In 2022, I launched you to James Brown, the Weta Workshop graphics engineer whose interest is constructing superb shows. Now, he’s constructed a crystal ball crammed with shimmering, spinning volumetric gentle — and naturally he’s taking part in 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 a substitute 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 interior Doc Brown, saying “If my calculations are right, when this child hits 300rpm you’re going to see some severe shit.” However he’s since found it must spin a very good bit quicker than that for a easy picture, significantly when he’s attempting to movie it. So preserve your fingers away.
You may observe his progress on his Mastodon, the place he’s not simply taking part in Doom — yow will discover volumetric lunar landers and skulls and dino heads, for instance. He simply printed this to his YouTube too:
GIF by Sean Hollister / The Verge; Video by James Brown
And sure, they’ll play Doom.