Oooh... voxels!

[OB1]

Neato.

Torus Loves Voxels
The GBA developer builds a detail 3D engine for the handheld. First shots.

January 08, 2003 - Torus Games, the Australian team responsible for Game Boy Advance titles such as Duke Nukem Advance, Doom II and The Invincible Iron Man has revealed that it has created a voxel engine for the GBA. A "voxel" is a technique that allows developers to add height values to pixels in a flat 2D plane to simulate rolling hills, cliffs, and slopes.
The company is currently putting this engine to use in an original motocross racer for the GBA: Moto-X. The game features off-road, free-roaming dirtbiking over varying terrain for single and multiplayer challenges. Though the game currently has no publisher attached to it, Torus sent over the first screenshots of the game in action.

Voxel engines aren't entirely a new idea on the Game Boy Advance, as Destination Software's GBA conversion of Smuggler's Run features a similar technique. But Torus promises high performance out of its own technology, with a smooth framerate (currently 20 FPS), vertical texturing, static light-mapping, and link cable support.

We'll have more on Moto-X as the game continues in its development cycle.

-- Craig Harris

[OB1]

Did this game ever come out?

[Great Rumbler]

Voxels, huh? Is that anything like flooz?

[A Black Falcon]

http://www.gamespot.com/gba/driving/moto...11229.html

Evidently not... the only news article about it was almost a year ago. That's a long dev time for a GBA title... :) Seems like it just vanished after being announced...

[OB1]

Blah.

[Great Rumbler]

But...but the voxels!!

[A Black Falcon]

Seach for it on IGN and it says it was canned. There were PS2 and X-Box versions too, but the PS2 one was canned also and the X-Box one ... there is one news item there from 2002. That's about it. :D

Just another game that didn't make it...

And as for voxels... they'll be back... someday...

[OB1]

I hope someone else makes good use of that engine.

[A Black Falcon]

It's only good looking for GBA... those are some pretty big pixels... er, voxels...

[OB1]

Well no shit, Sherlock. I wasn't suggesting they use the engine for the Gamecube.

[A Black Falcon]

I think that ... well, the GBA should be used for the things it can actually do well? :D

[Great Rumbler]

Oh well, flooz is cooler than voxels anyway.

[OB1]

I think that ... well, the GBA should be used for the things it can actually do well? :D

So if somebody makes a pretty good voxel engine, they should just throw it away because 2D is better for a handheld?

[A Black Falcon]

Well something didn't work, obviously, because it was cancelled...

[OB1]

...

*sigh*