[Dynamic Realistic Voxel Terrain] MoleEngine.Unity

Is this package all contained in a DLL or is it C# / Javascript where we can extend it for our purposes as needed? If its a self contained library that's a deal breaker for me, as I find most terrain engines come close to what we want but not quite all the features we need so it would be nice to customize it.

 

Hello, I'm interested in this tool, but I need to be sure we'll be able to use it for our purposes. From what I've gathered from posts in this thread, there might be a few hitches:

1.) We need a static terrain, not a dynamic one. Will this work for us?

2.) The tool doesn't support heightmap import. We're generating our initial terrain using a heightmap. You mentioned that it may be possible to do so through a 3D array. Could you elaborate on this?

3.) Someone mentioned there is no in-editor terrain sculpting: you have to be in-game to sculpt terrain. Can this then be translated to permanent terrain changes if we want it to be?

4.) Is the source available or is it a compiled dll?

 

Hey i'm interested in this - my main concern is how easy is it to hook in to your code to do my own terrain gen for biomes and such. Every package i've tried so far does infinite terrain, but the terrain is all sort of the same, maybe with one or two options for terrains (like it can do mountains and planes, but that's about it). Also haven't found one that has useful methods for seeding the terrain (say you wanted some ore deposits), or defining your own blocks of terrain as it is generated (so if I want, for example a building made of voxels - I always have to let the terrain generate like it's a black box basically, I'd like an engine that I can hook into and do this stuff)

edit: I gotta say your engine is nice and fast from the demos!

 

Support for this asset seems to be dead

 

Maybe working hard? This is still the best looking of all the voxel engines on the asset store (i've bought them all), would be a shame for it to die.

 

Support isn't dead! I messaged the creator and they responded right away with very helpful information. +1

 

checking in to +1 - support is still great. I'm having trouble with it on OSX with some other plugins, but it works fine by itself.

 

Hello guys,
We are very sorry for not checking on the forums, but for some reason our email notifications got turned off - we are still alive, we have not forgotten you!

A part of the engine is a dll, all things that usually have to be edited (terrain voxel generation (not visualization!), voxel editing, ... ). If required you can get a full source version, but we would have to talk about what exactly you are going to do with it (for licensing reasons, we would not like someone to copy our asset).

1.) Yes this is possible, although not exactly what we had in mind when creating this. It will not support standard unity terrain tools though.
2.) If required we can help you with that or create a script for you, if you give us some information on what exactly the missing data should consist of (missing data being everything that is below the surface, the heightmap only describes the shape of the terrain, not the voxel materials)
3.) Yes, ingame sculpting can be turned into permanent changes by turning on the paging option. That basically creates a save file that can be loaded by any game that contains mole engine. By turning off editing you get a static terrain that can be shipped with your game.
4.) As mentioned before, parts of the system are compiled, but full source versions are available without extra cost.

As you can see in our demos the system is quite versatile, we included the generator scripts used to describe the terrains in the demo. By creating your own generator script you have full control about how the voxels look like. From a simple one-material cube to an asteroid field - it is all in your power. Feel free to modify our scripts and if you are stuck somewhere just drop us an email and we will help you out!

 

How's version 2 coming along?

 

Hi trooper,
Version is actually in it's final stages.
The core works (Multiplayer, new memory management, new shaders), we are currently adding features that make MoleEngine not only a voxel engine, but a true terrain engine - Tree Generators, Grass Generators, Wind animation and so on.

 

is this removed on the asset store? cannot seem to find it.

 

I was a bit worried it had disappeared because id been looking at it for quite some time as it seemed to be one of the few voxel assets that were still maintained. I think its been taken down so efforts can be concentrated on its successor, reading above, which sounds pretty neat and im looking forwards to seeing it - would certainly give more flexibility to an idea im already thinking a lot about

 

The asset is currently taking down. We will soon release the all new MoleEngine 2, and at the same time, or a bit before that, we will release a full-source version of our MoleEngine (as opposed to the old package that contained a library + modifiable scripts). If someone needs MoleEngine ASAP please let me know so we can arrange it.

Cheers,
Daniel Eder

 

Update:
After getting many requests we decided to offer not only V1 but also the Alpha of Mole Engine V2 outside of the Unity Store. If you are interested in purchasing any of the assets, or in a list of features, please contact us! Purchases of V2 during the alpha phase are reduced by over 35%!

 

Mouse in demo do not working!

 

Hello Lesnikus, Can you give us some more information?
What browser are you using? What OS? Have you tried hitting "O" to enable mouse?

 

Hi!

I'm trying to survey different voxel engines and it seems I missed this one. I'd like to add it the List of Unity Voxel Solutions. Or maybe you could add it? The answer is wikified and you'd know the answers to all the questions.

What is new in MoleEngine 2 as compared to the first one? Are there any plans to add LOD support with something like the TransVoxel algorithm?

You wrote earlier:

However, that will create seams. Solid LOD-support for voxels is not that simple unfortunately. That's what e.g. the TransVoxel algorithm is meant to solve.

For some reasons, despite the TransVoxel algorithm having been open source for many years now, there's still no affordable* Unity smooth voxel solutions that supports it, and provides long draw distance voxels with LOD and no seams...

Update:
*TerrainEngine supports TransVoxel algorithm. Being around 50x the price of other paid terrain solutions, it's not for everyone unfortunately.

 

Hi, 'TerrainEngine' have Transvoxel Implemented, octree based LOD.
Simple linear resolution filter for the moment, more are coming.
(Voxel size : 0.5m, 16km², Procedural or Extracted from Unity Terrain)

 

Thanks! Good to know.

Unfortunately the price of TerrainEngine is well outside of what I can spend, but for those who have the budget for it, it sounds good. (I'm developing on a hobbyist basis only.)

 

Hi,
Thanks for stopping, by it would be great if you could add us to the list!

MoleEngine2 basically takes MoleEngine from being a Voxel Engine to being a Terrain Engine - that means instead of only producing geometry for the ground it also generates foliage, Trees, etc.
Another big addition is multiplayer support which most voxel engines are lacking right now.

Regarding LOD: We are offering Dual Contouring as option for terrain generation and DC can handle LOD. However, the underlying chunk structure is not an octree but a simple grid so no LOD comes into play. That said, starting with MoleEngine 2 our voxels are no longer stored on the hard disk as density arrays but rather as operations applied to a position which removes the dependency on a grid. For now we do not have an Octree system in our todo list, but we might add it as a plugin after release if there is enough demand to justify the time we have to spend on implementing it.
Alternatively if someone wants to write an addon that brings Octrees to MoleEngine, that will be entirely possible.

 

I added MoleEngine. There was a few details I didn't know, like what is the language and is full source included. MoleEngine v2 (if it's a separate product) can be added once it's released and available.

 

Thank you so much!

MoleEngine is written fully in C#. The source is not included in the asset store release, but is available per request if required for customization. (It is a security measure which became necessary after our source was shared off-site and we had to go to a whole lot of trouble to have it removed).

 

How's v2 coming along?

 

Is it possible to implement a biome system based on z axis?

 

Hey, this looks pretty good. Is v2 still being developed? Any ETA?

 

I bought this and looked around. I think this currently only Mole-engine's internal generated terrain supports.

Can I expect importing of external mesh or external unity terrain?

I want to modify some mesh like sphere or cube with voxel functionality.

Thanks in advance.

 

Hi! Is this tool still supported? I am interested in spherical world generation but the links on the asset store page are broken and the links to support website etc no longer work.

Could you describe how it Works for multiplayer? Would it be possible to store the data in a database and make it available to all players?

 

I bought MoleEngine in August 2014 for 71.25 Euros
and now I am expected to Pay for it again.
So I supported you and now I get slapped in the face.
Thanks a bunch.
Not even a discount?

 

That sucks that you folks aren't getting support. The author doesn't seem to be responding on here anymore and their site is down. So I'm not sure if I'd stick with this one if you can't make it do what you want already. I was looking at this awhile back but didn't get it since I didn't get any response. I posted a list of similar assets on my site and included little notes about various voxel terrain assets that I've been researching along the way if you might find it useful.

 

Yes, could be useful. What is your Website?

 

It's makegames.ca it's in my signature

 

How is this Asset still being sold on the store? Doesn't Unity curate any of this? I sure hope they don't take a fee because this is really poor form for a shopfront, you're essentially selling rotten food and some day the health inspector is gonna stop by. At least update your assets with "last activity" by the publisher, based on logins or something lazy like that which could be done entirely by _lazy_ automation.

 

I was about to see if this was still in development, since the last update was over a year ago. I think Unity should send out test emails once a month to asset store vendors to verify if the developer is still active, then restrict the asset sale when they don't reply. Perhaps even add in a final check - no asset can be purchased if the versions get too far apart, or no updates for 1+ years (or at least add a warning). I've wasted much money on the store on "rotten food" with little Unity-support recourse for refunds within an acceptable time-frame.

 

The once a month email idea is pretty good