[HN Gopher] MagicaVoxel - A free voxel art editor and interactiv...
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       MagicaVoxel - A free voxel art editor and interactive path tracing
       renderer
        
       Author : selvan
       Score  : 224 points
       Date   : 2023-10-28 14:32 UTC (8 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (ephtracy.github.io)
 (TXT) w3m dump (ephtracy.github.io)
        
       | n3storm wrote:
       | Messy license
        
         | firedaemon wrote:
         | Seems it is just proprietary with $0 price tag? Why messy?
        
         | jabbany wrote:
         | Seems quite lenient to me?
         | 
         | This is just fully freeware. It's not OSS and not even "source
         | available".
        
           | outofpaper wrote:
           | It's interesting to see how many people have forked the
           | project repository for something that's just freeware and not
           | open source. I wonder if there was a release of the source
           | code in the past that I might have missed?
        
             | pdntspa wrote:
             | What makes you think so many people care about the license?
        
             | jabbany wrote:
             | It's a modelling tool. Pretty sure there are plenty of
             | users (e.g. artists) who don't care at all about source
             | availability.
             | 
             | And, this is why I say the license is lenient: most
             | freeware creative tools will also try to lay their hands on
             | what you make using them. (e.g., edu versions of
             | modelling/CAD software will also impose restrictions on the
             | files you make using them, meanwhile this doesn't even
             | require attribution let alone restrictions on commercial
             | use of the output)
        
         | opan wrote:
         | This was my worry as soon as I saw "free" and figured they
         | likely didn't mean free as in freedom.
        
       | andai wrote:
       | Gave this a try just now, lots of fun. Made some absurd brutalist
       | architecture in 5 minutes!
       | 
       | Reminds me of the fun and ease of using Sketchup back in the day.
        
       | Angostura wrote:
       | The change log suggests that there is a MacOS build somewhere,
       | but I can't see it - can someone hit me with a cluestick?
        
         | jabbany wrote:
         | Go into the previous versions link (or the Releases on Github).
         | Not all builds have macos but some do.
        
         | latchkey wrote:
         | https://github.com/ephtracy/ephtracy.github.io/releases/tag/...
        
           | danielvaughn wrote:
           | Appears that M1/M2 support isn't there yet. Shame, I really
           | enjoyed MagicaVoxel when I was on my intel mac.
        
         | darkteflon wrote:
         | If you're on iOS and/or MacOS, Voxel Max is a great Metal-
         | native alternative, actively developed and with a helpful
         | Discord community. Also has path-traced rendering. No official
         | affiliation (although I was at one time quite active in the
         | community).
         | 
         | MagicaVoxel is great - arguably the standard - but Apple
         | Silicon support was lacking last I checked, and there's no iOS
         | / iPadOS version. Noodling with the Pencil on a 10" iPad screen
         | on the couch can't be beat, imo. Much more accessible for the
         | kids as well.
        
       | steanne wrote:
       | this gets used a lot for veloren
        
         | yardshop wrote:
         | I came to post this as well. All of the models for characters
         | and animals and buildings are created in this. They call it
         | "pre-alpha", but its very playable and *very* beautiful.
         | 
         | https://www.veloren.net
        
           | TeeMassive wrote:
           | OMG! How come I never heard of that! Here goes my whole
           | weekend :D
        
       | gumballindie wrote:
       | Too bad it doesn't support Linux.
        
         | FreeFull wrote:
         | Last time I tried it out, it ran perfectly well on linux under
         | Mono
        
         | suavesito wrote:
         | It works great with wine too.
        
       | justsomehnguy wrote:
       | I think I recognize it from somewhere... ah yes, from these
       | videos, you can actually see someone doing the things from
       | scratch:
       | 
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMLA9LRI7Gs
       | 
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXJXt-KCouQ
        
       | shahar2k wrote:
       | I use his other software magicaCSG, I'm a 3d artist and it's
       | probably the simplest 3D program I've ever used but it's super
       | fun to play around in.
       | 
       | So fun in fact that I joined his patreon to get access to earlier
       | releases!
        
       | Andrew_nenakhov wrote:
       | It is nice to have something other than Minecraft for voxel
       | editing.
        
       | suavesito wrote:
       | Thus is a great tool, although not FOSS. But I've seen great
       | things made with this, as it is used for Veloren
       | (www.veloren.net), an Open Source (and open assets) voxel MMORPG
       | written in rust. The community has created amazing things for
       | release parties and assets with this. You should check out the
       | project.
       | 
       | (Disclaimer: I'm part of the mod team.)
        
       | suavesito wrote:
       | I've never used it, but (from what I've seen) is a great tool for
       | modeling Voxels.
       | 
       | Shameless plug: The format (and the tool) has been used with
       | great success in Veloren, an Open Source Voxel MMORPG written in
       | rust (https://www.veloren.net/). The artist team has made great
       | assets for the game and landscapes for the release parties.
       | 
       | Your should check out the project, it is really cool.
       | 
       | (Disclaimer: I'm part of the mod team.)
        
         | imachine1980_ wrote:
         | I played a few hours a few years ago, and it felt reminiscent
         | of Cube World during its beta phase. It sparked my interest in
         | giving the editor a try.
        
       | goodboyjojo wrote:
       | magicavoxel is a pretty cool tool. i use it to make 3d art for
       | fun and make models that i import to blender for video game dev
        
       | dutzi wrote:
       | If memory serves me right, Mari uses it for her art.
       | 
       | https://www.instagram.com/madmaraca
        
         | dewey wrote:
         | Yep, came here to post it too:
         | https://twitter.com/MadMaraca/media?lang=en
        
       | holoduke wrote:
       | 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?
        
         | deathanatos wrote:
         | A pixel is a 2D unit, usually a screen; a voxel is a cube in
         | 3D.
         | 
         | If you place a 3D voxel model into a 3D world, and just back
         | the camera away from it ... at some point, its voxels will be
         | approximately a pixel when rasterized?
        
         | romwell wrote:
         | >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:
         | 
         | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ptH79R53c0
        
         | Perz1val wrote:
         | So you want to achieve a rasterizer looks, but with poor
         | performance and/or huge memory requirements. I don't think we
         | are anywhere close doing that real time yet. Nonetheless a game
         | in which taking a bucket of water would actually take that
         | bucket of water would be incredibly cool.
        
         | hutzlibu wrote:
         | It would greatly benefit realism.
         | 
         | Performance would not benefit obviously, if suddenly you don't
         | have to calculate 10000 cubes anymore, but 10000 x 1000.
        
       | aitchnyu wrote:
       | why does Voxel art look more attractive than (less than AAA) 3d
       | games I used to play? Can studios use those tricks to graphics
       | that are subjectively more pleasing than realistic games but are
       | easier on their budgets and gpus of end users?
        
         | Perz1val wrote:
         | > path tracing renderer
         | 
         | Good lighting looks good. The difference between ray/path
         | tracing and traditional rendering is huge.
        
       | mch82 wrote:
       | MagicaVoxel is a great way to get started with 3D printing. Many
       | years ago I visited a friend's classroom (can't remember if it
       | was 1st or 2nd grade) & the students created models that I
       | printed with an Ultimaker. Sculpting with voxels is much simpler
       | than other CAD tools.
        
       | dang wrote:
       | Related. Others?
       | 
       |  _3D modeling for any skill level - MagicaVoxel_ -
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34687026 - Feb 2023 (1
       | comment)
       | 
       |  _MagicaVoxel: A free voxel art editor and path tracing renderer_
       | - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18721555 - Dec 2018 (64
       | comments)
       | 
       |  _MagicaVoxel - a free lightweight voxel art editor_ -
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18036946 - Sept 2018 (1
       | comment)
       | 
       |  _MagicaVoxel_ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14932554 -
       | Aug 2017 (3 comments)
       | 
       |  _MagicaVoxel - a free 8-bit voxel editor_ -
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10953918 - Jan 2016 (43
       | comments)
        
       | elwell wrote:
       | This is a beautiful sample image:
       | https://ephtracy.github.io/image/sample6.jpg
        
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       (page generated 2023-10-28 23:00 UTC)