What are the best voxel editors?

Question

DevelopmentGame DevelopmentDesignvoxel

What are the best voxel editors?

31

Options
Considered

637

User
Recs.

Jan 19, 2024

Last
Updated

25 Options Considered

Best voxel editors	Price	Dev platforms	Custom Solutions for education departments and districts
83 MagicaVoxel	Free	-	-
58 VoxelShop	-	-	-
57 Goxel	FREE	-	-
-- Paint3D	-	Windows	-
-- 3D-Coat	-	-	-

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score 203 · Answer 1

MagicaVoxel

Top Pro

Has isometric view mode

Has an isometric view mode for people who are doing isometric drawings. See More

Top Con

No native Linux

It works in Linux, but Wine should be used. See More

PatientBerstuk's Experience

Easy to start learning with magicavoxel, and still upgrade the quality of creations. High evolution curve :) See More

Top Pro

Free

No cost, subscription, or license, even for commercial use. See More

Top Con

Small sizes

The maximum dimensions for one voxel is 126 x 126 x 126 (since May 2020 it is 256 x 256 x 256). To put this into perspective, the kvx format (an older format by ken silverman used in games like blood, shadow warrior, and ZDooM-based ports) has maximum dimensions of 256x256x255. while newer versions of magicavoxel include a world editor (in which multiple voxels can be arranged into a set), each voxel is exported separately. See More

Manoel garcia's Experience

My voxel killer tool! Best in my opinion. The new version .099 is awesome. LARGER images, no more 127x127x127 size! See More

Top Pro

Excellent rendering mode

Raytracing, GI, AO, and configurable PBR, all GPU accelerated. See More

Top Con

No support/help

There is no clear way to get help, though you might be able to reach out to the dev via Twitter, also github should be easy to manage. See More

D3X1K AXYZ's Experience

Extremely useful in making voxels for DooM mods. the ability import polymesh models is useful for those more complicated models. The ability to export to slab6 makes the creative process 100x easier. See More

Top Pro

Very easy to use

MagicaVoxel has sane defaults and an intuitive interface. You add or remove voxels with the left-click and rotate the camera with the right-click. The interface does not overwhelm or get in the way, yet it keeps all functionality within easy reach. Very helpful for beginners is the fact that hovering with the mouse over a tool shows hints on how to use the tool. The hints can be found at the bottom of the interface. See More

Top Con

No command line options

Without command line options, it's not possible to automate rendering at all. If you have hundreds of models (to make an animation for example), you have to render all of them manually. Plus, you cannot even open .vox file by doubleclicking it! See More

BrilliantPsyche's Experience

The New 0.99 update can now have huge sizes, made out smaller up to 128x128x128 components. Rendering is even more optimized for low-end computers. Allows projects up to 1024x256x256 or 512x512x512 See More

Top Pro

Realtime render

The viewport renders the objects in real time. Changes made to lighting and materials (such as reflectivity, opacity, etc) are instantly shown on the screen with minimal to no delay. The renderer also allows adjusting things like FOV. See More

Top Con

Bad model mesh exporting

For video game development, it's needed to rearrange some of the vertices, builds triangles per color, instead of one big mesh. It's tedious to solve but gives overall nice results. See More

Nathan R's Experience

Good voxel editor, but the interface is not modern-like and the @ Ephtracy on the title makes it look not professional. See More

Top Pro

Actively developed

MagicaVoxel is constantly being developed with new releases bringing bug fixes and new features being released on a constant basis. See More

Top Con

Hard to change camera

The camera options don't have 2d view. Plus, the pers camera option is too hard to use when creating rooms. See More

John Stock's Experience

It's best best free Voxel editor out there See More

Top Pro

Great workflow

Bake possibility, easy to create a custom palette. Not even in version 1.0 and it's already great. See More

Top Con

Does not support intelligent palette merging when importing a model as a brush

cranialcohen's Experience

so cool See More

Top Pro

Keyboard shortcut cheat sheet is available

A list of all keyboard shortcuts organized by category is available on the website. See More

ConfidentGrannus's Experience

Work fine under linux with wine :) See More

Top Pro

Imports and exports as .obj

Tanmay Khelkar's Experience

After hearing a lot about this software I decided to give it a shot. I expected to spend hours reading the manual, watching tutorials and going to forums to know how to do a certain thing while learning this software, just like any other CGI software. But no! I didn't need any of it. In fact, I didn't watch any tutorials at all. The user interface was clean and settings were placed at predictable places and were easily reachable. The camera controls and other shortcuts were almost the same as the ones in popular softwares like Blender and Unity. Buttons showed what they do and their shortcuts when hovering the mouse cursor above it. The renderer uses path tracing and gives physically accurate results in no time and the material settings are simple and don't require you to code or use complex node setups. I made my first artwork within the first hour of downloading and running the software. This software is amazing in what it does and totally earned its place as the best here at slant.co. This is so far the most intuitive and user-friendly software I've ever used! See More

Top Pro

Large build size

Now supports up to 2048^3 voxels. See More

Carandiru's Experience

My in development game uses only MagicaVoxel for models, specifically the .vox file format, which is the native format of MagicaVoxel. See More

Top Pro

Object Trees

Now has a “world” and “object” mode, objects can be grouped together and organized, multiple layers to organize, hide, and reveal, and objects can be copied as a “reference” so any changes to one will affect the others. See More

ArticulateJuthrbog's Experience

Perfect for game dev! Easy to get into and then models just need a bit of clean up in blender. See More

Top Pro

Shader language to generate voxels

PerseveringPales's Experience

Works well in professional workflows integrating with Blender! See More

BrightAglibol's Experience

This is a brillant, fast and easy to use voxel object creation tool. It is very easy to learn, the rendering gives mega results and the varity of exports is awesome. I highly can recommend this software, we are using it at anaconda game studios. See More

GenuinePyvsyansa's Experience

Я создавал много красивых моделек в этом редакторе. В нём несложно освоится. See More

PhilosophicalMyesyats's Experience

good! See More

See All

score 45 · Answer 2

VoxelShop

Top Con

Website is no longer available.

Top Pro

Cross-platform

VoxelShop is available for Windows, OS X and Linux. See More

D3X1K AXYZ's Experience

while buggy, it is the only free program i can use to make voxels larger than 126x126x126 for doom See More

Top Con

Does not support .obj export format

Top Pro

Free

VoxelShop is Open Source. You can download and use the software for free, but donations are encouraged to support the project. See More

Garrom's Experience

As indie dev i like VoxelShop as essential tool for creating voxel-art. I like cost(it is free), linux support and .dae export. Usually, after export from VoxelShop follow short work in Blender to animate created models. See More

Top Con

Really buggy

Sometimes it crashes at startup, some large models instantly crash the program, having the mirror function on causes every action to get mirrored (even imports get mirrored). See More

Top Pro

Great for game-dev

Exported .dae files are optimized to lowest possible amount of polygons. Despite lack of animation support .dae files can be imported to Blender and animated. See More

Elisha Knight's Experience

Voxel shop is open source, optimized, and feature filled! See More

Top Con

Not easy to export to .qb when there are many models

Top Pro

Layers

NobleBelenus's Experience

isnt suported See More

Top Pro

Export to COLLADA

Top Pro

Exports optimized meshes

The export (to DAE files) removes unnecessary geometry, creating an optimized model. See More

Top Pro

Palettes

Easy to go with a theme. See More

Top Pro

Textured voxels

Top Pro

Exports to kv6

Helpful for making larger voxels for Doom. See More

See All

score 39 · Answer 3

Goxel

Top Pro

Open source

Top Con

Hasn't Been Updated in over a year.

PersistentCirce's Experience

Amazing work! It's THE voxel editor for Linux users. There could be more help/docu btw. See More

Top Pro

GNU/Linux

At least somewhat available for GNU/Linux. See More

Top Con

Missing docu/tutorials

Finding help on e.g. using materials is missing or not easy to find. See More

Top Pro

Supports .obj

Top Con

Have to compile it yourself on Linux

Top Pro

Available on Android

Top Con

On Windows, tiny UI on 4K monitors

Top Pro

Simple Interface

Top Pro

Supports procedural rendering

You can script a build for it to render. See More

Top Pro

Exports to PLY format

Top Pro

Available in Debian/Ubuntu repository

If you don't have it installed yet, just enter "sudo apt install goxel && goxel" on the terminal, and you will be running it in a few seconds. See More

Top Pro

Available on iOS

Works nicely with Apple Pencil. See More

See All

score 13 · Answer 4

Paint3D

Top Con

The web site's domain is no longer available

Using the WayBackMachine to get the site's contact email address, I attempted to contact the developer to find out what the story is. There has been no response. The WayBackMachine's last archive date for the site was 11Jan2016. Their cached version of the paint3D.net's forum does not have any post explaining what happened. See More

Top Pro

Affordable

Has a free trial version and a cheap full version. See More

Specs

Dev platforms:Windows

Top Pro

Scripting support

Can be used to generate models, import stuff, animate, etc. See More

Top Pro

Can export traditional 3D models

Top Pro

Interoperates with 2D paint programs

Top Pro

Supports multiple voxel formats

Top Pro

Easy to use

Top Pro

Uses 32-bit color with real volumetric transparency

Top Pro

Supports both "per voxel" drawing and smooth "sculpting"

See All

score 11 · Answer 5

3D-Coat

Top Con

Not a voxel program

This is a paid texture program. Why is it in this list? See More

Top Pro

A known app for retopology

3D coat is also known in the game industry to be a great app to preform retopology. See More

Spacerogue's Experience

I'm a 3D modeler and have used this program to sculpt,retopo, UV unwrap and paint my models. See More

Top Con

Voxel sculpting hits your system

Voxel is quite heavy on your computer, if you intent to use this as your main model and sculpt app do enough research to see if your computer can handle it and if you have the right graphic card for it. If you really have doubts , just go ask in the forums. See More

Top Pro

Link to Photoshop, or any app that can open PSD files

You can save and open your texture work in apps like Photoshop, work on them and send them directly back to 3D coat. It will remember your layers and update. See More

Top Con

7 layer restriction in the affordable version

The cheapest version available only lets you paint on 7 layers, which is very unfortunate. See More

Top Pro

Professionals recommend 3D Coat for Handpainted textures

You can texture in many styles with this app, but when it comes to Handpainting, as seen in World of Warcraft and Torchlight, 3D Coat is the one that many professionals will advice you to as their top choice. See More

Top Pro

PBR materials

3D Coat supports the creation of your own PBR materials that are ready to be used in the PBR workflow. See More

Top Pro

Voxel sculpting

Voxel sculpting is entirely free from the bounds of polygons and topology. See More

Top Pro

A fast and fun way to UV

3D coat has made UVing my work go super fast and it's actually quite fun because you're finished in a breeze. See More

See All

score 11 · Answer 6

DotModeler

score 16 · Answer 7

Makers Empire 3D

Top Con

This is not a voxel editor. Shouldn't be in this list.

Top Pro

Works on many platforms

Supports iOS, Android, Windows, and Mac. See More

Specs

Custom Solutions for education departments and districts: Request quote

Makers Empire 3D software:FREE for individuals

Makes Empire 3D Solutions for Schools:Request quote

Top Con

Limited exporting formats

You can only export files as STL. See More

Top Pro

Gamification

While only simple at this stage when you create and participate in sharing and commenting or even uploading you can unlock various, useful, purpose built items to create more detailed 3D printable models. The characters and avatars which you unlock are very cute like Japanese inspired anime. See More

Top Pro

Easy to use navigation

Icons are easy to understand and so simple that children (as young as 4) can use it. See More

Top Pro

Easy to use with touch controls

It is touch optimized, making for an easy touch controlled experience. See More

See All

score 6 · Answer 8

BlockWorks

Top Pro

Good variety of sample models

Nikolay Aleksiev's Experience

Very easy to use. The interface is very suitable for touch screen. See More

Top Pro

Easy to use

iOS doesn't have any other useful voxel editor. See More

Top Pro

Exporting option

See All

score 4 · Answer 9

Cube Kingdom

score 3 · Answer 10

Sproxel

Top Pro

Multiple export options

Exports to OBJ, MTL and 3MP. See More

Top Con

Abandoned

Hasn't been updated since 2012. See More

Top Pro

Free, open source and cross-platform

Sproxel is a free voxel editor that's available for Window and OSX. It's licensed under the New BSD License with source code available here. See More

Top Pro

Intuitive UI

See All

score 3 · Answer 11

Buffy the Voxel Editor

Top Con

Does not support offline mode

Top Pro

Provides public and private cloud storage

Top Pro

Supports .qb and .vox file formats

Top Pro

Works in web browsers

No need to install, cross platform See More

Top Pro

Easy to copy and share public models

See All

score 3 · Answer 12

Zoxel

Top Con

Windows only

Top Pro

Free

Top Con

Image export has issues

Export has a chance of crashing Zoxel or produce a blank image. See More

Top Pro

Cross-platform

See All

Answer 13

Voxel

Top Con

Only for iOS

Very limited audience and use. See More

Top Pro

Available on iOS

Voxel's availability on iOS enables you to be creative on your iPhone or iPad anywhere you please— at the park, on the train, in a meeting. Export options make it easy to sketch out an idea on-the-go and finish it up later in Qubicle or any other desktop voxel editor supporting the .qb format. See More

Top Con

iPad only

No desktop versions are planned. See More

See All

score 2 · Answer 14

3D Pixel Artist

Top Pro

Clean & intuitive user interface

score 2 · Answer 15

Optivox

Top Pro

Simple to use

Top Pro

Models optimised for game development

Models can be used immediately from the program, with many export settings to fit in with your game's system. See More

Top Pro

Free online version

See All

score 2 · Answer 16

Voxel3D

Top Con

Pay to save

Saving a model requires registering the product which costs $189. See More

Top Pro

Easy to use

It's very simple to master, and it's good for begginers. See More

score 4 · Answer 17

BDcraft Cubik

Top Pro

Very easy to use

You can master the software in less than several minutes. See More

Top Pro

Not limited to voxels

Any cube can be resized, moved and rotated. See More

Top Pro

Affordable

Cubik has a free Lite version and a cheap Pro version with many features. See More

See All

score 3 · Answer 18

SLAB6

Top Con

Not very user friendly

If I asked most people to use this to draw something without reading anything about the program, a good percent would not be able to. with odd controls like 'Insert' to draw, 'L' to open, and no customization on these controls, its requires users to read how to use it. the help guide only gives you a basic understanding of how things work and requires you to search through files in order to fully understand how powerful this tool really is. If i were to rate this for how user friendly it is on a 1 -10 scale (with 1 being like binary switch panels, 3 being ms-dos, 5 being a minimal gui with a complex console command line for all functions, 8 being able to sit down and perform basic operations, and ten being no effort at all,) I would give this a 7(has a gui that is easier to navigate but even simple functions require a bit of reading). See More

Top Pro

idTech1 and Build engine voxel editor

While the idTech engine 1 (aka the "DooM Engine") does not support voxels, newer limit-breaking source ports have added the ability to render the .kvx voxel format designed for the Build Engine. Slab6 is currently the only well-known .kvx editor as it continues to pop up in DooM modding forums and tutorials. Even though it's not the most user-friendly editor, its support for .vox export enables the model to be edited in MagicaVoxel or voxels made in MagicaVoxel (which supports Slab6 (Slab) .vox export) to be converted to .kvx for use in-game. See More

score 1 · Answer 19

ZBrush

Top Con

Expensive

A single-user license for ZBrush costs $795. But, Pixologic has not charged a penny for upgrades to licensed users since inception. Anyone who has purchased Zbrush has not been left behind. See More

Top Con

Not a Voxel program

Why is this on the list? See More

25 Options Considered

My Recommendation for MagicaVoxel

My Recommendation for MagicaVoxel

Has isometric view mode

No native Linux

Free

Small sizes

Excellent rendering mode

No support/help

Very easy to use

No command line options

Realtime render

Bad model mesh exporting

Actively developed

Hard to change camera

Great workflow

Does not support intelligent palette merging when importing a model as a brush

Keyboard shortcut cheat sheet is available

Imports and exports as .obj

Large build size

Object Trees

Shader language to generate voxels

My Recommendation for VoxelShop

My Recommendation for VoxelShop

Website is no longer available.

Cross-platform

Does not support .obj export format

Free

Really buggy

Great for game-dev

Not easy to export to .qb when there are many models

Layers

Export to COLLADA

Exports optimized meshes

Palettes

Textured voxels

Exports to kv6

My Recommendation for Goxel

My Recommendation for Goxel

Open source

Hasn't Been Updated in over a year.

GNU/Linux

Missing docu/tutorials

Supports .obj

Have to compile it yourself on Linux

Available on Android

On Windows, tiny UI on 4K monitors

Simple Interface

Supports procedural rendering

Exports to PLY format

Available in Debian/Ubuntu repository

Available on iOS

My Recommendation for Paint3D

My Recommendation for Paint3D

The web site's domain is no longer available

Affordable

Scripting support

Can export traditional 3D models

Interoperates with 2D paint programs

Supports multiple voxel formats

Easy to use

Uses 32-bit color with real volumetric transparency

Supports both "per voxel" drawing and smooth "sculpting"

My Recommendation for 3D-Coat

My Recommendation for 3D-Coat

Not a voxel program

A known app for retopology

Voxel sculpting hits your system

Link to Photoshop, or any app that can open PSD files

7 layer restriction in the affordable version

Professionals recommend 3D Coat for Handpainted textures

PBR materials

Voxel sculpting

A fast and fun way to UV

My Recommendation for DotModeler

My Recommendation for DotModeler

My Recommendation for Makers Empire 3D

My Recommendation for Makers Empire 3D

This is not a voxel editor. Shouldn't be in this list.

Works on many platforms