Voxel Hands

The voxel hands tool placing voxels in mid-air

The Voxel Hands terraforming tool can be used to shape voxels, that is, asteroids and planets, and change their materials. For example, you can replace ores and stone, paint roads or grass on the ground, create cliff walls or flat plains, fill in meteorite craters, shape valleys, dig caves, and much more.

Voxel Hands have been added in update 01.067.

Important: Making too many voxel changes worsens performance. On multiplayer servers, an admin can reset voxel changes (that is, fill in underground bases and mines) if they cause lag.

Prerequisites

Make sure that Voxel Hands are enabled in the Advanced category of the World Settings of the game save.

The Voxel Hands tool is available in Creative Mode. In Survival Mode singleplayer, enable Creative Tools in the Admin Screen, and in Survival Mode multiplayer, you may need permission to install mods such as Digi's Concrete Tool if you are not the admin.

How to Use Voxel Hands

1. Press G to open the Toolbar configuration menu. Select the Voxel Hands category on the left-hand side and then drag brush shapes into slots in your toolbar:
   • Box - rectangular
   • Capsule - a cylinder with rounded ends
   • Ramp - triangular
   • Sphere - round
   • Terrain Auto Level - gravity aligned and flat
2. Press a number key to select a shape now.
3. Press 'K' to open the voxel hand settings. Here you choose the shape size and the tool's behaviour:
   • Shape width
     Select a size from 1 to 100.
   • Shape height
     Select a size from 1 to 100.
   • Shape length
     Select a size from 1 to 100.
   • Snap to Voxelgrid (Default: on)
     Aligns changes to a regular grid; disable this if the alignment limits you too much.
   • Project to Voxel (Default: off)
     The tool only works when directly pointing at existing voxels.
   • Freeze physics (Default: off)
     Don't let the voxel changes push mobile grids (?)
   • Show bounding box (Default: on)
     Shows a visual hint of the area in which the tool can be activated.
4. Press 'Esc' to close the settings window.
5. Lastly, select a voxel material:
   • Press [ to select next voxel material
   • Press ] to select previous voxel material

You'll see a preview of the material and its name in the bottom right of your HUD, under the gravity reading.

Voxel Hands shapes in the toolbar with Box selected, and gold material selected.

When you now click in mid air, you can place voxels in their pure shape ("box" shaped for example). Or if you click existing voxels, their shape will merge organically and adjust to the existing voxel.

Remove Voxels

To delete voxels, select a Voxel Hand shape and hold the right mouse button (RMB). It works more reliably when you don't stand too close. Or use a drill as in Survival Mode.

Replace Voxels (Paint)

Instead of adding or removing Voxels, you can also replace their material without changing the shape. Similar to painting blocks, select a material and shape first, and then MMB-click to change voxel materials.

For example, after you have shaped a trail, you paint its surface a more worn out colour, or you can paint a road gray. A scenario designer or server admin could paint a boulder gold to add ores to locations for gameplay or story reasons.

Reset Voxels

Resetting Voxels can be beneficial for performance if you have many craters and tunnels that you no longer need. Resetting is better than manual refilling, performance-wise.

To reset voxels, select a Voxel Hand shape, make it very large, hold (CTRL key), and then drag the right mouse button.

Alternatively, the Admin Screen also offers a way of cleaning up voxel changes.

Best practices and limitation

• You can only place voxels inside an existing asteroid's or planet's bounding box
• Remember you can change the dimensions and alignment of the tool, for example, it can be flat or long, big or small.
• Save often using (SHIFT+F5 key), so you can "undo" using (F5 key), or install an Undo mod.
• Remember you can use Spectator Mode instead of jetpacking.
• The voxel hand shapes can be rotated with the same keys as blocks when building, which is an interesting option when using ramp and capsule shapes.
• Use Ctrl-mouse wheel to change the distance between your view and the tool.
• Consider whether you want the new terrain to snap to the voxelgrid or whether it's better to disable the grid constraints.
• It's easier to first make a hole or trench, and then fill it smoothly, instead of attempting to paint smooth voxel on top of uneven existing voxels.

Related Mods

• Junrall's Terrain Tool
• Digi's Concrete Tool

Visual References

• Smokki's Carcosa Valley Colony scenario, also known from the Lost Colony Scenario has nice voxel roads