A wall is stored as matter, not just a skin
A voxel is a 3D counterpart to a pixel: one cell in a grid, assigned a material or color. In a voxel world, a wall can be represented by many occupied cells, each of which can be addressed separately. By contrast, a common polygon-based game model describes a wall as a surface made from connected flat shapes, with the space behind it left unspecified.
That difference changes what “damage” means. A conventional game might swap an intact-wall image for a cracked one, or remove the whole wall. A voxel system can mark particular cells as empty. The resulting hole follows the blast’s location and reach, leaving a jagged opening rather than a pre-authored damage pattern.
The grid sets the scale of destruction
The engine typically groups cells into chunks so it can update nearby parts of the world without rebuilding everything at once. When cells change, it can recalculate the affected chunk’s visible faces: faces buried against other solid cells do not need to be drawn. The game may also update collision, so a character or projectile can pass through a new opening.
Cell size is a design choice with a direct cost. Large cells are cheaper to store and process, but damage looks blockier and small features may disappear. Smaller cells allow finer cuts and holes, yet increase the amount of world data and work involved in rendering and simulation. Designers therefore choose a resolution that makes destruction legible without asking the game to track every grain of dust.
A hole can matter beyond appearance
Because the changed cells are part of the world’s structure, damage can affect line of sight, movement, and cover—not just the wall’s look. But that does not mean every voxel game simulates realistic structural collapse; many use simplified rules, or treat only selected materials as destructible. The memorable effect is more basic: after an explosion, the wall’s shape has actually changed, and the new gap is part of the space the player must navigate.
