Voxel Plugin vs Ymir

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.

Ymir is a node-based procedural terrain generator for Linux and Windows, with a graph workflow for constructing and exporting terrain. Nodes cover noise and shape generation, sculpting, filters, and thermal, hydraulic, and stream erosion. Erosion can use a mask and produce flow, wear, and deposition layers for later terrain work. Projects are stored as readable JSON in .ymir files, and node networks can be saved for reuse as .ymirsub subgraphs. Heightmaps export as 16-bit grayscale PNG, raw 16-bit R16, or 32-bit float EXR. The headless ymir-cli can build saved projects and export results; erosion runs on a GPU when available and otherwise falls back to the CPU. The editor requires a GPU with working Vulkan drivers on Linux, or Vulkan or DX12 drivers on Windows. Ymir is free software under GPL-3.0. Windows binaries are unsigned and prompt a first-run SmartScreen warning.