Video game graphics engine
Voxel Space was a voxel raster graphics rendering engine invented by Novalogic developer and vice-president of technology, Kyle Freeman.[1][2] The company was issued a patent for the technology in early 2000.[3][4][5]
History
The original Voxel Space engine was patented in 1996, and first released in software in the 1992 release Comanche: Maximum Overkill. The engine was then revamped into Voxel Space 2 (which supports the use of polygons as well as voxels, and was used in Comanche 3 and Armored Fist 2),[6] and later Voxel Space 32 and used in Armored Fist 3 and Delta Force 2.
Based on Kyle Freeman's experience with voxels in medical-imaging technologies used in CT scan[7] and MRI scanners, similar technology was used in games such as Outcast. With the advance of computation power in modern computers there do exist browser-based versions of similar technology based on the Voxel Space terrain rendering used in Comanche.[8]
The version of the engine used in the Comanche series utilized ray-tracing every pixel of the volumetric terrain data.[citation needed]
Versions
- Voxel Space 3D:
- Voxel Space 2:
- Voxel Space 32: 32-bit rendering, 16 million color support, 360 degrees of transformation.[9]
List of games
The technology was used in a number of commercial game titles.[10]
References