LNlnyan·Jan 3, 2025Submission
VoxelSpace: Terrain rendering algorithm in less than 20 lines of code (2020)
339 points · Open discussions-macke
VoxelSpace
C2017–2025
s-macke / VoxelSpace
VoxelSpace
Terrain rendering algorithm in less than 20 lines of code
18Distinct people
22Mentions
0Explicit recommenders
6.8KGitHub stars
What to know before exploring
What it is
Terrain rendering algorithm in less than 20 lines of code
GitHub
Where it is used
No documented product use was verified in the last source check.
What people are saying
No recommendation phrase was found in the indexed comments.
No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.
Also in these discussions
No other repository is repeatedly linked in the same discussions.
This week on Hacker News
Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 3:56:07 PM UTC.
No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.
Mentions over time
HN mentions by year22 dated mentions
Observed mentions: 2017-09-26 14:37:25 UTC to 2025-01-03 20:01:29 UTC.
Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.
View mention counts and date ranges
| Period | Start (UTC) | End (exclusive, UTC) | Mentions | Submissions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 3 | 3 | 0 |
| 2018 | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 4 | 1 | 3 |
| 2019 | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2020 | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| 2021 | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 5 | 1 | 4 |
| 2022 | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| 2023 | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 2024 | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2025 | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 1 | 0 |
What Hacker News says
22 sourcesIirc Comanche used a ray tracing approach to render the terrain [1]. No Voxels there, just a 2D height map that is sampled.
(They called it "VoxelSpace" ... so some confusion is warranted)
[1] https://github.com/s-macke/VoxelSpace
In Voxel Displacement Renderer – Modernizing the Retro 3D AestheticVoxelSpace – Terrain rendering algorithm in less than 20 lines of code
3 points · Open discussionTerrain rendering algorithm in less than 20 lines of code
1 points · Open discussionI'm reminded of the render algorithm in Comanche, the 1992 video game [0]. I find it remarkably ingenious, and it certainly felt incredible at the time.
[0] https://github.com/s-macke/VoxelSpace
In The genius of binary space partitioning in Doom (2019)There is a very simple voxel terrian renderer: https://github.com/s-macke/VoxelSpace
In Rustenstein 3D: Game programming like it's 1992Check this
https://github.com/s-macke/VoxelSpace
In Ask HN: How were video games from the 90s so efficient?Yup. A.k.a. depth testing†. TFA illustrates it under ‘More performance’: https://github.com/s-macke/VoxelSpace#more-performance
Edit: Originally, I had said: “Though in a highly constrained scenario such as this, with the right approach you could get away with a 1-bit depth buffer.” That would be true if you had one depth value per pixel, which is of course so common nowadays that no one even needs to think about it. Except in this case I should have thought about it, because this algorithm requires only one depth (or, alternatively, as TFA and parent comment explain, Y) value per column of pixels.
† https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z-buffering
In Voxel Space: Comanche's terrain rendering in less than 20 lines of code (2020)> I don't think in Comanche they painted back to front, or at least I hope they didn't. It's best to render front to back, tracking the highest (in screen space) pixel you have drawn, and as you move further back, only drawing lines from that height. That "max height" is a zbuffer of sorts for each ray.
Discussed here <https://github.com/s-macke/VoxelSpace#more-performance>
In Voxel Space: Comanche's terrain rendering in less than 20 lines of code (2020)Voxel Space: Comanche's terrain rendering in less than 20 lines of code (2020)
366 points · Open discussionNot quite the same but reminds me a lot of the Commanche JS demake called VoxelSpace: https://github.com/s-macke/VoxelSpace
In 2D IsometricRendererI was confused by this too. Clicking and dragging with the mouse (or at least touchpad) works for navigation. The HTML canvas element key events aren't working (maybe they worked . in older browsers). There is an open PR that hooks window events instead (I made similar edits locally that make it work). https://github.com/s-macke/VoxelSpace/pull/13. The distance rendering works once you move and force a redraw.
In Terrain rendering algorithm in less than 20 lines of codeTerrain rendering algorithm in less than 20 lines of code
720 points · Open discussionCommanche's Voxel-Space terrain rendering (1992)
2 points · Open discussionThat's an impressive list of games. I don't know how many hours were spent reverse engineering these games.
I did a bit of reverse engineering myself on some 3D game worlds. Test Drive 3 [1] and Comanche [2]
[1] https://simulationcorner.net/td3/td3.html
[2] https://github.com/s-macke/VoxelSpace
In Show HN: Reverse-engineered game worlds using WebGLShowing the 15 most recent of 22 sources. Enable JavaScript to search and browse every indexed mention.