Hello everyone — new AseVoxel update

I know it’s been a while. I fell into a loop of starting feature A, getting it ~90% done, then jumping to feature B, and repeating… without fully landing any of them. This update doesn’t include everything I’ve been working on, but it does include the scaffolding that those upcoming features will build on.

First of all: thank you to everyone who has purchased AseVoxel. It genuinely helps keep development moving.

If you know how to code and feel like diving in, you can pull the code from (and contribute back to) the public AseVoxel GitHub.

What’s new in this update

• New modular shader stack system.
  What used to live in the FX tab is now split into Lighting and FX. Right now the stack order is hardcoded to run Lighting before FX, so there are certain combinations you can’t do yet — but that limitation will be removed soon.

• Occupancy-grid occlusion for Dynamic lighting.
  This adds occlusion to Dynamic lighting so objects can now self-shadow.

• New Aseslab-based fast modes.
  Lighting is a little iffy on these at the moment, so I recommend using them for previewing/editing, then switching to the previous renderers (now renamed Lua Accurate and Native Accurate) for final results.
  Also: check out Aseslab — it’s very cool, free, and available on itch.

• New metrics and tests in the Debug tab.
  Useful for checking the speed of fast vs. accurate renderers.

• Improved Cone lightdir preview capabilities in the Dynamic lighting shader.

• Faceshade and ISO shader support for transparent alpha colors (shows BG behind, not rest of model Geometry)

Coming soon (some ready for preview next month)

• New FX shaders: IdxPalette, Outline, GeoOutline, Dither

• New lighting shaders: PointLight, Emissive

• A Render tab for more elemental rendering operations (beyond shading)

Far-future ideas (don’t wait on these)

• A fully independent shader I/O stack with an object catalog

• “Glass”-like material transparency (show rest of model)