I am in the middle of the development of a rather large project. I am trying to recreate the island from Zelda: Link's Awakening. However, I'm having a bit of a hard time due to some limitations.

1. Height Limit:
   My greatest issue is the height limit. As far as I know, the max is 48, which is very limiting for some rooms where I would need to build much higher. For now I have been able to find ways around the issue, but it takes much more time. Could we have that option to increase the height?

2. Field of View:
   Also, even though we can increase the size of a room (horizontally, at least), it doesn't show all at once (limit on FOV). I understand this might be due to maintain a good performance in any computer. But could we have, in future updates, an option in the video settings that would allow to alter the range of voxel rendering? That would be awesome, and we could then choose the best setting that our hardware could support.

3. Views:
   The editor has 2 view modes "orthogonal view" and "perspective view". However during gameplay itself we can only play in "perspective view" (we can move the camera up or down, but not change the type of view). The sets I'm building look awesome in orthogonal, and even though they still look good in perspective, it would be awesome if we could change between them. Can we have the option to alter the view for gameplay in next releases? :D

4. Zoom:
   Now that were at it, it also be awesome to change the zoom of gameplay - which allows to make the voxels and sets look smaller (Things look so cool in miniature! :D )
   Also, another small issue, is that the zoom within the editor only zooms into the center of the room and not to where we're looking. Having that option would also be a great help during editing.

P.S: Of course, I don't know anything of programming or about the inner workings of voxatron, so excuse me if this suggestions seem too demanding. Well, I can dream... xD

Thanks for the excellent job so far, zep! :)

I think that the limited fov and height are two distinctive features of voxatron, changing them could make the game a little too different from how it has been until now.
Somewhere zep told that voxatron has been made to be easily displayed on a 3d volumetric, if i remember right

It would be nice to be able to change the view from perspective to orthogonal, and i definetly agree with the "zoom" part

Regarding height limitations, can we make horizontal doors ? (such as a hole in the ground). It would enable to fall from one level to the other.

(I might make a specific thread for that...)

Regarding other limitations, I think that they have intentionaly been placed and are part of the design of Voxatron. That's what gives a part of the feeling to the game.

Yep, these 3 posts mention the 3 main reasons for fixing the voxel display dimensions to 128x128x64:

1. For style; Voxatron is such a mufti-tentacled project as it is, it's nice to work with a consistent style and allows people to design scenes with those assumptions. It also has a look that I personally like, and want to encourage people to fit original designs to the format (rather than vice-verse :p )

2. For performance; the rendering code is optimized for 128x128, and the smaller size ensures any level will be playable on older machines and maybe web

3. To work with real volumetric displays; any low-cost volumetric displays I'll be able to get Voxatron on will probably initially have quite a low resolution.

The island level is looking really awesome, so sorry to be a downer! I think these issues are likely to be shared by any level that has a classic 2d rpg look to it, and are simply more suited to a 2d display. So, just a bit too far out of the scope of Voxatron's design goals.

Room height is a bit more flexible, but I chose 48 instead of 64 for performance, and because I figured you'd need space for the inventory and any characters standing on top of the highest ground anyway. But I might go back on that one later if it doesn't impact performance too much.

An orthogonal renderer (point 3) is no problem. In fact, I already made one for the test of the web-version:
https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?tid=1213. Is this the kind of view you're after?
I'll include this as a rendering option soon anyway, as apart from the style it also runs much faster on old netbooks etc. I won't be able to attempt the idea of setting the rendering option for a particular level until later (because levels don't currently have a data storage for such information)

Regarding zoom (point 4): I guess this isn't useful without adjustable display size, because if you zoom out you just end up with a tiny-looking section of the map. In combination, all of these things add up to a higher-resolution voxel display which is off the menu 8-)

Interesting suggestion about zooming into the point of the cursor and not the center of the screen. I find zooming into the cursor a bit confusing for newer users, but I'll look at making that an option.

Re: horizontal doors, I replied in the other thread

Wow, so many replies! Thanks

I'm a little sad we can't have more fov. I'd really love to have more voxels on screen, and I initially thought the volumetric displays could be set to still show just the actual range.

But yeah, I guess it is a little off the style of voxatron, and would weight too much on the performance. It definitely has its own style going and I understand that if too many changes occurred, it would be deviating too much from its true initial concept.

I am comfortable building within these limits if I was making an original game, thought; Rebuilding zelda just might not have been my wisest choice, lol. But I think I can work around the limitations :)

As for the orthogonal view: yes it is kinda like that, but the web version one feels a little bit more 2D, dunno. Maybe it's the lack of camera movement, I'm not sure... I really meant like the one we already have in the editor (that's why I thought it wouldn't be too difficult to implement, but hey, I'm no programmer, so excuse my ignorance if it's not that simple, lol :P).

Finally, as for the zoom, I think it still would be cool to have it, even without the adjustable voxel resolution. Even thought we get a tiny map, it's that tiny-looking effect that is so appealing ^_^ but that's just a personal preference.

These were just some minor suggestions. I'm sure whatever comes in the future will be awesome! Thanks!

yeah this all sounds too damn good. Ive been waiting for the monster editor to release my level so im excited. im planning to make old skool villians ala black and white film era. I love the voxy monsters but just to set the scene they dont fit into the vibe of my story. Ill keep the attributes mainly just disguise them as gangsters with top hats and canes etc. The hounds are the monster that suits so ill keep the hounds.... yay!

ps i saw a hound like that the other day they are big and terrifying but so cute when friendly.