Can someone explain to me the difference between diminishingly small voxels (1 pixel or less in size) and ordinary point sprites? Seems like at a small enough size, voxels are really no different than point sprites. Or am I missing something?
Mike359 at
I'm not much of game programmer but what I can tell you is that Voxels can be used to create (3d Spaces?) Like ship or something that can float in 3d. Point sprites are (well used to be pre JFDuke3d) just 2d objects. If Ken or someone else has the answear please corerect me!
David_OSU at
Point sprites are single pixel sprites placed at a 3D (x,y,z) location. You can build a solid object out of a large number of point sprites, similar to voxels. However, point sprites are usually used to build surface objects (hollow), as opposed to the solid voxel objects.
As far as I can see, there is no difference between a point sprite and a single pixel voxel. Both can be used to build solid objects by using a ton of them.
etko at
Yes I think too that point sprites are same as voxels. Maybe the storage is implemented differently (vertex list for point sprites),I don't know as I'm not a real programmer. However I posed same question myself, and I think that from apparition of point sprites, HW accelerated voxel engine is possible.
Awesoken at
I think that from apparition of point sprites, HW accelerated voxel engine is possible.
I've played around with point sprites before and have been very unimpressed with the perfomance. I would assume there's no special hardware support for them and they exist in the API only as a convenience.
cragtek at
Awesoken said
I think that from apparition of point sprites, HW accelerated voxel engine is possible.
I've played around with point sprites before and have been very unimpressed with the perfomance. I would assume there's no special hardware support for them and they exist in the API only as a convenience.
Agreed. My personal experience of them is that they were tacked on as an afterthought as much as anything.
etko at
Yes point sprites are relatively new, but I believe that dx9 ang ogl1.5 compatible cards ( like gf6xxx+ ) capable of HW instancing, may have suffisant HW support finally implemeted. I don't have acces to this HW nor to any samples using this feature so I can not tell whether it's true.
Anyway paralax displacemnt mapping, isnt it some weird voxel engine or its sibling?