u/_m4ndingo_

Hey everyone!

The engine is really coming together and the scenes are starting to feel much more alive. Here is a look at the coastal/ocean biome generation in VoxelForge.

Current features shown in the video:

• Coastal Topography: Smooth island transitions, shallow sandbanks, and deep seabed generation.
• Procedural Palm Trees: Curved trunks, coconut clusters, and cascading fronds.
• Foliage Wind Animation: Vertex shader displacement applied to flowers and palm canopies for organic breeze movement.
• Water & Lighting: Water transparency with reflections and a warm summer lighting profile.
• Skybox & High Clouds: Volumetric layered voxel clouds with horizon-aware rendering.

Still actively optimizing batching and draw calls, but really happy with how the atmosphere is turning out.

Feedback and thoughts are always welcome!

​Hi everyone,

​I've been developing VoxelForge, a lightweight, zero-dependency voxel editor and rendering engine that runs entirely client-side in the browser using vanilla JavaScript and WebGL.

​The project started as a dedicated tool for editing individual 16×16×16 voxel models, but has grown into a sandbox environment capable of handling larger interactive scenes.

​Key Technical Features:

• ​Zero Dependencies: Pure vanilla JS and custom WebGL rendering pipeline.
• ​Dual Environment: Seamlessly transition voxel assets between a 2D/3D isolation editor and broader spatial maps.
• ​Extensible Scripting: Fully automated runtime via JavaScript APIs (custom OSD/menus, boot scripts, articulated entities).
• ​Interactive Mechanics: Basic player controller physics (scale transformation, flight, parkour mechanics) and a partial logic-gate / signal system inspired by standard digital circuits.
• ​Rendering & Shading: Implemented planar water reflections and basic environmental shading.

​Current Rendering Challenges:

Handling non-standard voxel geometry is currently the main focus: optimizing mesh generation for incomplete 16³ blocks, custom face-culling on transparent voxels, and handling multi-pass shading without external shader libraries.

​The project is open source. I'm keen to hear thoughts from other engine devs on voxel meshing strategies and WebGL performance optimizations.

​Feedback and suggestions are welcome!