Slice Art Engine

Real-Time High Density Voxel Physics On Quest 3

Inspiration

I wanted to bring realistic lightsaber-style combat with true material destruction to standalone VR. Existing approaches use pre-scripted animations or low-fidelity mesh deformation—I knew Quest 3 hardware could handle something far more sophisticated.

What it does

Slice Art Engine converts mesh models into high-fidelity voxel volumes (200K-1M voxels) and processes real-time sword collisions with 100% accuracy. Every swing calculates precise intersection points, determines cut geometry, triggers dismemberment physics, and renders destruction—all at 72fps on Quest 3.

How we built it

Built entirely native using OpenGL ES, C++, GLSL ES, and Meta's official OpenXR Mobile SDK for Android Studio. This direct hardware access enabled the performance optimizations necessary for million-voxel real-time destruction on standalone VR.

Challenges we ran into

The biggest challenge was scaling beyond the core collision engine. Implementing real-time dismemberment detection, per-voxel physics simulation, and maintaining 72fps with hundreds of thousands of active voxels required novel optimization strategies and careful memory management on mobile hardware.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Stress-tested a 1,000,000-voxel mannequin running at 70fps with full collision detection on Quest 3
Achieved real-time destruction with 200K-400K voxels including collision, animated dismemberment, and per-voxel physics
Proved standalone VR can handle AAA-quality destruction physics previously thought impossible without PC tethering

What we learned

I've learned that mobile VR devices like the Meta Quest are far more capable than they appear, when creative use of new algorithms and techniques are implemented.

What's next for Slice Art Engine

Short-term: Outreach to VR game studios to integrate SAE as middleware for their combat systems.

Long-term: Developing a hybrid mesh-voxel approach where textured, rigged character models use hidden internal voxel volumes. This will enable lightsaber-style combat and realistic destruction on any 3D character or object while maintaining visual fidelity.