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Add to SafariWhen comparing MagicaVoxel vs ZBrush, the Slant community recommends MagicaVoxel for most people. In the question“What are the best voxel editors?” MagicaVoxel is ranked 1st while ZBrush is ranked 20th. The most important reason people chose MagicaVoxel is:
Has an isometric view mode for people who are doing isometric drawings.
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro Has isometric view mode
Has an isometric view mode for people who are doing isometric drawings.
Pro Excellent rendering mode
Raytracing, GI, AO, and configurable PBR, all GPU accelerated.
Pro Free
No cost, subscription, or license, even for commercial use.
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.
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.
Pro Actively developed
MagicaVoxel is constantly being developed with new releases bringing bug fixes and new features being released on a constant basis.
Pro Great workflow
Bake possibility, easy to create a custom palette. Not even in version 1.0 and it's already great.
Pro Keyboard shortcut cheat sheet is available
A list of all keyboard shortcuts organized by category is available on the website.
Pro Imports and exports as .obj
Pro Large build size
Now supports up to 2048^3 voxels.
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.
Pro Shader language to generate voxels
Pro Plays well with others
Can transfer work between other packages via AppLink and/or Bridge seamlessly.
Pro Powerful brush system allows for lots of creativity
ZBrush lets the user sculpt an object in fine detail with customizable 3D brushes.
Pro Best for hi-poly modeling
Due to the nature of the program and how it uses high poly mesh sculpting it is best to consider this app when wanting high poly models, as that is what it aims to do best.
Pro Has low poly modelling tools with 4r7 version
Pro Can easily simplify mesh topology
Meshes sculpted with ZBrush can contain billions of polygons, but tools are provided to cleanly reduce the poly count.
Pro Always evolving and innovating
Every iteration of Zbrush has evolved beyond the last and has kept all other 3D package devs on their toes consistently.
Pro Best support
No other 3D package has had continued support from their parent company or community like ZBrush has had since inception.
Cons
Con No native Linux
It works in Linux, but Wine should be used.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
Con Does not support intelligent palette merging when importing a model as a brush
Con UI is far from user friendly
Though, it's fully customizable. Like for any software, there is a learning curve.
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.
Con An odd perspective view
Does not lend itself to cinematic or artistic renderings due to a strange perspective system found nowhere else in 3D which warps according to the relationships between models and rendering viewpoint - there is no real 'camera'.
It is sufficient for rendering your work on a sculptural piece or industrial design, but KeyShot Pro or any other PBR rendering program that uses a camera are recommended for scene rendering, at least in 4R7.
Con Open, Save, Export, Import not conventional standard UI
Authors refuse to use standard layout and the New, Open, Save, Export, Import are in unexpected positions. There will be no UI improvements.
Con Hi-poly only
Not, the case as there is now the Zmodeller Brush system which has a full suite of polygon Modelling options.
