Voxelstein 3d (v0.1)

By: Derek Yu

On: April 19th, 2008

Voxelstein 3d

A developer known only as “Volumetric Pixel” has released Voxelstein 3d, a single level alpha release of his Wolfenstein 3d-inspired first person shooter. The game is built using Ken Silverman’s open source Voxlap engine. In case you haven’t guessed, it renders graphics using VOXELS (cubes) rather than flat polygons.

Voxelstein 3d is moderately entertaining as a tech demo and nice to look at, in an ugly sort of way. I definitely appreciate the way you can (and must) deform the walls, as you make your escape from the Nazi villa. But unfortunately, moving around in this voxel world feels very disorienting for me, and the combat is also less than satisfying (the eyes popping out is a nice touch, though).

It’s short, it’s voxelated, its Wolfenstein-ish! I’m interested in seeing if/how the game develops.

(Thanks, MisterX!)

  • rndll

    The ubermensch face in the bottom left corner brings back memories.

  • Karzon

    untitled-game.org is probably the weirdest thing done with the Wolfenstein 3d engine. You’ve been warned!

  • EndlessRob

    Not since Soldier of Fortune have I enjoyed knifing a fallen opponent so much.

  • toastie

    this made my day. you have no idea how much i love voxels.

  • Gr.Viper

    Google for VSaber – a small tool which allows to draw with voxels in 3D and even paint them.

  • chutup

    This is a good concept but horribly executed, mostly due to the crappy mouse sensitivity.

  • MisterX

    I’ve just spent a few hours running around that mansions, “sawing” through the walls, blowing everything up, mowing down the trees, etc., using a config.ini with changed values. If such a fun can be had this way it can’t be all too horrible, can it? :)
    Of course, seen as a normal game there really isn’t much to it at all. But well, it isn’t that normal game :)

  • J. Prevost

    Hmm. Seems like trixels (non-smoothing voxels a la Fez) would be a better choice for something like this than voxels are.

  • data

    This is so amazing.

  • Carlz0r

    A couple of things I wanted to point out:

    First time I beat the game? I chopped through the grate to the outside with a knife ^^

    On my second run, I found this gigantic chaingun at the back of the room full of crates, and one guard. This room is one of the doors out of the second room you come to in the game. Just chop through the crates until you can get to the back.

  • http://0xdeadc0de.org Eclipse

    LOL i just found a Dopefish inside the bathroom. Nice easter egg, i also found the chaingun, granates and a bomb that i used to blow up the main door, it’s inside the big clock on the first floor.
    I found also a room with a guy joking with a ping pong ball and a laptop :P oh and if you try to get out trought a window on the second floor you will found an interesting glitch (basically the map will no longer be rendered and you can see enemies and item trought the walls)

  • http://0xdeadc0de.org Eclipse

    voxelstein dopefish
    http://i30.tinypic.com/68ymwx.png

    second floor window glitch
    http://i32.tinypic.com/2vafw9k.png

    programmer room
    http://i28.tinypic.com/28vy64p.png

    knife? a bomb works better
    http://i31.tinypic.com/fpbew4.png

  • http://0xdeadc0de.org Eclipse

    also, playing a wolfeinstein game on a Ken Silverman engine is strange.

  • Oob

    Karzon: Looks more like the Quake engine to me. Either way it looks interesting.

  • Trotim

    Heh, this has potential, but as a game by itself now it’s pretty meh.

  • Biggerfish

    As I run through the castle wielding my godly knife, I spot a guard. No problem, I point and his mangled corpse flies halfway across the room. I then proceed to slip through the narrow gap I made in the wall to take out some more guards.

    I had fun messing with the settings P:

  • Blueberry_pie

    !VIVA VOXEL! D:

  • Jeff Lindsay

    Ken Silverman wrote the awesome Build engine for those that don’t know. I remember talking to him years ago and he was crazy about voxels. I’ve always thought they were cool, but Ken seemed a bit overly excited about the future of voxels (that we probably won’t see for a while, if ever?).

    It’s neat to see somebody use his work to make something… interesting.

  • Oob

    It’s almost like a retro game from a parallel dimension where voxels rule with an iron fist and polygons are caged like animals.

  • crackers

    Or just dolls on a shelf.

  • Cave Story

    This is awesome, it reminds me of the good old times of 3D when everything was new and fresh, I really hope voxels are the future of 3D because they have a lot of potential to simulate things.

  • FishyBoy

    This needs to be made into some sort of multiplayer game. A rocket launcher fight is more exciting when the ground around you is destroyed as the fight continues.

  • Gr.Viper

    If you are patient enough you can make not only their eyes but also the brains come out :)

    Are there just three time bombs on the level?

  • Blueberry_pie

    Set Knife_bFiresByClick to 0 in config.ini and the knife becomes a weapon of mass destruction.
    (Actually, you can just cut stuff real quickly but that’s cool too.)

    The cheat from the original Wolfenstein 3-D that gives you all weapons works here too. It’s pretty useful.

  • OrR

    There can never be enough Voxels in this world. :)

  • Anonymous

    Has anyone figured out how to open the safe?

  • MisterX

    @Blueberry_pie
    Thanks! 999 timed bombs make destruction a lot easier.. and funnier! :D

    @Anonymous
    There is a hint at the safe’s code very close to it :)

  • Andrew

    Pressing M L and I at once works wonders in this game.

  • Bryce

    Untitled Game is done with the Quake engine. JODI did an earlier game with Wolfenstein.

  • haowan

    I had a lot of fun with this but it made me motion sick, which only about 3 other games have ever done (one of which, strangely enough, was the original Wolfenstein 3D).

    There’s a machine gun in a hidden room.

  • zukeft

    @Andrew: Nice code; what’s it mean?

  • Blueberry_pie

    @zukeft: That’s a cheat from the original game.

  • Devin

    jodi’s earlier, wolf3d based game: http://sod.jodi.org/

  • Gr.Viper

    Managed to dig a hole through nazi torso using chaingun and lots of bullets. Awesome amounts of blood in those guys…

    http://i28.tinypic.com/14tm26o.jpg
    Note, the head is gone..

  • Gr.Viper

    BTW, a little patch got released already.

  • Neko_Baron

    It took an hour but I think I just blew up the entire villa causing the game to break down and cry. Needs more remote mines for simultaneous explosions!

  • http://omosirogame.livedoor.biz/ おもしろ ゲーム

    I am Japanese.
    I am interested in your article and enjoyed your blog?
    Please keep it for us.
    Thank you!

  • robolee

    ^^? “Please keep it for us.”?

  • http://www.casualexplosion.com Uesugi

    I am half Japanese.
    ????????????

    Really fun game, cutting through things. I found at least one glitch where I seemed to hit an invisible wall of glass on the carpetted stairs. Kept jumping and I managed to get past.

  • Xander

    I ended up being a little disappointed that if I dismembered a nazi officer his parts were still connected through invisible links and I couldn’t completely sever their parts with a knife.

    …then I realised what I was saying, closed the program and left the PC a little haunted by myself.

  • Gr.Viper

    Xander, my post between 32 and 33 got moderated… there were traces of me burrowing a hole through nazi abdomen using chaingun (blood everywhere). Then I nearly destroyed officer corpse with a couple dozen grenades.

    Still.. that combination of a decent ragdoll with voxel poke-his-eyes-out is an awesome thing. I wish there were some bones and organs inside those guys.

  • Anonymous

    looks awesome in 320×200

  • MisterX

    Can you run it in fullscreen mode when it’s set to 320×200? If so, how? I only got the parameters to work by adding the “-320×200” and “-win” to a shortcut to the exe-file, as it told me the lowest fullscreen resolution is 640×480.

  • Josh

    “Why I’m so Great” by Mr. Duke Nukem has a cameo. Thank god!

  • Starshot

    So I picked this up a few days ago and thought it was one of the worst things I’ve ever played. I deleted it and didn’t think about it for about 7 hours.

    I decided that I was quick to judge and downloaded it again. The weird part is, I now can’t stop playing. The concept of a destructible environment intrigues me and drives me to explore more of the level.

    Needless to say, I’m loving it.

  • MisterX

    Well, when playing it for the first time you aren’t really told what makes this game so very fun to play. You just chop a few bars or windows here and there, but that’s pretty much it. Apart from that you’re playing through a very short, rather decent shooter with a cool visual style. But when you actually notice how much fun the destruction alone can be, that there are a few secrets to be found in that mansion and that messing around with the config.ini even doubles the fun, I guess that’s when you start truly appreciating this little gem :)

  • toastie

    wherr is the news!

  • PHeMoX

    ““Why I’m so Great” by Mr. Duke Nukem has a cameo. Thank god!”

    Yeah, did you guys see the Enemy Territory: Quake Wars PS3 trailer? It uses ‘Come get some!’ at the end… it kind of cheap anyways, as it tries to mimmick some of Team Fortress 2’s trailer-humor.

  • what

    Developer’s name is a cave story rip off

  • Shabadage

    This is how we chip the wall
    chip the wall
    chip the wall

    this is how we chip the wall
    until we hack the game