Does Voxel MMOs work?

MMOExposed

Does the fully Voxel world format work in MMOS?

If so, whats the most successful version of this that doesnt use Mincraft like models?

tawess

In theory.. Yes... 

Have yet to see it work in actual reality. 

I assume you think about destructible terrain... It is a literal pitfall of abuse and grief if i´d hazard a guess. 

Vrika

So far it works only using Minecraft -like models. Anything more complicated is a huge technical challenge, and while there have been attempts like Landmark, no MMO has managed to pull it off correctly and become good enough a game to become popular.

Voxel MMOs with Minecraft like models work fine, though. For example Trove.

TyranusPrime

Absolutely! Just look at the success of the landmark system in Everquest Next... Wait.. Damn it.. I made myself sad..

Wizardry

The concept imo is only a glorified Minecraft.It works somewhat but looks sort of weak/low end .

I posted a video i think was yesterday of a game i think called Crackdown 3 and it has what i feel we should be aiming for.Instead of voxels which is pretty much still squares and chunks,what Crackdown is doing is way more exciting.

Imagine a full particle system,your gun fire really takes out chunks and eventually eats through a wall one bullet at a time.FULL destruction,every last piece of material is destructible AND can be used when it breaks off.
The only drawback to where we want to get is the extreme computing power needed adding as well a lot more cost.
The way i look at it,it is about time giant studios like Blizzard quits bragging about all their profits and put that to use making a great game.Red Faction is another game that for years now has been working with destructible surfaces.

Developers have been and still are simply GREEDY,ripping us off with their half assed effort,low budget games.Until i saw Red Faction and Crackdown i did not think we were going to ever get there if the big studios won't touch it but we are very close.
The main problem still is the graphics quality,we still will not be able to achieve HQ graphics with anything similar to a Voxel system.With cloud computing we are getting close,perhaps within 5 years we get something really good.

Kaneth

Trove does pretty well for itself and it uses voxels. There's some natural anti-griefing in it where you can't destroy someone else's home. The game is more of a dungeon grinder, so you don't see a ton of people going around the world and digging out giant holes etc.

The biggest problem is computing power. Even Minecraft can make lower end PC's chug. Not to mention that when you get so far out from spawn, the world starts to get super glitchy. Kurtjmac's Farlands or Bust series on youtube shows what I am talking about. He is playing on a very old Minecraft patch when the Farlands actually existed.

Something else to consider is that the voxel craze was mostly a fad and seems to be falling to the wayside. Especially with the failure of EQNext/Landmark, I doubt anyone from a AAA company is going to remotely touch the idea any time soon.

Konfess

See Wurm Online, BTW also developed by Notch.  The idea for a voxel world in EQNext/Landmark was lifted from Wurm.  People just don't realize it's voxel.  Watch a video on mining and land leveling for building.  

Basically they use a smaller voxel surface, smoothing out the surface so it doesn't appear boxy.  Same thing tried in EQNext/Landmark, and a bunch of failed indie games.  The problem, the U.S. has a shortage of smart people who can understand and implement high end concepts.

Y'all are talkin about three games that have implemented voxels.  In fact there have been so many more, just go back and watch the videos on this site for the last three years.  I'm sure you will find 6 you had forgotten about.

I remember one that had animal character design, wolves vs kangaroos or rabbits? (they hopped around)? I think it was one of the failed, becuase I stopped seeing videos for it.

esc-joconnor

Dual Universe is going to try it.