395K views · May 13, 2021 · 5:05 · 2 HN recommenders · 4 mentions · discussed 2021–2025
John Lin reveals a rewritten voxel engine demonstrated in a Crystal Islands scene, with much finer voxel detail, fast collision, fracture and path-traced global illumination.
Why Hacker News points people here: HN cites it as a showcase of one of the best voxel engines, impressive for its detail and smoothness.
“Crystal Island looks amazingly detailed and smooth.”HN comment, 2025
“an engine that is, in my opinion, one of the best voxel engines in existence”
Devlogs of one of the best voxel engines in existence
For reference, this is John Lin who posts semi-frequent devlogs[0] of his voxel engine progress - an engine that is, in my opinion, one of the best voxel engines in existence rivaled only by Dennis Gustafsson's "Teardown" voxel engine. [0] this video
“Crystal Island looks amazingly detailed and smooth.”
Amazingly detailed and smooth Crystal Island voxel demo
John Lins this video Crystal Island looks amazingly detailed and smooth. Wish he would continue or share how.
Pixel-sized voxel work in progress
>Would it be possible at some point to have voxels the size of a pixel? And would it benefit for example path tracing, physics and other things? The answers are yes and maybe . There are people who are working in that direction. See this, for example: this video
“his decision to shelf "micro-voxels" in favor of the traditional, chunkier voxel art style.”
Creator's decision to shelve micro-voxels
Hm, do you have a source for that? It's possible that you're mixing it up with his decision to shelf "micro-voxels" in favor of the traditional, chunkier voxel art style. this video (see pinned comment)
