Video games have done destruction for years, but I’ve never seen a virtual world get smashed up quite like this before.
Dennis Gustafsson is a physics and graphics programmer and game developer from Sweden who’s working on a project that involves destroying voxels.
The destruction is realistic and incredibly detailed. Pipes fall after their supports are blown away. Bricks drop to the floor as holes are blown in walls. Roofs collapse as supporting structures are torn to shreds. Everything moves and crashes together realistically, and the materials seem to behave like they should.
Gustafsson has been working on his untitled project somewhat under the radar, but tweets of his that include clips of his project in action have seen thousands of likes and retweets.
Proper use of a rusty pipeline. pic.twitter.com/DP02L1o85p
— Dennis Gustafsson (@tuxedolabs) August 21, 2019
Procedural content with polygons is painful, but with voxels… not so much. Wrote a script to generate buildings of different sizes including roof supporting structures. Also new explosion and fire effect using the simulated smoke. pic.twitter.com/28TCX3lfyY
— Dennis Gustafsson (@tuxedolabs) August 7, 2019
What happens when you combine the fluid dynamics from Sprinkle with stochastic transparency? This! pic.twitter.com/cb8bz9P1rc
— Dennis Gustafsson (@tuxedolabs) June 25, 2019
I know I should be working on gameplay, but volumetric lighting is just too much fun. Added proper(ish) light scattering with phase function for chromatic effects. pic.twitter.com/oGRMBlQH5U
— Dennis Gustafsson (@tuxedolabs) June 18, 2019
The project was given a push recently when it caught the attention of YouTuber Bluedrake42, whose video, below, shows off just how impressive the destruction is.
Now, we have to remember this is simply a single-person project for now, but it’s fun to imagine a video game with this kind of destruction in it. Take Minecraft, for example. Combine the world’s most famous voxel game with this kind of physics-based destruction, and you’ve (probably) got something pretty special.
As for Gustafsson, he says he recently decided to use the tech to create a video game. “I will reveal more info about it soon,” he tweeted. “Even though it has guns it is not a shooter. It’s a non-violent game.”
One to watch!
