module for creating volumetric worlds in Godot Engine.«

It is for creating worlds.

It could be a nice thing to compare with https://www.voxelfarm.com/index.html

[acs]

My first impresion is that it is just limited to the world, so the players for example are not voxelized. But it is the same in Voxel Farm. It is not 100% voxelized like Minecraft for example.

[acs]

Ok, in order to use it it seems I will need to compile Godot with this module included.

"Voxel Tools is a custom C++ module for Godot 3.1+. It must be compiled into the engine to work."

https://github.com/Zylann/godot_voxel/blob/master/doc/01_get-started.md

First step, compile from sources Godot for Linux:

https://docs.godotengine.org/en/latest/development/compiling/index.html

Right now I am on Fedora so:

sudo dnf install scons pkgconfig libX11-devel libXcursor-devel libXrandr-devel libXinerama-devel \
    libXi-devel mesa-libGL-devel mesa-libGLU-devel alsa-lib-devel pulseaudio-libs-devel \
    libudev-devel yasm gcc-c++

and

scons -j8 platform=linuxbsd
...
[Initial build] Compiling ==> thirdparty/freetype/src/type1/type1.c
[Initial build] Compiling ==> thirdparty/freetype/src/type42/type42.c
[Initial build] Compiling ==> thirdparty/freetype/src/winfonts/winfnt.c
[Initial build] Compiling ==> thirdparty/freetype/src/sfnt/sfnt.c
[Initial build] progress_finish(["progress_finish"], [])
[Initial build] Linking Static Library ==> modules/freetype/libfreetype_builtin.linuxbsd.tools.64.a
[Initial build] Ranlib Library         ==> modules/freetype/libfreetype_builtin.linuxbsd.tools.64.a
[Initial build] Linking Static Library ==> core/libcore.linuxbsd.tools.64.a
Ranlib Library         ==> core/libcore.linuxbsd.tools.64.a
[Initial build] Linking Program        ==> bin/godot.linuxbsd.tools.64
[Initial build] scons: done building targets.

It is easier that I have expected!

[godot](master)$ bin/godot.linuxbsd.tools.64

[godot](master)$ du -sh bin/godot.linuxbsd.tools.64-v4.0.dev
401M	bin/godot.linuxbsd.tools.64-v4.0.dev

[godot](master)$ strip bin/godot.linuxbsd.tools.64-v4.0.dev

[godot](master)$ du -sh bin/godot.linuxbsd.tools.64-v4.0.dev
114M	bin/godot.linuxbsd.tools.64-v4.0.dev

But probably it is better to build the last stable release (v4.0.dev will be great for testing the new features).

[godot](master)$ git checkout 3.2.2-stable
[godot](3.2.2-stable)$ scons -j8 platform=x11

Let's continue now with the voxels tools engine:

[godot]$ cp -a godot_voxel/ godot/modules/voxel
[godot](3.2.2-stable)$ scons -j8 platform=x11
...
[godot](3.2.2-stable)$ scons -j8 platform=x11
scons: Reading SConscript files ...
Enabling ALSA
Enabling PulseAudio
Checking for C header file mntent.h... (cached) yes
scons: done reading SConscript files.
scons: Building targets ...
[  3%] Compiling ==> main/main.cpp
[  4%] Compiling ==> modules/register_module_types.gen.cpp
[ 29%] Compiling ==> modules/voxel/cube_tables.cpp
[ 30%] Compiling ==> modules/voxel/register_types.cpp
[ 30%] Compiling ==> modules/voxel/voxel_buffer.cpp
...
[ 95%] Linking Program        ==> bin/godot.x11.tools.64
[ 95%] scons: done building targets.

and we execute the godot binary generated, let's try to find the new VoxelTerrain node ...

[godot](3.2.2-stable)$ bin/godot.x11.tools.64

Cool! We are reading to start working with this module!

Next step is to follow the tutorials:

https://github.com/Zylann/godot_voxel/blob/master/doc/03_create-terrain.md

[acs]

I have a first issue trying to add a VoxelLODTerrain with:

[godot](3.2.2-stable)$ handle_crash: Program crashed with signal 11
Dumping the backtrace. Please include this when reporting the bug on https://github.com/godotengine/godot/issues
[1] /lib64/libc.so.6(+0x3ca70) [0x7f584512ba70] (??:0)
[2] VoxelDataLoader::push(VoxelBlockThreadManager<VoxelDataLoader::InputBlockData, VoxelDataLoader::OutputBlockData>::Input const&) (/home/adelcastillo/devel/godot/godot/modules/voxel/terrain/voxel_data_loader.h:36)
[3] VoxelLodTerrain::send_block_data_requests() (/home/adelcastillo/devel/godot/godot/modules/voxel/terrain/voxel_lod_terrain.cpp:576)
[4] VoxelLodTerrain::_process() (/home/adelcastillo/devel/godot/godot/modules/voxel/terrain/voxel_lod_terrain.cpp:946)
[5] VoxelLodTerrain::_notification(int) (/home/adelcastillo/devel/godot/godot/modules/voxel/terrain/voxel_lod_terrain.cpp:440)
[6] VoxelLodTerrain::_notificationv(int, bool) (/home/adelcastillo/devel/godot/godot/modules/voxel/terrain/voxel_lod_terrain.h:20 (discriminator 14))
[7] Object::notification(int, bool) (/home/adelcastillo/devel/godot/godot/core/object.cpp:934)
[8] SceneTree::_notify_group_pause(StringName const&, int) (/home/adelcastillo/devel/godot/godot/scene/main/scene_tree.cpp:985)
[9] SceneTree::idle(float) (/home/adelcastillo/devel/godot/godot/scene/main/scene_tree.cpp:525 (discriminator 3))
[10] Main::iteration() (/home/adelcastillo/devel/godot/godot/main/main.cpp:2100)
[11] OS_X11::run() (/home/adelcastillo/devel/godot/godot/platform/x11/os_x11.cpp:3265)
[12] /home/adelcastillo/devel/godot/godot/bin/godot.x11.tools.64(main+0xfa) [0x14dc6e0] (/home/adelcastillo/devel/godot/godot/platform/x11/godot_x11.cpp:57)
[13] /lib64/libc.so.6(__libc_start_main+0xf2) [0x7f5845116042] (??:0)
[14] /home/adelcastillo/devel/godot/godot/bin/godot.x11.tools.64(_start+0x2e) [0x14dc52e] (??:?)
-- END OF BACKTRACE --

Zylann/godot_voxel#190

[acs]

Bug fixed, we can continue testing the module.

[acs]

The more impressive demo and tutorial is this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfzmcbR1H_0

But let's follow the tutorials before working with the video contents.

[acs]

https://github.com/SIsilicon/Godot-Volumetrics-Plugin to have a look!

[acs]

Ok, let's continue playing with this voxels module because it is what we need in Voxelers. Let's complete all the tutorials and to study the API and source code. The idea is to use voxels not only for then terrain, but also for other objects, like models imported from MagicaVoxel for example.

A must read: Zylann/godot_voxel#150

[acs]

Let's follow all this work in #6

[acs]

Ups, I have not detected:

https://github.com/ClarkThyLord/Voxly
https://github.com/ClarkThyLord/Voxel-Core

a pretty young project that seems to have stopped ...

[acs]

Interesting recent discussion with no new clues about Voxel support in game engines.

[acs]

I will continue in #53