BitVoxel Engine

A Generic & Renderer-Agnostic BitVoxel Engine Implementation in TypeScript

BitVoxel Engine is an optimized voxel rendering and data management engine, designed to be both generic and renderer-agnostic. Written in TypeScript, it introduces a unique approach to voxel-based environments by decoupling voxel meta-data from rendering states, resulting in efficient memory usage and improved rendering performance—especially in large, destructible worlds.

What is BitVoxel Engine?

The BitVoxel Engine features a highly optimized architecture focused on memory efficiency and real-time rendering. Here are some of its core features:

• Meta-Data Abstraction: Voxel meta-data (e.g., material type) is separated from rendering states, enabling rendering of smaller voxel grids (BitVoxels) without fully subdividing the voxel space.
• BitVoxel Layer: Voxel states are stored as a single bit per voxel, significantly reducing memory usage while allowing for high-resolution environments.
• Memory Efficiency: A flexible meta-data layer allows for 0, 8, 16, or 32 bits per voxel, while the BitVoxel state layer uses only 1 bit per voxel. This enables handling large voxel worlds with minimal memory overhead.
• Performance and Scalability: Designed with performance in mind, making it ideal for real-time applications such as games with dynamic, destructible environments.

Key Features

• Generic and Renderer-Agnostic: Compatible with any renderer (WebGL, Three.js, custom solutions).
• Optimized Memory Usage: Separation of meta-data from voxel states reduces memory consumption, allowing for larger and more detailed voxel maps.
• Flexible Meta-Data Layer: Choose different bit sizes for meta-data storage based on project needs, optimizing either for memory or detail.
• TypeScript-Based: Written in TypeScript, providing type safety and better developer tooling.
• Unit-Tested: The code is 100% unit-tested to ensure stability and reliability.

Geometry Lookup Table

The Geometry Lookup Table (LUT) pre-computes vertices, normals, and indices for 3D BitVoxel rendering. It uses a 6-bit BitVoxel Geometry Index to generate variations for Voxel Face Rendering. Surfaces that are invisible or fully occluded will not be rendered, optimizing the rendering pipeline.

Installation

Install the BitVoxel Engine using npm:

npm install @astrumforge/bvx-kit

Quick Setup

Here’s how you can quickly set up BitVoxel Engine and start managing voxel chunks within a voxel world:

import { MortonKey, VoxelChunk, VoxelWorld } from '@astrumforge/bvx-kit';

// Create a new VoxelWorld instance
const world: VoxelWorld = new VoxelWorld();

// Create a new VoxelChunk at world position (x=1, y=1, z=1)
const chunk: VoxelChunk = new VoxelChunk(MortonKey.from(1,1,1));

// Insert the chunk into the world
world.insert(chunk);

// Retrieve a previously inserted VoxelChunk
const prevChunk: VoxelChunk | null = world.get(MortonKey.from(1,1,1));

if (prevChunk !== null) {
  // Do something with the VoxelChunk
}

Additional Resources

For more technical details, check out the White Paper.