MagicaVoxel @ ephtracy (Win/Mac) 0.99.2 [9/29/2018]

A free lightweight 8-bit voxel art editor and interactive path tracing renderer. Tutorial

  • License
    • Free to use for any project (no commercial licence required)
    • Credits to the software are appreciated (e.g. "created by MagicaVoxel")
    • Distribution of the program package (original or modified) is disallowed
  • 1. MagicalVoxel Viewer 2. Vox Format Spec
    win32 0.99.2 win64 0.99.2 macOS 0.99.2 History

    For Windows 10 Users

  • If you get misaligned UI, it is due to a driver bug of Intel integrated graphics card. Try to update drivers or force usage of Nvidia/AMD cards.
  • For macOS Users

  • If you get black screen on macOS Sierra, try this:
    • 1. Extract the whole folder.
    • 2. Move MagicaVoxel.app outside the folder and then back to it.
  • Update Log

    0.99.2 - 9/29/2018
    • New Interface
      • Redesigned the interface
      • Slidable and resizable panels
      • SDF font rendering
      • CTRL+/- to scale UI size
      • a basic object list to show the scene graph, will be improved in future updates
    • Renderer
      • Large Sparse Volume: Sample->Geometry->SV the rendering volume increases to 2048x2048x1024. But the total number of solid voxels is still limited. SV Mode works with cubic voxel only
      • Voxel Shapes: new Clay shape with the previous supported shapes (Lego, Marching Cubes, etc.)
      • World Scale: rectangular voxels
      • Pixelated Illumination: Sample->PX
      • Can show sun disk in the sky; added Ozone attenuation
      • Fix bugs in orthogonal views
      • Voxel shapes and SV mode will be improved in future updates
    • Palette
      • CTRL+Drag: swap (move) color
      • CTRL+SHIFT+Drag: duplicate color
      • cmd pal sort [+-hsvrgb]: sort palette colors (e.g. pal sort vsh)
    • Voxel Shader
      • add xs_shader in config.txt
      • can execute subfolder shaders: xs sub/poly
    0.99.1 - 3/12/2018
    • Renderer (hidden menu)
      • Atmospheric Scattering Skydome: Rayleigh/Mie scattering
      • Bladed Bokeu: for large depth of field
      • Stretched Bloom Filter
      • Grids: can change Spacing, Width, and Color
      • Field of View (FOV): change range to: 1-360
      • Fix some bugs: e.g. Bloom dark points
      • More options are saved into file, format is changed as well
    • Editor
      • Align Objects in Editor
      • New object is using last model size
      • Fix importing files with unicode paths
      • Add default export and snapshots folders in config
    0.99 - 11/23/2017
    • World Editor
      • Support multiple objects
      • Larger scene area: (-1024, +1024)
      • Group objects
      • Reference objects/groups: modifying one of the references will affect the others
      • Transform objects: rotate, flip, move
      • Rectangle select: SHIFT to add selection, ALT+SHIFT to remove selection
      • Translation gizmo and free movement: Shift+move to get a referenced copy
      • Union combine objects
      • Copy/paste objects between world editor and model editor
      • Hide objects
      • Change order of objects for drawing and combination
      • Layers: to hide objects with same layer tag
      • Hotkey TAB to switch between model editor and world editor
      • Hotkey TAB/SHIFT+TAB to enter/leave groups
    • Renderer
      • Performance optimizations
      • Support larger volumes: 512x512x512, 1024x512x256 or 1024x1024x128
      • Can copy/paste materials using CTRL+C/V or Matter->C/P
      • Rendering settings are saved into file: lighting, lens, ground/edge colors, etc.
      • Blooming effect is automaticlly calculated, and can be paused as well
      • Can display constant color background: View->Back
    • View Cube
      • Smooth camera transition
      • Click the cube face/edge/vertex to set to 26 standard view angles (90/45)
      • Left-drag the view cube to rotate view
      • Hotkey 4 to recenter view; hotkey 5 to show one of the 6 face views (front, back, etc.)
      • Z+left drag to zoom view
      • X+left drag to rotate view
      • Space+left drag to move view
      • 7/8 to save/load view
    • Editing
      • Auto-saved to cache/ folder every 25 steps
    • UI
      • UI scaling for High DPI screens: enter ui scale 1.5 in console or change ui_scale in config.txt
      • Panel is scalable (some UI elements are hidden behind)
      • Palette: pick color from screen: ALT+left drag
      • Lower CPU usage: only redraw when needed
    • Limitations: will be improved in future version
      • Not stable
      • Export: can only export single models, cannot export models with offsets and names
      • Render: no voxel shapes
      • Animation: no frame based animation
    0.98.2 - 4/1/2017
    • Bloom
      • Click the button in Bloom section to calculate bloom effect when any rendeirng setting has been changed
      • It has its own progress bar, and uses the same number of samples from the top
      • When adjusting the weight with the slider, it won't restart rendering
      • It will enable Camera->ACES automatically
    • Bokeh
      • It has larger aperture size for DOF (depth of field)
    • HDR Emissive Material
      • Formula is changed to Emit * (10 ^ Power)
      • Glow is only used to enhance Bloom and Bokeh effects
    • Pause Rendering and Instant Feedback
      • Click Image->|| to pause progressive rendering
      • Enable Sample->GI
      • Every change of material will be immediately displayed in viewport
      • (*expensive option, higher end GPU recommended)
    • Sky Background
      • Enable View->Back (CTRL+B) to display sky as background
      • The fading ground into horizon is controled by Fog slider
      • For real fog, enable Fog firstly
    • Ground Material
      • Now you can use Alt+LButton to click the ground, and then assign Metal material to it
    • Pixelated Rendering
      • Turn off View->AA to disable Anti-Aliasing and set image size small (128, e.g.)
    0.98.1 Beta - 12/30/2016
    • Selection
      • New Box/Rect/Region selection brushes
      • New selection tools Edit->Select: Copy/Paste, Deselect/Inverse Select, etc.
      • Attach/Erase/Paint brushes can only operate on unselected voxels
      • Move/Remove Color/Replace Color brushes can operate on both selected and unselected voxels
      • Edit Tools can only operate on selected voxels
      • Transform Tools Flip/Rot/Loop/Scale/Repeat modify selected voxels around local center
      • Export only exports selected voxels if selection exists
    • Selection Brushes
      • +SHIFT to add selection, +SHIFT+ALT to subtract selection
      • Box Select: select voxels within a box
      • Rect Select: select voxels within a screen rect: K+RButton click voxel to navigate to 90 degree view
      • Region Select: select voxels within same volume, same face, or with same color
    • Pattern Brush
      • Can create Pattern directly from selection: very helpful for texturing surface/duplicating small shapes
      • Can rotate Pattern around z, x, y axes with keys -/+, 9, 0
      • Can add local offset to Pattern with arrow and page keys
      • Reset local offset to 0 with Home key
    • Bounding Box and Frame Grids
      • Can select on all six faces of bounding box now
      • View->Frame: can change spacing, very helpful for measurement
    • Camera Setting
      • Camera->ton: ACES Filmic Tone Mapping
      • Camera->dof: Depth of Field, click voxel with LButton to set camera focus
    • Misc
      • Command dia [axis]: diagonal symmetry
      • Command o slice: export volume as an image of size (width, height x depth)
    0.98 - 10/22/2016
    • Frame-Based Animation
      • Supports up to 24 frames animation
      • Ctrl+Drag to move frame, Ctrl+Shift+Drag to duplicate frame
      • Press on the prev/next button to play animation (you can also change time step)
      • Drag and drop multiple models to import as animation
      • It can also be used for other purposes, like assets of same category
      • However, features of importing and exporting anim are not fully supported yet
    • New Interface
      • Materials are saved into .vox file now
      • If there are unsaved changes, the tiny button besides name field will become orange, click it to save
      • Program will ask for saving changes when opening new models or closing the program
      • Click the title of each panel to close it
      • Tool->Scale, Repeat, Rotate are removed, use console commands scale, repeat, rot instead
    • Voxel Shader also supports generating anim now
      • [New inputs]
      • iFrame: current frame index
      • iNumFrames: total num of frames
      • iIter: current iteration index
      • iRand: a vec4 random number updated every iter and frame
      • [New Options]
      • -n: specify number of iterations, eg. xs -n 8 [shaderName]
      • -prev/-cur: specify input frame, -prev for previous frame, -cur for current frame (default is -prev)
    0.97.5 - 09/25/2016
    • Fog Scattering: can scatter all types of lights (Sun/Sky/Area)
      • Only works in Pers/Free camera modes
      • Works for glass/metal materials (can get reflection/refraction from sun light)
      • Surface can also be lit by scattered light
      • Can create light shafts
      • Can create background with small fog density
      • Fog color mainly depends on light color and in-scattering color
    • Ground is changed to infinity large in all camera modes
    • Optimized shaders by removing unused branches
    0.97.4 - 07/05/2016
    • New Emissive Area Lighting
      • Emit->Power: Radiant Flux for Area Lighting
      • Emit->Glow: Energy loss on closer surface
      • Emit->Total: Total power for all voxels or power density
    • Hints:
      • Requires GI option enabled for advanced effects
      • Only supports Cubic/RG/RE voxel shape
      • For small but strong light source (e.g. point lights), use Emit->Total
      • It is recommended to use lower image resolution (e.g. 640x480) when adjusting parameters
      • For better quality of final image, use more samples (e.g. 5000)
      • Not very robust for this version (has several potential artifacts)
      • If it is still too dark, do not forget to use Post->E to increase exposure
    • Fix several artifacts for Glass material
    0.97.3 - 06/05/2016
    • New Metal/Plastic Material with GGX NDF
    • Post Effects
      • Post->E: Exposure, when the scene is too dark, you can increase this
      • Post->V: Vignette
      • Camera->G: Gamma Correction
    • Pick up Sun/Sky Color from Palette
    • Better Quality of Soft Shadow
    • Sample->GI : on the top right, enable stochastic sampling for better indirect illumination
      • It's slower (~50%) and noisy (requires 3000+ samples)
      • Use it for indoor scenes, larger exposure, or final render
    0.97.2 - 03/02/2016
    • Export->bake: bake voxel mesh with ambient occlusion and soft shadow:
      • Example on Sketchfab
      • Must support the built-in renderer, if program crashed, recover model from cache/ directory
      • It may take from several seconds to half a minute, depending on machine, model, and sample number
      • Set sample number, direction and intensity of light sources in renderer mode
      • config->bake->perface: bake per face (pixelated) or per vertex (smooth)
      • config->bake->ambient: constant ambient color to make scene brighter
      • config->bake->gamma: for app with gamma correction, set it to 2.2 to avoid color washed out
    • New CMD odir: export all models in current folder, e.g. odir obj
    • Palette ALT+DRAG: swap palette color without changing model, make it easier to organize palette
    • Fixed a bug in .qb export
    0.97.1 - 02/15/2016
    • New Voxel Shader:
      • Supports GLSL based shader script to generate your custom volume
      • Shaders are in the new folder shader/
      • Try typing [xs wave] in console to start
      • Basic command format is: xs [shader name] [arg0] [arg1] [..]
      • If you want to run the shader multiple times in one run, use: xs [num] [shader name ] [args...]
    • New Brush Options:
      • [V]oxel Mode: 3D (Volume: Cube, Sphere), 2D (Flat: Square, Disc), Su (Surface, only operates on surface)
      • - Added hotkeys 1-9 to set brush size quickly
      • [C]enter Mode: supports both square and circle shape now
      • [P]attern Mode: can choose using either original model color or current palette color
      • - Can be applied on erasing and painting now
    • New Marching Cube Export Export->mc: export your voxel model as Marching Cube meshes (.ply)
    • Camera Control: use middle button to move camera
    • Cache Folder cache/: program will automatically backup model before quitting program or rendering model
    • Obj Export Pivot: fixed bugs for obj pivot, you can also set your custom pivot in config.txt->file_obj
    • Palette Command: added command pal mask to mask out unused color in palette
    • Fixed a little rendering bug with orth/iso camera, still not very robust though
    0.97 - 11/30/2015
    • Enhanced Brushes, Improved UI and File System:
      • Save and Open dialog for all Palette, Model, Export, Screenshot files
      • Face Brush: extrude surface by dragging with various modes
      • Voxel Brush: has been integrated with Cube and Sphere Brushes, working with mirror and axis modes now
      • Circle Brush: center voxel of circle is not operated; support even diameter size
      • HUD: voxel coordinates, volume size, face layers, circle radius are displayed in console now
      • Camera: added X+RButton to select camera focus center, and yellow button to toggle auto camera focus
      • Export: fixed obj export and more config options for isometric and 2d sprite export
      • Render: Light->0 is changed to pure color model; the ground in orth/iso mode will be infinity large
      • Multiple UI improvements
    0.96.3 - 08/15/2015
    • Matter->Glass: new transparent voxels with refraction and attenuation
    0.96.2 - 08/09/2015
    • Matter->Sel: per palette material setting (use Alt+LButton or LButton to select material)
    • New Emissive material; perfect mirror reflection (Rough = 0); over 8 light bounces
    • Folder path setting in config file; bug fixed for .obj export
    0.96.1 - 07/05/2015
    • Export->iso: new isometric sprites export
    • Export->obj: color based mesh simplification for .obj format
    • Model List: drag 'n drop folder to model list to change its root path
    0.96 - 05/24/2015
    • Renderer supports various voxel shapes (Lego, Marching Cube, Sphere, Cylinder) and rounded corners, colored grids
    • Camera supports stereographics projection, radial distortion, Escher Droste effect
    • Use F5/F7 to save/load current camera
    • Performance improvement and bug fixes