Skip to content

Meshing

The Vengi voxel engine provides different meshing algorithms to convert voxel data into triangle meshes. Each mesher has different characteristics and produces different visual results. The meshing algorithm can be selected using the voxel_meshmode configuration variable.

See configuration for more details

Choosing a Mesher

Quick selection guide:

  • Cubic - Default choice, good balance of speed and quality
  • Marching Cubes - Smooth organic shapes, hide voxel structure
  • Binary - Same a cubic mesher, faster in some situations
  • Texture - When exporting to texture-based engines/formats

Cubic Mesher

Mode: voxel_meshmode=0

The cubic surface mesher creates a mesh where each voxel appears as a perfect cube. This is the classic "Minecraft-style" look where voxels maintain their blocky appearance.

Marching Cubes Mesher

Mode: voxel_meshmode=1

Produces smooth, organic-looking meshes by interpolating between voxel colors. This is good for terrains - it doesn't create blocky meshes.

Best For

  • Organic shapes (characters, creatures, plants)
  • Smooth terrain
  • When you want to hide the voxel structure
  • Architectural models (loses sharp edges)
  • Pixel art (blurs the aesthetic)
  • Hard-surface models (rounds corners)

Binary Greedy Mesher

Mode: voxel_meshmode=2

Like the cubic surface mesher this is creating a "Minecraft-style" lock, too.

Greedy Texture Mesher

Mode: voxel_meshmode=3

Creates a mesh with texture coordinates, packing all visible voxel faces into a single texture atlas. This is useful for exporting to engines or formats that work better with textured meshes.

Visual Characteristics

  • Blocky appearance (like cubic mesher)
  • Single texture atlas containing all colors

Limitations

  • Texture atlas limited in the max allowed pixels
  • Texture packing can fail if atlas fills up

Best For

  • Exporting to game engines
  • Formats requiring texture coordinates
  • When you need a traditional textured mesh workflow
  • Reducing vertices for the mesh