Voxel Earth

Real places, in Minecraft.

Voxel Earth is a full pipeline for turning photogrammetry and 3D Tiles into block-based worlds.
It streams Google Photorealistic 3D Tiles (and other sources) into Minecraft as voxelized chunks, so you can walk through real cities, mountains, and landmarks — block by block.

• 🌍 Stream real-world 3D Tiles into Minecraft
• 🧱 CPU voxelization, no GPU required on the server
• ⚡ Designed to work hand-in-hand with FastAsyncWorldEdit (FAWE)
• 🌐 Web client for browser-side experiments and previews
• 🧪 Separate CLIs for each pipeline stage (download → decode → voxelize)

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Links & Community

• Website: https://voxelearth.org
• Play server: play.voxelearth.org
• Web client demo: https://beta.voxelearth.org (browser viewer)
• Discord: https://discord.gg/8MK8J9EQGe
• Monorepo (reference): https://github.com/ryanhlewis/VoxelEarth

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What is Voxel Earth and why should I use it?

Voxel Earth is a Minecraft + web ecosystem for exploring real-world geometry as voxels:

• 3D Tiles to blocks
  Fetches photogrammetry tiles (e.g. Google Photorealistic 3D Tiles), normalizes them, and converts them into Minecraft block palettes.

• On-demand streaming
  Tiles are pulled and voxelized as players move around, so you can “walk into” a real city and watch it appear around you.

• Flexible pipeline
  Each major step (download, Draco decode, voxelization) exists as a separate CLI tool and as embedded code in the plugin. You can test each stage locally before wiring everything together.

• Server-friendly
  The Minecraft plugin is built as a single shaded JAR, with CPU voxelization and async integration with FAWE for high-throughput placement.

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Downloads

Note: Links below are placeholders / targets; some may not exist yet.

• Minecraft plugin (core Voxel Earth JAR)

  • GitHub Releases: https://github.com/ryanhlewis/VoxelEarth/releases
  • Modrinth: /plugins/voxelearth
  • SpigotMC: https://www.spigotmc.org/resources/voxel-earth.130155/

• Web client

  • GitHub: https://github.com/voxelearth/web-client

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Minecraft Plugin

Requirements

• Server: Paper or Spigot 1.20+ with FastAsyncWorldEdit (FAWE) installed
• Java: Java 21+

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Commands

VoxelEarth’s plugin adds commands for geocoding, tile loading, and per-player preferences:

/visit <location>
  Teleport to a geocoded location (city, landmark, etc.) and stream tiles around it.

/visitradius <tiles>
  Configure how many tiles /visit loads around the target area.

/moveradius <tiles>
  Set how many tiles are loaded as the player moves.

/movethreshold <blocks>
  Movement distance (in blocks) required before triggering new loads.

/moveload <on|off|toggle|status>
  Enable/disable movement-based loading for yourself.

/visitother <player> <location>
  Teleport another player to a geocoded location and stream tiles.

/visitradiusother <player> <tiles>
/moveradiusother <player> <tiles>
/movethresholdother <player> <blocks>
  Admin variants that adjust settings and notify other players.
  
/voxelapikey <google-api-key>
  Store a Google API key for geocoding and tile access (per server).

Permissions are namespaced under voxelearth.* and default to true or op as appropriate (see plugin.yml for full details).

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Web Client

If you just want to experiment with tiles and voxelization in your browser, use the web client:

• Repo: https://github.com/voxelearth/web-client
• Live demo: https://beta.voxelearth.org

The web client:

• Fetches Google Photorealistic 3D Tiles in the browser
• Normalizes/rotates them into a viewable frame
• Can hand off data to the Voxel Earth voxelization pipeline
• Is ideal for exploring regions, testing zoom/SSE parameters, and visually inspecting tilesets before you spin up a Minecraft server

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License

Voxel Earth and its companion CLIs are released under the MIT License, unless otherwise noted in sub-projects. See the LICENSE file in this repository for full terms.

“Minecraft” is a trademark of Mojang AB. Voxel Earth is not affiliated with or endorsed by Mojang AB, Microsoft, or Google.