VoxTool

A tool to convert meshes to vox-files for use in Teardown

Background

When we started developing the second half of the Teardown campaign, we felt there was a need to move away from the 2-dimensional heightmaps we used for the terrains in part one. We wanted something a bit more flexible, that also supported overhangs, arches, caves, and other terrain features like that.

So we developed VoxTool.

What is VoxTool?

VoxTool is a utility program that takes a 3d mesh together with several accompanying textures and converts it to a vox file which can be used in Teardown. During development, the primary use was to create terrains for the game, but it isn't exclusively made for terrains.

Apart from the core mesh2vox functionality, VoxTool has a few other utility functions which are helpful when working with voxel assets for Teardown, such as; optimization, palette replacement, connectivity fixer, compression and decompression of vox files, and more.

Is VoxTool difficult to use

You should have knowledge on how to make an airtight and manifold mesh in a 3d program. Furthermore, you need to know how to UV unwrap your mesh, texture it and how to bake and export the textures.

If you have that knowledge, using VoxTool shouldn't be a problem.

How do I use VoxTool?

We have made an introductory video which explains how to use the mesh2vox functionality of VoxTool.

We will make more videos diving deeper into the funcationality of VoxTool.

Where to get VoxTool?

Here is a new experimental version of VoxTool(v0.84) binary as a zip-file. There's no need to install it, just unpack it and run it.

Here you can download the previous VoxTool(v0.77)

And here's the files Emil uses in the video above.

Licensing

Redistribution and use in binary forms are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

1) Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.

2) Neither the name of the copyright holder nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.