Anyone remember the voxel?  Gamers used to remember voxels from the Voxel Space engine that was used in Comanche: Maximum Overkill and Delta Force. Or maybe there’s some gamers out there that played Outcast?  (maybe?)

In any case, it looks like voxels are not dead…   but taking a little vacation.  It’s only a matter of time till someone exploits the hidden potential.  Real destructible terrain w/ density!  Hellooooo?  Well, one person seems to have figured it out and disguised his tech demo as a game called Voxelstein 3D.  I can’t tell you what hope this game gives me.  Imagine not just blowing chunks off off buildings, in pre-cut peices… but actually being able to carve into terrain.

Seems like the medical field hasn’t let this technology unused.  A few Siggraph’s back I was able to get a demo from one of the software engineers of this intuitive application, but on ATI hardware.  He moved points around to adjust the density and appearance of those densities in order to zero in on the skull and (with a little tweaking) the brain.

Lucky for me, Houdini has voxels in it…  voxel fluids.

Looks like there’s still some money to be made in software & hardware using voxel technology.

Still wondering “What are voxels“?  Well Wiki seems to have the usual depth, including a list of games that used the technology, like Crysis & Worms 4 Mayhem… ?  Ok, now we need an update to Scorched Earth, but with voxels.  Mmmm  MMmm good.