Voxel Space Engine: Comanche Terrain Rendering

This video explains one of my favorite algorithms ever: The Voxel Space engine. This technique was used to render the terrain in the Comanche: Maximum Overkill game. We’ll start with a high-level overview of the technique, and proceed to write a very short implementation using C and a graphics framework called DOS-Like. Source code: DOS-Like framework: Rotation p5js Sketch: Voxel Space was a voxel raster graphics rendering engine invented by Novalogic developer and vice-president of technology, Kyle Freeman, and it was used in many of their games. The first game that used this technique was called “Comanche: Maximum Overkill“. Comanche was programmed in 32-bit x86 assembly, and it was released for MS-DOS users in 1992. Novalogic was issued a patent for the technology in early 2000. US Patent US6020893: Chapters: 00:00:00 Introduction 00:03:00 Kyle Freeman 00:08:00 High-level Algorithm Overview 00:24:11 Starting our C implementation 00:50:09 FOV, Projection, and Looping Voxels 01:17:45 Rendering from Front to Back 01:34:19 Perspective Projection and Perspective Divide 01:43:34 Handling Keyboard Input 01:47:13 Wrapping Terrain Data Around 01:54:22 Camera Rotation 02:12:08 Horizon (Pitch Up & Down) 02:19:30 A Discussion on Fog Effect, Camera Roll, and Sprites 02:27:14 Final Considerations on Performance 02:40:00 Conclusion & Next Steps For comprehensive courses on computer science, retro programming, and mathematics, visit: . Also, don’t forget to subscribe to receive updates and news about new lectures and tutorials: Enjoy!