Console games that use voxels

[Wraith Storm]

Ever since I can remember I have had a habit of studying games while I played them. I always find the technology, programming skills, and creative game designs to be fascinating.

I remember Metal Storm on the NES being the first game I ever played that had parralax scrolling (even though I think it was faked) it was the first time I saw the effect.

The overworld in Final Fantasy III on the SNES was the first time I had ever seen Mode 7 used in a non-3d perspective and my eyes freaked out for the first few minutes. @_@

I loved the level design in the first Croc game. I like how they designed large multi layered levels, but divided them up into bite size sections. This allowed for a steady frame rate, with a great level of detail and minimal pop-up.

But nothing could prepare me for the day I bought Amok for my Saturn. I had read several reviews and no one mentioned the tech behind it and the fact that the game had a world designed from voxels. I had never seen them before and had no idea what I was looking at but I knew they weren't polygons. I assumed that since the Saturn was a 2-D powerhouse they built a world out of thousands of little sprites.

It wasn't until a few years later when I was at Tech School and we bogged the network down playing endless matches of Delta Force 1 and 2 that I started hearing the term "Voxel". It was then I finally realized exactly what I had been staring at in Amok those past several years.

Since then I have seen plenty of PC games that use Voxels to generate landscapes and such but it seems a rare sight on consoles. Can anyone give me a list of other console games of the era (Saturn, PSOne, N64) that use Voxels?

[Compute]

A few months back on Retronauts they covered "3D" in gaming and listed a few games with voxels. Episode 93 from May 27 of this year. They covered all of the gimmicky ways that game makers have used to create 3D effects, from Night Driver to Qbert, voxels, etc. Neat stuff.

[tomwaits]

Phase Zero on the Jaguar used a voxel based game engine. It was never finished, but the beta version is available on cart from myatari or songbird productions.

[crazyjackcsa]

Like you said, Amok for the Saturn is the only game I knoW of that uses voxels.

[j_factor]

Worms 4 for Xbox has some use of voxels.

[Wraith Storm]

A few months back on Retronauts they covered "3D" in gaming and listed a few games with voxels. Episode 93 from May 27 of this year. They covered all of the gimmicky ways that game makers have used to create 3D effects, from Night Driver to Qbert, voxels, etc. Neat stuff.

Awesome... I just finished downloading the episode and can't wait to listen to it! Thanks.


Phase Zero on the Jaguar used a voxel based game engine. It was never finished, but the beta version is available on cart from myatari or songbird productions.

Awesome! This looks incredible!

The youtube video is a bit grainy but the Voxels actually look smaller and give the world a less chunky look than those used in Amok. Granted the world has less detail than Amoks, but it still looks very good, especially considering it came out on the Jag several years before Amok.


Worms 4 for Xbox has some use of voxels.

Hmmmm... I watched a few videos and only one of them looked as if the world was made from voxels. I guess maybe most of the videos I saw are from the PC version and perhaps its running in a high resolution that makes it hard to identify the voxels.

Do you know if all versions used Voxels (PS2, PC) or just the Xbox version?

[Drixxel]

Another is Comanche for SNES, although it was never completed. The 3D seems decently convincing.

Gameplay footage from about halfway onward in the following video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uZeF4AvxM0

[j_factor]

Do you know if all versions used Voxels (PS2, PC) or just the Xbox version?

I would assume all versions, as I don't think they're likely to put in the effort to make significant differences between them, but I've only played it on Xbox. In any case, yes, it's only a limited amount.

[buzz_n64]

Voxels kicked ass compared to 90s polygons. It's a shame more games didn't make use of voxels. Comanche looked incredible for a SNES game.

[Wraith Storm]

Another is Comanche for SNES, although it was never completed. The 3D seems decently convincing.

Gameplay footage from about halfway onward in the following video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uZeF4AvxM0

Holy Hell! That is beyond impressive. I just watched it several times in a row. Sure the voxels are nice and chunky, but the detail and view distance are amazing... especially for being on a 16 bit system.

Lets summarize our voxel games:

Super NES - Comanche (Canceled)
Jaguar - Phase Zero (Canceled)
Saturn - Amok
Xbox and Ps2 - Worms 4

[DonMarco]

I can't think of any voxel console games. Especially 3D Dot Game Heroes.

[Rob2600]

Voxels kicked ass compared to 90s polygons. It's a shame more games didn't make use of voxels. Comanche looked incredible for a SNES game.

Here's an SNES voxel demo:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPR-iSnaCuc

Impressive, but it's not better than 90s polygons. Wave Race 64, Star Fox 64, Rayman 2, Banjo-Kazooie, and All Star Baseball were released in the 90s. :)

[buzz_n64]

Here's an SNES voxel demo:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPR-iSnaCuc

Impressive, but it's not better than 90s polygons. Wave Race 64, Star Fox 64, Rayman 2, Banjo-Kazooie, and All Star Baseball were released in the 90s. :)

Very true. You got me there. But I believe if they made voxel games for the N64, they might be more impressive than those. Polygons were too limited back then, especially on the Playstation and Saturn. I hate the blocky polygon look, but the N64 managed to smooth out the blockiness most of the time.

[goober213]

Very true. You got me there. But I believe if they made voxel games for the N64, they might be more impressive than those. Polygons were too limited back then, especially on the Playstation and Saturn. I hate the blocky polygon look, but the N64 managed to smooth out the blockiness most of the time.

Seriously? I tend to love the way the blockiness looks. It makes me feel nostalgic.

[DankPanties]

Robinson's Requiem on the 3DO used voxels.

[Wraith Storm]

Robinson's Requiem on the 3DO used voxels.

I appreciate the suggestion, but could you be more specific? I found a video of the 3do version here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tb5EpPscsp4). Most of it is just conversation, however, if you skip to 6:20 - 6:45 there is a bit of exploration.

The world appears to be made up of square polygon tiles and the trees are sprites. Is there just a specific area that uses voxels?

Neat looking game btw. I had never heard of it.

[DankPanties]

The actual landscape itself is made of voxels, everything else in the game is done with sprites.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuIgzFW7B2I

Watch about 1:40 onward as the characters starts moving. Those are voxels. Not the best ones out there, mind.

[crazyjackcsa]

A la Wikipedia.

Many NovaLogic games have used voxel-based rendering technology, including the Delta Force series and the Comanche series.
Westwood Studios' Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun and Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 use voxels to render most vehicles.
Westwood Studios' Blade Runner video game used voxels to render characters and artifacts.
Outcast, a game made by Belgian developer Appeal, sports outdoor landscapes that are rendered by a voxel engine.[2]
The videogame Amok for the Sega Saturn makes use of voxels in its scenarios.
The computer game Vangers uses voxels for its two-level terrain system.[3]
The computer game "Thunder Brigade" was based entirely on a voxel renderer, according to BlueMoon Interactive making videocards redundant and offering increasing detail instead of decreasing detail with proximity.
Master of Orion III uses voxel graphics to render space battles and solar systems. Battles displaying 1000 ships at a time were rendered slowly on computers without hardware graphic acceleration.
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri uses voxel models to render units.
Build engine first person shooter games Shadow Warrior and Blood use voxels instead of sprites as an option for many of the items pickups and scenery. Duke Nukem 3D has an optional voxel model pack created by fans, which contains the high resolution pack models converted to voxels.
Crysis uses voxels for its terrain system.
Worms 4: Mayhem uses a "poxel" (polygon and voxel) engine to simulate land deformation similar to the older 2D Worms games.
The multi-player role playing game Hexplore uses a voxel engine allowing the player to rotate the isometric rendered playfield.
Voxelstein 3D also uses voxels for fully destructible environments

[Rob2600]

A la Wikipedia....

With the exception of Comanche, none of those are console games.