Avoyd FAQ

Increase the Graphics Quality setting. Note that this lowers the performance. Depending on your machine, you may not be able to remove them completely. See the Graphics settings documentation for further information.

Explanation: the large shapes are the LOD (Level Of Detail) system simplifying the voxel model in real time to keep the framerate high. It groups together voxels that are far away.

Use Render in the Voxel Editor to make high quality images. Render documentation

You can't change it at the moment (as of Avoyd 0.15.0). All images are saved to ..\Users\<username>\Documents\Avoyd\Screenshots by default.

Use the Denoiser or do more accumulations.

To use the denoiser:

1. Ensure you've downloaded and installed the denoiser. See the Denoise documentation.
2. Do a preview or raytrace the scene first.

Increase the value of the atmosphere Half Length in Tools > Light and Atmosphere. See the rendering video at 3min 02s.

Explanation: when you increase the distance between the camera and the world you'll notice that the scenery takes on a slight blue hue. It is visible on large Minecraft maps. This is because there is an atmosphere and the default is, like in the real world, slightly blue.

Increase the Render setting Max Ray Depth.

If Avoyd stops working or shuts down, follow those steps:

1. Download the latest version of Avoyd. Install and restart Avoyd.
If the crash still occurs:
2. Update to the latest graphics card drivers and restart Avoyd.
If the crash still occurs:
3. Delete the files imgui.ini and user.cfg (you will lose your configuration, if you need to preserve these make copies) from the directory ..\Users\<username>\Documents\Avoyd and restart Avoyd.
If the crash still occurs:
4. Email the file AvoydLog.txt (in ..\Users\<username>\Documents\Avoyd) to support@enkisoftware.com with the steps you followed to reach the crash. We'll get back to you as soon as possible.

From the most to the least effective method to reduce file sizes:

1. Make simpler worlds.

   Avoid unnecessary details and reduce complexity where you can. Examples of approaches you can follow are:

   • If you have volumes that won't be dug through, you can set them to be filled with a single material and amount.
   • Use fewer materials: use a reduced palette.
   • Lock the voxels Amount to 255 by ticking Full Voxels in the Edit Tool. This will prevent Avoyd from morphing voxels to smooth surfaces - every voxel will show as a cube - but it will reduce the complexity of the information stored.

   Explanation: the .avwr format is compressed. Volumes that are homogeneous, meaning filled with the same material with the same properties, are compressed. Volumes filled with a lot of information: different materials, holes, complex shapes, noise, cannot compress as well. This leads to larger file sizes.

2. Defragment the Octree.

   Use Edit > Defragment the Octree.

   Note that Avoyd automatically defragments the Octree during saving if there have been sufficient changes to the world and Auto Defragment on Save is on (under Settings > System).

   Explanation: defragmenting the Octree groups similar volumes together and deduplicates regions which have the same data (a form of compression). This helps to improve performance, reduce memory consumption and reduce the size of the .avwr file.

3. Remove unused Materials.

   Use Edit > Remove Unused Materials.

   The size reduction depends on how many materials you have and the length of their names. It typically is of the order of tens of kB, hence more noticeable on small files.

Use fewer voxels.

If your voxel scene or model can be hollow (you're not using it in a destruction game for example), use the option Remove Hidden Voxels when you export to .vox.

Explanation: the size of a .vox file is directly proportional to the number of voxels in it. In other words, the more voxels, the larger the file.

You can reduce your power consumption by doing any of the following:

• Open menu Settings > Graphics and tick Power Save Mode.
• Open menu Settings > Graphics and tick VSync.
• Open menu Settings > System and decrease the Max Logical Processors.

You're likely seeing a standard warning about programs which have not been downloaded by millions of people. The Avoyd executables are virus checked and signed with our company Enkisoftware Limited's digital certificate. The certificates are delivered by an independent provider: Sectigo.

What you can do to check the file you downloaded is safe to open or execute:

1. Always download files to your Windows PC User Downloads folder.
2. Always Scan downloaded files with Windows Defender before opening them: right click on the file (in Win 11 select Show more options) and select Scan with Microsoft Defender.
3. Check the Avoyd certificate:
   • Right click on the Avoyd executable file. Select Properties and then the Digital Signatures tab. You will see these lines:

     Name of signer:	Digest algorithm	Timestamp
     Enkisoftware Limited	sha1	06 May 2022 16:35:45 (example timestamp)
     Enkisoftware Limited	sha256	06 May 2022 16:35:51 (example timestamp)

   • Select one of the lines and click on 'Details' then on 'View Certificate':

     Issued to:	Enkisoftware Limited
     Issued by:	Sectigo Public Code Signing CA EV R36

   • Select Issuer Statement for more information from the Sectigo website

PLATFORM: PC Windows

CONTROLS: Mouse and Keyboard

MINIMUM:

• Operating System: 64-bit Windows 7 or above
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.6 GHz or equivalent CPU with at least two cores
• Memory: 2 GB RAM
• Graphics: Intel HD6000, Nvidia GTX 660, AMD HD 7800 or equivalent. Uses OpenGL 3.2. Future versions may require Vulkan support.
• Storage: 30 MB available space for installation but saved voxel models can require significant storage space, up to several GB.

Ordered in increasing level of detail, you'll find:

1. An overview in the Features list
2. More information in the Documentation
3. Full details and history in the Changelog

We may add these features in the future. Some of them have possible alternatives.

• Layers
Alternative: use cut and paste to break down your world into distinct volumes.
• Multiple models
  Alternative: make each model in a separate world. Export them separately to .vox or .obj. Assemble them in a third party tool like MagicaVoxel or Blender.
  Note that when you import a .vox file that contains several models, Avoyd merges them into one world. When you export the world to .vox, Avoyd creates new model boundaries.
• Animation
  Alternative: export each part of your voxel model to mesh .obj and animate them in Blender, or export them to .vox to animate in a third party tool that can do it.
• Import Minecraft custom resource packs
  Alternative: after importing your Minecraft map, alter the materials properties to match your custom textures as closely as possible.
• Export to Minecraft format
  Alternative: export to mesh .obj or .vox and use a third party converter tool than can export to a Minecraft format.
• Multiple languages support
  Avoyd is only available in English as the functionality and the user interface are in flux.
  Avoyd n'est pas disponible en français mais le tutoriel d'introduction et une partie de la documentation de l'éditeur de voxels sont disponibles en ligne.
• Custom keys
  Controls and shortcuts are currently hardcoded.

Avoyd and MagicaVoxel are both voxel editors capable of editing .vox files and doing renders. They have some differences listed below (not exhaustive):

• Some things you can do in Avoyd that you can't do in MagicaVoxel:
  • World size up to 26k voxels a side.
  • No limit on the number of voxels other than memory.
  • 64k materials (vs. 255 in MagicaVoxel).
  • Import Minecraft maps and .nbt.
  • Export to mesh .obj with all metallic, transparent and emissive materials, with presets and instructions for Blender, Unity and Unreal set up.
  • Smaller .avwr voxel files (~10 times smaller than MagicaVoxel for large files).
  • Export to HDR and EXR with image sizes up to 16k a side.
  • Export to MagicaVoxel .vox with unlimited size and automatic material count reduction.
• Some things you can do in MagicaVoxel that you can't do in Avoyd:
  • Multiple models.
  • Animation.
  • Layers.
  • Extrude voxels.
  • Voxelise textureless .obj.
  • HDR image based lighting.
  • Mac OS support.

Avoyd is only available on Windows. We do not plan to port Avoyd to Mac OS, Linux nor consoles for the foreseeable future.

The reasons for this decision are many: the underlying technology for Avoyd is multiplatform and we have tested making a Mac and Linux build. We also maintain several open source multiplatform libraries so have a good idea of how much effort is required to release cross platform software. The overheads of maintaining a port of a complex graphics application are high, especially as feature development is ongoing. It's relatively easy to break a build on one platform/hardware combo in a way a simple smoke test won't detect. Additionally we don't have a Mac which can run Avoyd (we use a old Mac to maintain the Mac versions of our open source libraries), and we don't think we'd make back the cost of buying one if we made a Mac version. We know the primary feature set we want for the Avoyd Voxel Editor and Game, and once these come together we'll reassess. If sales pick up before then we also might reassess. Finally, we're always happy to hear your thoughts on this.

Start with the tutorial and follow with the user documentation.
Tutoriel et documentation en français.

If you have further questions on how to use Avoyd, visit our support forum or contact us.

The game supports both single-player and cooperative multiplayer (pve).

We're pondering whether to include pvp team multiplayer. Currently we think we won't in the early versions of the game.

You can already play on your own without an internet connection, and with friends over a LAN.

Once internet network support is enabled you'll be able to play online.