Ion Maiden, 3D Realms’ upcoming throwback 90’s FPS, will feature voxel objects. This was recently announced on October 30th on the company’s social media accounts. Voxels should be no stranger to anyone who has played a Build engine game previously. As they were heavily utilized in games such as Shadow Warrior and Blood to represent 3d objects.
Voxels are not actual 3D models, but rather a sprite that uses 3-dimensional volumetric pixels. The term comes from combining “volumetric” and “pixels” into voxels. And this allows voxel sprites to have a 3-dimensional look to them. It’s very similar to how the Build engine in software mode isn’t an actual 3D engine, but appears to be. Voxels will only be used for objects in the world that can be interacted with. Whether it would be pickups such as guns and armor shards or switches to use.
Voxels will be optional and those who find them a bit too jarring can turn them off and still use sprites for in-game objects. However it is undeniable that voxels add a lot of flair to an old engine such as this. And with it following in the footsteps of aforementioned games, it makes sense for it to use the same technology.
Ion Maiden launches in Q2 2019 on PC and consoles. Make sure to check out the Early Access demo on Steam for a sneak peek of this badass oldschool FPS from the same people who brought you Duke Nukem 3D and Shadow Warrior.