For all Pixel Art fans, you can download free of MagicaVoxel 3D software specialized in the creation of Pixel Art 3D.

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If you love retro-style work, for those who are already familiar with the appearance of 8-bit pixels, it’s time to take the step forward, using Pixel Art in 3D with voxel.

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MagicaVoxel is an incredible software, usable to use, perfect to create 3D pixel art scenes, manage textures and materials, with the possibility to export obj files, or directly use the internal rendering engine which is not bad at all.


MagicaVoxel 0.97 (Win/Mac) Tutorial

 


The latest version of MagicaVoxel adds the ability to create animations, based on rudimentary animation features, but very useful to create loops of frames managed with the editor of Voxel always free, perfect for making animated gifs, gif looping.

 

 


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>> Download: MagicaVoxel @ ephtracy (Win/Mac) 0.98

 


>> Download: MagicaVoxel Viewer @ ephtracy (Win/Mac 0.41)

 



 

  • FAQ
  • if you get black screen on macOS Sierra, try this:
    • extract the whole folder
    • move “MagicaVoxel-mac.app” outside the folder
    • move “MagicaVoxel-mac.app” back to the folder again
  • if you get “App can’t be opened” message on MacOS, try this in terminal:
    • chmod +x [directory]/MagicaVoxel-mac.app/Contents/MacOS/MagicaVoxel

 

  • Updates 0.98 [10/22/2016]
  • 1. Frame Based Animation
    • support up to 24-frame 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
  • 2. New Interface
    • materials are saved into vox file now
    • if there is unsaved changes, the tiny button besides name field will become orange, click it to save
    • program will ask for saving changes when open new models or close program
    • click the title of each panel to close it
    • Tool->Scale, Repeat, Rotate is removed, instead, use console commands “scale, repeat, rot”
  • 3. 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)

 

  • Updates 0.97.5 [09/25/2016]
  • 1. 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
  • 2. ground is changed to infinity large in all camera modes
  • 3. optimized shaders by removing unused branches

 

  • Updates 0.97.4 [07/05/2016]
  • 1. 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
  • 2. 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
    • recommended using lower image resolution (e.g. 640×480) when adjusting parameters
    • for better quality of final image, recommended using 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
  • 3. Fix several artifacts for “Glass” material

 

  • Updates 0.97.3 [06/05/2016]
  • 1. New Metal/Plastic Material with GGX NDF
  • 2. Post Effect
    • Post->E : Exposure, when the scene is too dark, you can increase this
    • Post->V : Vignette
    • Camera->G : Gamma Correction
  • 3. Pick up Sun/Sky Color from Palette
  • 4. Better Quality of Soft Shadow
  • 5. 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

 

  • Updates 0.97.2 [03/02/2016]
  • 1. 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/”
    • it may take from several seconds or 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
  • 2. New CMD “odir” : export all models in current folder, e.g. “odir obj”
  • 3. Palette “ALT+DRAG” : swap palette color without changing model, make it easier to organize palette
  • 4. Fixed a bug in .qb export

 

  • Updates 0.97.1 [02/15/2016]
  • 1. New Voxel Shader :
    • support 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…]
  • 2. New Brush Option :
    • [V]oxel Mode : 3D(Volume:Cube, Sphere), 2D(Flat:Square, Disc), Su(Surface, only operates on surface)
    • -add hotkeys 1-9 to set brush size quickly
    • [C]enter Mode : suport 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
  • 3. New Marching Cube Export [Export->mc] : export your voxel model as Marching Cube meshes (.ply)
  • 4. Camera Control : use middle button to move camera
  • 5. Cache Folder [cache/] : program will automatically backup model before quitting program or rendering model
  • 6. Obj Export Pivot : fixed bugs for obj pivot, you can also set your custom pivot in config.txt->file_obj
  • 7. Palette Command : add command [pal mask] to mask out unused color in palette
  • 8. fixed a little bug of rendering with orth/iso camera, still not very robust though

 

  • Updates 0.97 [11/30/2015]
  • Enhanced Brushes, Improved UI and File System
  • 1. Save and Open dialog for all Palette, Model, Export, Screenshot files
  • 2. Face Brush : extrude surface by dragging with various modes
  • 3. Voxel Brush : has been integrated with Cube and Sphere Brushes, working with mirror and axis modes now
  • 4. Circle Brush : center voxel of circle is not operated; support even diameter size
  • 5. HUD : voxel coordinates, volume size, face layers, circle radius are displayed in console now
  • 6. Camera : add X+RButton to select camera focus center, and yellow button to toggle auto camera focus
  • 7. Export : fixed obj export and more config options for isometric and 2d sprite export
  • 8. Render : Light->0 is changed to pure color model; the ground in orth/iso mode will be infinity large
  • 9. multiple improvement for ui

 

  • Updates 0.96.3 [08/15/2015]
  • Matter->Glass : new transparent voxels with refraction and attenuation

 

  • Updates 0.96.2 [08/09/2015]
  • 1. Matter->Sel : per palette material setting (use Alt+LButton or LButton to select material)
  • 2. new Emissive material; perfect mirror reflection (Rough = 0); over 8 light bounces
  • 3. folder path setting in config file; bug fixed for .obj export

 

  • Updates 0.96.1 [07/05/2015]
  • 1. Export->iso : new isometric sprites export
  • 2. Export->obj : color based mesh simplification for .obj format
  • 3. Model List : drag ‘n drop folder to model list to change its root path

 

  • Updates 0.96 [05/24/2015]
  • 1. renderer supports various voxel shapes ( Lego, Marching Cube, Sphere, Cylinder ) and rounded corners, colored grids
  • 2. camera supports stereographics projection, radial distortion, Escher Droste effect
  • 3. use F5/F7 to save/load current camera
  • 4. performance improvement and bug fixes
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