Nova

An aspirational collection of Bevy plugins for building galaxy-scale, voxel-based worlds with seamless space-to-surface transitions and multiplayer support.

Note: This is an experimental project by a solo developer, primarily for learning and exploring various aspects of game development. The vision below presents a set of targets meant to serve as a north star guiding the exploration. It is not a roadmap with any expectation of "completion."

Vision

This project aims to touch on various ideas for a framework that could combine:

• Voxel system inspired by Enshrouded's terrain manipulation
• Procedural generation for galaxy-scale worlds and systems like No Man's Sky
• Dynamic server meshing for multiplayer scalability similar to Star Citizen's goals
• Seamless transitions from galactic exploration to planetary surface gameplay

Architecture

The project is organized as a Rust workspace with crates for each major component:

nova/
└── crates/                      # All components and examples
    ├── engine/                  # Integration layer (Bevy app setup, camera, etc.)
    └── voxel/                   # Voxel system with LOD and terrain generation

More crates will be added as the project progresses.

Voxel System

The voxel crate provides:

• LOD system with dynamic terrain resolution
• Greedy meshing for efficient chunk rendering
• World-space terrain generation ensuring consistency across LOD levels
• Region-based chunk management for streaming large worlds

See crates/voxel/README.md for detailed documentation.

Design Principles

• Modularity: Each crate is independent and focused on a specific domain
• Loose coupling: Components communicate through well-defined traits and interfaces
• Reusability: Engine components can be used across multiple games
• Performance: Built with Bevy for high-performance game development

Getting Started

Install Nix

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf -L https://install.determinate.systems/nix | \
  sh -s -- install --determinate

Install Direnv

nix profile install nixpkgs#direnv

Then add it to your shell and restart your shell session.

Install Devenv

nix profile install nixpkgs#devenv

Run the Project

# Clone the repository
git clone git@github.com:lexun/nova.git
cd nova

# Allow direnv to load the development environment
direnv allow

# Run the basic example
cargo run -p engine --example basic

Examples

The project includes several examples demonstrating different aspects of the system:

Voxel System Examples

# Multi-chunk terrain with chunk boundaries
cargo run -p voxel --example multi_chunk_terrain

# Side-by-side LOD comparison (1, 4, and 16 chunks)
cargo run -p voxel --example lod_comparison

# Dynamic LOD transitions based on camera distance
cargo run -p voxel --example dynamic_lod

# Chunk boundary alignment test
cargo run -p voxel --example chunk_boundaries

# Greedy meshing validation with 8 test patterns
cargo run -p voxel --example meshing_validation

Integration Examples

# Basic voxel scene with camera controls
cargo run -p engine --example basic

# Planet with spherical chunk distribution (experimental)
cargo run -p engine --example planet_chunk_sphere