Voxel Plugin vs World Machine

Voxel Plugin is voxel technology for Unreal Engine, with version 2 focused on creating and generating interactive terrain. Worlds can be changed at runtime, and those changes are described as reversible and non-destructive. Terrain is authored with stamps that generate 2D height or 3D volume data; procedural generation is deterministic when the same seeds are used. Voxel Graphs provide node-based control over world generation, but are not included in the Free plan.

The plugin targets Nanite as its main rendering pipeline and supports tessellation and displacement there. Unreal Engine's PCG framework can query voxel terrain and metadata, and PCG graphs can call Voxel Graphs; foliage workflows use PCG rather than direct plugin handling. Voxel Plugin 2 does not support cubic terrain or static, pre-baked world generation. Its documented release targets Unreal Engine 5.6 and 5.7 and is actively being developed, with documentation warning it may be buggy. The Free plan is free; Pro costs $349, paid once and is not for project budgets over $200k.

World Machine is procedural 3D terrain-generation software for artists creating realistic or stylized landscapes, including game, film, and visualization work. Its node graph offers more than 100 devices for terrain, erosion, rivers, masks, materials, and outputs. Simulations cover flow-based and thermal erosion, snow accumulation, river channels, lakes, and coastal erosion; Dragontail Peak adds terrain with overhangs, cliff faces, and caves. Exports include heightfields, meshes, masks, and PBR textures in standard formats, with listed file types including RAW, EXR, TIFF, PNG, TER, OBJ, glTF, and GLB. Compatible tools named by the maker include Unreal Engine, Unity, Godot, Blender, Maya, and Cinema 4D. Professional and higher editions support tiled builds for worlds larger than memory and can resume builds after interruption. The free Basic edition has the Indie toolset but caps each output asset at 1025×1025 pixels and is limited to non-commercial use. Paid plans are Indie at $119 a month, Professional at $299 a month, and Studio Site at $1,999 a month. It runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows.