FPGA-based Minecraft Clone

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I am using a subset of the Nim language via https://github.com/fl4shk/nim-to-pipelinec to create an FPGA-based Minecraft clone. It will use only voxel-based models, and it involves creating a fixed function GPU as well. The fixed function GPU is incomplete and being implemented here: https://github.com/fl4shk/pipeline-nim-gpu

[tacit salmon]

Super cool!

Are you going to run it on physical hardware or an emulator?

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"both"

the physical hardware will be my MiSTer FPGA

but for "emulation" it'll really be compiling the game for my laptop

There will effectively be two versions of the game

here's how this works

really there's multiple stages of compilation. PipelineC, which I should probably link to, is the main heavy lifter here as far as compilers go

some small code changes will be necessary for managing both versions of the code

Since nim-to-pipelinec compiles a pure subset of Nim language code into PipelineC, I get to just do everything as Nim code.

There may also be a need for a miniature CPU of some sort to handle access to file IO but I'm not entirely sure about that

[tacit salmon]

That sounds awsome

Keep us updated

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oh cool, thanks

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this explains the methodology

(I asked permission from my friend to relay these DMs here)

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so I'm making some good progress again

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new progress update: I have finally figured out (and gotten a little help with) my algorithm for optimizing the voxel models I create

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anyone here think Simplex Noise would work for my Minecraft clone's terrain generation?

hm I'll ask in #bikeshed-😇

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I'm writing a voxel model optimizer thing in the Nim language

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had to implement a flood fill thingy

[tender spade]

did u get it to render stuff?

i also want to do an fpga gpu at some point seems pretty cool

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this is actually an offline thing

It's software I'm writing to optimize the assets I use in the game

for mobs mostly

It's almost finished

[tender spade]

oh i seee

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this being said I do intend to reuse some of the algorithms I developed as software

for the FPGA code

[tender spade]

i thought it was like https://www.furygpu.com/

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... I need something to display with the GPU

yeah it will be eventually

When I get to that part of the project

Which I'm almost started on

[tender spade]

software rasteriser?

[tender spade]

cool

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well, I wrote a software rasterizer so I could figure out how 3D graphics work

[tender spade]

ohh i get it now

the Minecraft clone is a test scene for the fpga gpu

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more than that

The Minecraft clone is to be implemented as FPGA code

The GPU is going to be included in the project

[tender spade]

i c

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So like, the game logic and driving of the GPU will be implemented as FPGA code too

no CPU involved if I can help it

[tender spade]

pretty cool

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I have a CPU I developed that I could use if I wanted, but I'm saving that for another project

I wanted to do something weird/a stunt

[tender spade]

i was thinking of doing like an operating system and and a fpga gpu and hooking it up but that's well in the future

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but it should also be a fun game

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that's also neat!

[tender spade]

it's a neat idea

i know very little about this stuff atm

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FPGA development is something I normally do in a language like SpinalHDL

but I'm making my GPU and my Minecraft clone with nim-to-pipelinec because it'll greatly speed up the development loop

[tender spade]

i only heard of verilog

[tender spade]

nicee

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I'm getting most of the code and assets for a PC version from using nim-to-pipelinec

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there's a great many FPGA languages now

SpinalHDL is my favorite regular HDL

[tender spade]

i will look into it

i probably want the one with the most resources as I'm learning

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SpinalHDL helps prevent a lot of common pitfalls in FPGA development

I can recommend it highly

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I want to mention this about my project: most of the code will be a polyglot of FPGA code and software written in the Nim programming language.

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it's working!

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and I'm officially actually working on the hardware itself again

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https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Wiki_MiSTer/wiki/USB-Blaster-(debugging) this is going to be helpful for debugging!

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Well I learned something important about my MiSTer projects today. I can actually use my VGA signal generator with the HDMI output of MiSTer. The same FPGA code variables are used for both video outputs.