As the space exploration game continues to develop, much thought has gone into what type of 3D engine Nostalgic Games wants to use. Would a ray-tracing engine similar to Duke Nukem 3D or Marathon be used, or should a new engine be built from the ground-up using voxels? The idea for a voxel based engine came to me when I played through Ken Silverman's VOXLAP engine demonstrated by Voxelstein 3D.
Voxelstein 3D, Programmed by Ken Silverman
A voxel engine would allow complete immersion for the player . No longer will you have to go around objects to get to enemies, rather you shoot through the objects. This engine would cause the game to have a very blocky look, but as hardware develops the smaller the voxels being used can be programmed. Currently I have several methods designed to help the frame rate of the game stay at a consistent 25fps or more while keeping destructible terrain anywhere in the environment. As Nostalgic Games continues looking further into voxels more info and a possible demo will be available for download.