Voxel Landscape Script

Cubes. YAY.

Yes. It happened. I was playing with cubes, it was bound to happen. 

I messed with the Voxel Blob script and managed to create a funky landscape tool.

It looks really awesome...

Since I built it off of my voxel blob script, I can also use addbase() to create custom start locations!!

Progress 1

Progress 2

AND if you want to save memory (or cubes) you can create a plane or whatever shape you want in any spot, and it will refuse to place cubes beyond that point. So I can use a plane to keep the script from needlessly a pile of awesome where I'm not going to see it.

Progress 3

OH and I should mention I made a script for assigning awesome colors to objects in a scene based on elevation. I'll post that if you want too.

You can user that in conjunction with anything really, not just voxel stuff. Here's a scene I made via the landscape tool, and that colorizer;

ALSO... the landscape generator actually has this behavior where it tries reach upward until the cubes reach about 9 blender units on Z, where it then pans out horizontally, and then begins reaching upward again around 12 blender units on the z axis. You can see in the image above where it tries to thin out and reach up, and where it tries to pan out and cover a wider area.

The best way to achieve this result is by using addbase() to create base points around the area where it tries to pan out, (0, 10, & 16 are the points where it pans out.) otherwise it just gets stunted and makes funky mountains and... tower things. Still pretty cool.



So to USE the Voxel Landscape tool, simply add as many base cubes as you like with;

addbase(x,y,z) #This is used to add custom start locations

Then use the following to generate cubes;

cubecraft(quantity)     #You can use this repeatedly to add more and more.

I usually generate larger stuff in smaller increments just so I don't irreversibly freeze Blender over.

Here's the download link for the Voxel Landscape Generator. The color assignment script download and tutorial will be in the next section...

Download Voxel Generator
 

MAKE COLORS...

NOW, for the color assignment script, what it does is assign a number of materials you've created to several objects. Based on how far up the Z axis on the object is, is what will determine which material is assigned. There were several examples of this above, but here's another one;

For this I created 18 materials. One for each Blender unit on the Z axis. It always starts with zero. You could change that if you want, but for now it starts on zero.

To use it you it simply select whatever objects in a scene you want colorized, and copy these first 3 lines into Blenders python interpreter;

#Get the objects you want colored selected before running this.
golst = []       
for x in bpy.context.selected_objects:
    golst.append(x)

Then go ahead and either select a totally hidden object, or create one that's meant to be disposed of later and create every material you want in the scene. Starting with whatever material is lowest on the Z axis, and ascending to the whatever material will be highest on the Z axis.

Once you've finished creating the materials, make sure the same object containing the materials is selected, and run the next 3 lines;

john = []
for x in bpy.context.object.data.materials:
    john.append(x) 

Then go ahead and run the following lines;

for x in golst:        #The bottom colors go first.
    loc = x.location.z
    for r in range(len(john)):
        if loc > r-.5 and loc < r+.5:
            x.data.materials.append(john[r])

BAM!!! ENTER COLOR!!!

You can download the whole color script here: 

Download Color Assignment

Voxel Blob V.2

I totally remade the Voxel Blob script. It behaves slightly differently, and It just works in a much simpler, faster, and more manageable manner.

You can see it's a bit more compact. The first one looked almost like voxelated coral. -Which was cool I might add, but this version is designed for customizability.

And I also added a little function to add base cubes wherever you like, for the sake of having SOME control over how it produces itself. It merely determines start locations. You can use more then one at a time. (As many times as you like!)

Here's a couple rounds of addbase()

Here is what came of it.

I AM DONE WITH GREY.

If you'd like to play with it, (It's much easier to manipulate then my previous version) (And it has comments this time!) here's how to use it, and a download link:

First just copy all the text in the .py file to your blender python console,

To add base cubes just type;

addbase(x,y,z)

To add a heaping voxel blob onto your base cubes, (Without any base cubes, it just starts at (0,0,0)) just type;

cubecraft(quantity)

And that's it! You can continue to uses cubecraft() as many times as you like to continually add onto your... blob. Your awesome blob. Awesome Bob.

 - Download Here -



Stay tuned for whatever!!

Voxel Blob Script

So amidst my playing I invented a new tool/script that makes... uuhhh voxel blobs??

LOOK AT THIS.

Tears of joy. Look I can make it bigger too:

IT'S BEAUTIFUL. ABSOLUTELY B. E. A. U. TIFUL.

I should've called it the "Voxel Le bœuf haché" or "The Thing". I think those both might be french for "awesome". You should really google it.

Anyway, fancy french names aside, this thing is actually pretty cool. With some tweaking, I could get some interesting behavior manifest.

Here's some more pics. The script not only allows one to determine cube quantity, but also cube size. Here's such:

And then I wanted MORE cubes...

Then I wanted MOREEE... I WANT ONE THOUSAND CUBES!

Minecraft minecraft minecraft. This is starting to look explorable.

With enough of these, this could make a giant, weird, voxel planet, or an asteroid, or maybe even a weird explorable tree. I think giant explorable trees like this would be pretty cool.

Speaking of explorability, I got curious, so I went ahead and loaded this script into my Firstperson.blend file and made myself happy.

 

There's me peering over my beautiful creation.

With a bit of tweaking, I could create some interesting behaviour like a funnel effect, or maybe even a weird landscape, or a lot of other things that would look visually amazing, but be really really hard to explain verbally. (Cubescapes, that's what we call em!)

Here a link to my code:

Voxel Machine Link

Just plug that into the python interpreter, (or the text editor) and use it with;

cubob(quantity,size)

Quantity refers to the quantity of cubes desired, while size refers to the desired size of the cubes.

For example:

cubob(200,0.7)

And that is all. I'll probably add a new behaviour to these cubes so they do something cool.

Stay tuned for more beauty and voxels!!

To Be Honest...

I have VERY little experience doing python, or any programming at all.

I've been working on a software product for the past year or so. Before that, I had no experience. None.

I just decided I wanted to create a cool Blender tool, and started whipping stuff out.

(Seriously, python is easy to learn.)

But ever since I began there's been SO MANY THINGS I COULD DO!!!!
I have so many ideas!!!! So amidst my construction of an awesome tool I want to release eventually, I have been here 'n there making other awesome things as well.

Like... python is REALLY easy to learn... and I have just been exploring... exploring... exploring...
The potential to create is seemingly endless to my feeble human mind. I just have fun in here.

So this blog is for me to put you in the bed of my truck while I go and drive around the rocky mountains.

Rephrase...

This blog is for me to take you along on this awesome python-learning Blender creating awesomeness. Stuff just oozes out of my brain, and I keep having to create it, and the more I learn, the COOLER ooze keeps coming out of my brain.

What I'm trying to say is;
TAKE MY HAND AND COME WITH ME ON AN ADVENTURE!!!

It's not real ooze though.

Oh and I don't really own a truck.

But this is a blog of me and my python. Hisssssss. *A wild Steve appears!* Python uses "bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_cube_add()"

And so forth. Stay tuned!!

Blender and Procedural Generation are AWESOME!!!!!!!

So I'm beginning to create a whole bunch of amazing procedural generation tools and what not for Blender 3D.

You will see them soon.

But procedural generation is just SOOO COOOLL!!!

I was first inspired by the mandelbulb, a 3d fractal some dude on a forum invented. It's an (literally) infinitely complex and infinitely detailed... thing. You could literally explore them forever and ever, never finding an end, and never NOT finding something new... (assuming your computer can handle it.) Here's a few pics of it's cousin fractals.
(All pics are pulled off of google or other peoples portfolios.)

 

 

It kind of makes me think of a frozen, virtual universe. I mean manually making universes is by no means easy, but with the zing of some python, and some ingenuity, we can make an UNIMAGINABLE AMOUNT OF THINGS!!! BWAHAHAHAHAHAAH!!!!!!!

Here's some more procedurally generated stuff:

Imagine exploring forever well beyond the reaches of your imagination!! I mean we normally can only create what we can COMPREHEND, but if we write a script that says: Follow these simple little rules, make stuff FOR me, just see what happens! Imagine what we could create!!!! I AM GOING CRAZYYY!!! BAAAHHHHH!!!!!

What if....

MORE TO COME!! :DDD