Volumetric picture element. It means his level is actually made up of millions upon millions of tiny cubes.

Large flat surfaces are the worst case for any voxel rendering algorithm, including marching cubes which is what I think Crysis uses.

[Edit: Bah, beaten. Whatever.]



A voxel is a Volume Pixel, AKA a 3D pixel. Voxels can be used in place of traditional polygons to allow for destructible environments. Basically voxels can emulate real life better than polygons (since real life is also made up of tiny building blocks we call molecules), but they are more expensive for performance.

Some stuff about voxels here: http://www.advsys.net/ken/voxlap.htm

Whoa, I thought voxels were invented exclusively for Shadow Warrior in 1997 where they looked kinda cool. LÅL

Looks fancy.

According to Crytek, Voxels are very quick to render. The level runs great anyway.

In any case, I only used voxels for the natural portion of the level. This means that the terrain isn't completely flat (as it shouldn't be). They generate Ambient Occlusion, too, something that really adds to the depth of the level.

I also completely removed the terrain, as it's a serious waste of performance - the tri count dropped by 75% when removing the terrain, and FPS went up by 15 or so at Very High. Considering my 8800GT, that's pretty good.

The bridge and pillars are 3d models, the bridge being a solid (a solid is an in-engine modifiable shape or model) which is simply a placeholder for a real bridge.

Just trying to figure out what the heck to do with it without getting in the way of the gameplay.

Btw, the pillars and bridge reflect, it's just the natural terrain (a.k.a the voxel) that doesn't. I'm thinking a cubemap should do the trick.

Yes!

Cube map sounds like a good idea. Also, what do you mean by 'removed the terrain completely'??

looks like real life

Cryengine uses a terrain system, hence it's awesome.. terrain.

Voxels are independent from terrain. The terrain, even when flat, uses up quite a bit of performance, as it still renders at the triangles of the terrain.

I hid the terrain in the level, allowing only the voxel and that portion of the level visible, essentially increasing performance.

This is godlike, I would pay for a JKrysis.

I want to get crysis just for this

Sorry for the lack of updates guys. Just got a lot to do.

>.>

There will be a post of the weapons at some point.