In 2022, I launched you to James Brown, the Weta Workshop graphics engineer whose interest is constructing wonderful shows. Now, he’s constructed a crystal ball crammed with shimmering, spinning volumetric mild — and naturally he’s enjoying Doom on it.
However not simply any Doom. Voxel Doom, the place each dot of the sport’s graphics lives in 3D area, identical to the dots of the volumetric show he’s created.
As he explains on YouTube, the bodily phantasm is pretty easy: “It’s like a hologram fan, however as an alternative of spinning a 1D strip to make a 2D picture, it spins a 2D panel to make a 3D picture.” On his Mastodon, he breaks it down a bit extra with visible aids:
Brown’s been engaged on this for over a yr now: if I’m not mistaken, he launched the venture in August 2023 by channeling his internal Doc Brown, saying “If my calculations are appropriate, when this child hits 300rpm you’re going to see some severe shit.” However he’s since found it must spin an excellent bit sooner than that for a clean picture, significantly when he’s attempting to movie it. So maintain your fingers away.
You may observe his progress on his Mastodon, the place he’s not simply enjoying Doom — you could find volumetric lunar landers and skulls and dino heads, for instance. He simply revealed this to his YouTube too:
GIF by Sean Hollister / The Verge; Video by James Brown
And sure, they’ll play Doom.
