Hello, I want to introduce the project I’m currently working on : Voxel Draw
Voxel Draw is an editor extension that allows to draw voxels directly into Unity to create 3D models.
It comes from my own frustration to not find a similar tool in the asset store. I want to create models fast, prototype, have fun with Unity, not spend hours in an external tool.
RagePixel have been a huge inspiration, I love how easy it is to create sprites. I want the same kind of tool but for creating 3D models.
The tool won’t be free, but I want to have a free version in the future as well (with limited features).
The tool is not ready yet, as I have a lot of polish to do. I will post my progress.
So far, here are the features available :
Infinite canva
Draw voxels
Erase voxels
Pick color
Paint mode (basic)
Add/Remove layer (trowel tool)
Grid
Optimized mesh generation
Automatic texture generation
Symmetry mode
Grid snaping
Planned features (may be after first release) :
Undo/redo
Face paint (one color by face)
Set pivot
Color flood fill
Color smoothing
Selection tool
Merge/split
The models from Minecraft have been a huge inspiration as well
Here is something I did put together very fast (I am not an artist)
joelfivat, OMG, that’s exactly what I want !!
Are you going to sell that? I would definitely add that to my shopping list too! Subscribed!
BTW, are you going to put it on Asset Store? And what’s roughly the price range?
It wont be easy to do beta->full upgrades as the Assetstore doesn’t offer something like that at the moment. At the moment you would need to let your clients also buy the full version and then you would need to send an Email to the Assetstore Managers to issue a refund for the Beta product. I also don’t know if they would issue a refund if the client were already using the beta for months.
I would definitively ask first before you plan on going that route.
Also I’m not sure how a product that’s labeled “beta” would fit with the quality requirements. Selling the beta on your own website is also not optimal, because upgrading will be even more awkward as those clients would need to go through your infrastructure instead of the Assetstore. So no automatic upgrades through the Assetstore etc.
Oh… there’s one more way. Sell the product now for 2o$ and change to 40$ when you do the upgrade to full version. This would give early adopters the new features for free… so they don’t need to pay another 20$. I think that’s the best idea actually. Kinda minecraft style…
Regarding free/paid: I would love to see a free version as fast as possible, so I can use it, but to tell you the truth, I think it would be better to hold the free till you have the full product.
Because people starting to use the free version now will never upgrade to the full version, because even people who would be willing to upgrade to the full version, will find workarounds for the problems they encounter now, like exporting to blender for last fixes etc.
But if there would be a full version available fixing the problem immediately, they will consider buying that instead.
Bugs:
Disable when alt-left mouse pressed, it causes voxels to be drawn while rotating view. (see pic)
Select some blocks with selection tool, then switch to “Trowel” leaves ghost selection (see pic)
Suggestions:
Row/Column or Area selection in Trowel Tool (yes I know you can add or remove) (see pic)
*Red dots if you clicked that block, and what should be selected
I didn’t know we could rotate the camera with alt, nice to know :). I will provide a fix soon that disable drawing when alt is held.
For the extrude problem, I need to clear the selection when changing tool, easy.
Your suggestion is interesting. Do you think it is really something that would be helpfull ? We can easily select borders with holding CTRL. Also there is the problem when the surface is 2 wide, there would be not way to select everything.
It would be a huge convenience for doing walls…maybe my pic is not clear, so i’ll give 1 more example and you can decide.
The current way, you would have to click on ALL 5 blocks with red dots (CTRL).
With what I suggest, you would only have to click 1 of the blocks with purple to get the same selection.
I do see what you mean by 2x2 area, so maybe that could be a special case?
Also another suggestion…a palette of preset colors (maybe not as many in my pic), but a few main colors and some gray scale.
Some Tips you may not know about:
If you click on anything with the middle mouse button, it will center it in view and let you rotate around that point (Alt+LMB)
(while playing and select object in scene) If you press F to center a object, then press F again…the scene view will follow that object.
Holding RMB, will let you move around the scene using WSAD (fps controls)
It seems you are using Voxel Draw to create walls, corridors and rooms.
Although it can be used for creating levels, this is not the primary focus of this tool, it is intended to create small scale voxel models.
The main problems for levels if that you would need different textures for different voxels, and also it is not optimized for working with huge models.
As illustarted by the skull example bellow, the common case is needing to extrude a small non rectangular area.
I would be happy to provide a shortcut for an alternative behavior, but I am already using shift (add to selection) and ctrl.
One solution would be to let the user use the selection rectangle for face selection as it is done for voxel selection. Or I can provide a new button in the contextual menu.
*A palette would be cool, it is definitely in my todo list after the release.
(I am not an artist)
Subscribed!
