[HN Gopher] SpriteStack Voxel Editor
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SpriteStack Voxel Editor
Author : myth_drannon
Score : 258 points
Date : 2021-07-09 13:33 UTC (9 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (spritestack.io)
(TXT) w3m dump (spritestack.io)
| qq4 wrote:
| This reminds me of Tiberium Sun units. I always enjoyed the voxel
| models in that game and wondered why there weren't more tools
| available for modelling similar things.
| rezoner wrote:
| These units were a huge inspiration for me - if you dig through
| various modding forums you will notice that they use a lot of
| unknown dedicated software and that there are tons of models
| created outside of the gamedev bubble by extremely talented
| people that have nothing to do with the industry on a daily
| basis and because of that they remain pretty much anonymous.
| ElHacker wrote:
| This is great! I really like the retro look on the example models
| and the video.
|
| I've never edited voxel models with the spritestacking 2D
| technique, I'll give it a try. Is it more efficient than placing
| voxels in a 3D viewport?
|
| On a side note I've been building my own very simple voxel editor
| in VR you can take a look at it here:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiaGvePo6jo
| CyberRabbi wrote:
| In these examples, are the voxel models being isometrically
| projected into a low res 2D space? Stylistically that seems kind
| of strange. I would expect either projecting a voxel model into a
| high res space, or projecting a high poly model into a low res
| space.
|
| Also there doesn't seem to be any anti-aliasing applied which
| would be a bare minimum here. Anyone have a good idea why the
| webmaster made these choices?
| xsmasher wrote:
| It looks like the examples are rendered very, very small and
| enlarged for display. Here's the rabbit; it is only 25x23
| pixels.
|
| https://spritestack.io/apng/default/889?v=15698873450001
|
| They would look much better if the same model was rendered at a
| higher 2d resolution.
| rezoner wrote:
| I am not using spritestacking as a mean to render things since
| a long time. It's intentionally sharp, low res and non
| antialiased because that's the style I like in games.
|
| Please check media on my twitter to get a notion of how it
| really looks like right now https://twitter.com/rezoner/media
| MattRix wrote:
| The aesthetic is intentionally low-fi. They're rendered using a
| retro technique called sprite stacking, where you take 2D image
| slices and stack them vertically in pseudo-3D space. An
| explanation is here: https://medium.com/@avsnoopy/beginners-
| guide-to-sprite-stack...
| xsmasher wrote:
| The examples in your link look much better than anything on
| the SpriteStack page; probably because they are rendered at a
| higher resolution, as the parent poster suggested.
| gorwell wrote:
| This looks perfect for retro indie games. Anyone here have
| experience with it? Are the results usually as expected or are
| there often edge cases where you have to edit the exported model?
| pjs_ wrote:
| I saw something similar done in PICO8, pretty much an 8-bit
| Blender, looks absolutely nuts:
| https://twitter.com/johanpeitz/status/1365356945708896265?la...
| Impossible wrote:
| Pico CAD is a full low poly modeling tool in Pico 8. It's very
| different from an implementation standpoint than SpriteStack,
| which is voxel editor, rather than a polygon modeler. They are
| only similar in both being low resolution, resulting in a
| similar aesthetic.
| spicybright wrote:
| I have so many questions. The only thing I know about pico8 is
| it's a VM for very low end hardware, it used a hexidecimal
| numpad as it's interface, and black and white.
|
| I just ran the download from the website and it's so much more
| than that. Are there any other resources to learn more about
| this?
| tomc1985 wrote:
| A lot of the example sprites look pretty bad, you can barely tell
| what they are
| dexwiz wrote:
| I would be interested to see them with a better shader.
| rezoner wrote:
| Please check out my twitter for current examples - I have
| been polishing this renderer for 2 years now and it has
| improved a lot https://twitter.com/rezoner/media
| thebeardisred wrote:
| Happy to see this exists. I had a freaky dream about software
| like this a few weeks ago. I'm glad it was just passively
| synthesizing background noise. :D
| rezoner wrote:
| Ahoy. I am the author of SpriteStack. I am really honored to be
| on HN front page and I would like to straighten some
| misconceptions about this app.
|
| The version that is available and its trailer has little to do
| with the current state of the application.
|
| New release brings voxels, lowpoly and sprites together to create
| 3D animated game objects and export them as 2D spritesheets. It's
| purpose is not to replace your favorite software (Aseprite,
| MagicaVoxel, PicoCAD...) but to bind them all together into
| something even more useful from a 2D gamedeveloper point of view.
| So it can import - a lot of things.
|
| Please check this post/video that is more accurate about what
| SpriteStack is than the 2019 trailer
| https://www.patreon.com/posts/spritestack-2021-53317888
| yorak wrote:
| Nice. The resulting graphics style reminds me of a Short Hike,
| which is a family friendly bite sized 3D adventure and
| exploration game. I'm not affiliated in any way, just enjoyed the
| game with my kid. It has a nice balance of story, challenges, and
| some platformer action. https://ashorthike.com/
|
| Edit: IIRC the shader a Short Hike used was discussed in the GDC
| talk by the game's author:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZW8gWgpptI8
| ionwake wrote:
| This is awesome all my respects to the creators I hope it can be
| easily used to port models across to games will be following
| ujuj wrote:
| Steam reviews seem to highlight documentation and development
| issues! It is sad, the tool seems to be fine. Reminds me of
| aseprite (which is more 2d): https://www.aseprite.org/
| myth_drannon wrote:
| The developer responded on the forum:
|
| Q: "Has SpriteStack been abandoned?"
|
| A: "Nope. 2020 was terrible for me in terms of ability to work.
| SpriteStack has been rewriten from the ground - it's just
| terribly delayed because I did not expected things to go that
| way."
|
| You can check his Patreon account for updates on the rewrite
| swiley wrote:
| Personally I got absolutely nothing done on my side projects
| in 2020 between Covid, moving, and a new job. 2021 has been
| far more productive.
| bee_rider wrote:
| It was a weird year, I'm a work from home guy, I love work
| from home, but work from home is not as nice without the
| option to break it up by working from other locations
| occasionally. I need an occasional refresh I think.
| hartator wrote:
| In the featured art, I don't see the why of the voxel sprites
| compared to the beautiful 3D rendering.
|
| I probably love my old classic games more than average. (Still
| have Prince of Persia 1989 installed.) And love some new indie
| game with old graphics. (FTL is awesome if you haven't tried it
| yet.) But 3D and proper physics enable so much more. It feels odd
| that so much time is spend on recreating old game feeling for
| some nostalgia sake compared to let's say exploring new 3D
| physics engine. (Teardown is an indie awesome game if you want to
| play with an adventurous physics engine in 3D.)
| jkochis wrote:
| With a sprite sheet export you could simulate the 3D rendering
| using CSS animation and background image position [1]. Some
| front end developers enjoy challenging themselves by using just
| HTML and CSS (no JS) to create complex interactive experiences.
|
| [1] https://blog.logrocket.com/making-css-animations-using-a-
| spr...
| spicybright wrote:
| Very few game designers target the web, though.
| jkochis wrote:
| I was responding to:
|
| > I don't see the why of the voxel sprites compared to the
| beautiful 3D rendering.
|
| Also, the project homepage says, "SpriteStack is a voxel
| editor suited for 2D artists"
| javajosh wrote:
| On possible reason is that, at least in theory, it's far less
| computationally intensive to render voxels because the polygon
| count is very, very low. So the style not only has intrinsic
| aesthetic value, but will be less demanding on constrained
| devices like phones and portable game systems like the DS.
| rpastuszak wrote:
| I think you might like Death Trash, I'm running to catch a
| plane so you'll have to google it!
| armchairhacker wrote:
| For action, adventure, racing games, I agree that 3D is almost
| always better than 2D. Running around in first-person or third-
| person is way more immersive and gives much more freedom and
| depth than anything else.
|
| But for strategy games, 2D can still be good. e.g. for card and
| board games games, even a "3D" game is just 3D graphics over a
| 2D playing field. Tower defense, factory-building (Factorio).
| These games have 3D versions but they aren't particularly
| better than the 2D ones.
| dantondwa wrote:
| Every art has its why. Check out the wonderful work by
| @MadMaraca [1] as an example of what one can do with voxels.
| They're truly stunning. I think that the limitations of voxel
| art are also its expressive power.
|
| Pixel art didn't replace at all painting, nor did it aspire to
| do that. But it founds its beautiful niche, and there's beauty
| in that.
|
| [1] https://twitter.com/MadMaraca
| dang wrote:
| Past related posts:
|
| _Spritestack - 3D pixelart editor based on sprite stacking
| technique_ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19325331 -
| March 2019 (36 comments)
|
| _SpriteStack: A Sprite Stacking 3D Pixel Art Editor_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19283781 - March 2019 (1
| comment)
| qwertox wrote:
| That trailer is a piece of art. Well done.
| rezoner wrote:
| Thank you. It's coded from start to end because I am not
| familiar with any software that do trailers. I first coded it
| then wrote music (in FLStudio) that is aligned with events in a
| demo.
| mdtrooper wrote:
| There is a awesome Voxel Editor https://goxel.xyz/ because it is
| free software and it is coded in C++.
|
| It is close near mature state (or I think it with love).
| atum47 wrote:
| When I was studying 3D on the web, I saw an example by Mr. Doob
| (three.js) and I tried to do something similar.
|
| https://victorribeiro.com/voxel/
|
| Very rustic, don't work 100% on mobile but an attempt was made.
|
| I think keys 0-9 selects tile. Shift click deletes and clicking
| and dragging on the sides of the screen rotates the camera
| strogonoff wrote:
| In latest Safari, none of the videos on the landing page or in
| the docs work. The only way is to right-click each, choose
| "Download video" and view locally.
| Kuinox wrote:
| Safari is the new IE.
| strogonoff wrote:
| They don't work in Chromium 90.0.4425.0 either on the same
| machine. My bet is that the server that hosts videos on their
| landing site might be misconfigured in some way.
| Kuinox wrote:
| It work on both my firefox and my chrome. The server that
| host the video is cloudflare. I will bet that you run a mac
| that doesn't support the encoding used. What I see is that
| the video is not served in multiples parts but in a single
| HTTP request.
| lbotos wrote:
| In Firefox, they play, but show "aborted due to network error"
| but keep playing. (which was interesting)
| spicybright wrote:
| Second this. Never seen that before either lol
| gaetgu wrote:
| works on safari 15.0. Might be an issue with the sight being
| overvisited so the server was being overloaded
| Exuma wrote:
| This looks super awesome
| toxik wrote:
| Maybe something on my end but the video didn't work. Wrong
| encoding for iPhones?
| can16358p wrote:
| Not working on my iPhone too. Not your end. Video is broken.
| gnarbarian wrote:
| I love the retro jagged raster art style.
| gfodor wrote:
| If you want to import VOX from apps like this and work on them
| together, my collaboration app Jel (jel.app) might be worth
| checking out.
|
| https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ajTePjJNjoY
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(page generated 2021-07-09 23:00 UTC)