VIVIA: Beyond the Known
A voxel survival sandbox with real-world climate (NASA POWER data) and an embedded neural network that learns while you play — built from scratch in Rust. EGS submission kit is ready; release date TBA.
Overview
VIVIA (internally NV2_ENGINE, store name NV-2.0) is a commercial voxel game written
entirely in Rust — 39 source files, 24,000+ lines, 132 tests. It features:
- Real climate worlds — every seed maps to a location on Earth; NASA POWER climatology drives biomes, weather and sky
- Embedded neural network (MeMLP) that learns vegetation, biome and texture decisions while you play
- Day/night survival — hunger, thirst, health; hostiles spawn after dark
- Wildlife — deer and rabbits roaming climate-appropriate biomes, 4 hostile types at night
- Crafting — shaped & shapeless recipe registry, tools and progression
- Procedural rendering — wgpu pipeline with sky, weather and animated creatures
- Keyless Epic Games Store support — EOS SDK loaded at runtime, clean no-op without it
Developer: Terra Nova Gameworks · Build: 1.0.0 Platforms: Linux, Windows · Stores: Epic Games Store (kit ready), itch.io (planned)
Tech Stack
| Layer | Technology |
|---|---|
| Language | Rust 2021 |
| GPU | wgpu 0.20, WGSL shaders |
| Window | winit 0.30 |
| Math | cgmath 0.18, OpenSimplex2 |
| Parallelism | rayon (async chunk gen) |
| Neural Net | ndarray (MeMLP embedded MLP) |
| Climate | Embedded NASA POWER grid + Open-Meteo API |
| Text | fontdue |
| Store | Epic Online Services (runtime-loaded, keyless) |
| Tools | Python (AI/texture pipeline), Externum (manifest tooling) |
Feature Highlights
🌍 Real-Climate Worlds
OpenSimplex2 heightmaps, caves, ores, 9 climate-driven biomes. 16×512×16 chunks with rayon-parallel generation. Embedded NASA POWER temperature and humidity data drive vegetation, weather and ambient sky.
🧠 MeMLP Neural Network
Modular embedded MLP with 3 specialist heads: vegetation placement (8→24→16→4), biome classification (8→12→9), texture style (8→12→6). Learns online during gameplay from synthetic + Open-Meteo API data. ~1,100 parameters, sub-0.1 ms inference.
🎨 Procedural Rendering
Custom wgpu pipeline: instanced voxel geometry, per-fragment lighting, procedural sky with sun/moon, rain/snow particles, day/night cycle. Animated voxel creatures with walk cycles.
🦌 Living World
Deer and rabbits spawn in matching biomes; four hostile types (zombie, skeleton, spider, creeper) emerge after dark. Kill rewards feed crafting progression.
🛠️ Survival & Crafting
Hunger/thirst/health stats with regeneration rules, mining with tool tiers, shaped & shapeless crafting recipes, item drops, save/load.
🕹️ Console & Commands
In-game chat commands: /tp, /give, /help plus the AI toolkit —
/ai_stats, /ai_export, /ai_import, /ai_dataset (model bundles are
portable JSON with author metadata).
Architecture
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ VIVIA Engine │
├──────────────┬──────────────┬───────────────────────┤
│ Renderer │ World Gen │ Game Logic │
│ wgpu + WGSL │ OpenSimplex │ Survival + Combat │
│ Instancing │ 9 Biomes │ Wildlife + Hostiles │
│ Sky/Weather │ Caves/Ores │ Crafting + Items │
├──────────────┼──────────────┼───────────────────────┤
│ AI Stack │ Climate │ Store/Platform │
│ MeMLP (3) │ NASA POWER │ EOS runtime (keyless)│
│ Online train│ Open-Meteo │ EGS kit + manifests │
│ Model share │ Seasons │ Low-end PC mode │
└──────────────┴──────────────┴───────────────────────┘
Testing
132 tests (cargo test --release: 131 passed, 1 ignored release benchmark) covering
world generation determinism, climate realism (embedded_grid_matches_known_real_climates),
MeMLP forward/training/NaN-survival, crafting flows, raycasting and vegetation rules.
Benchmark targets (frame-time variance, meshing latency) are specified in
BENCHMARKING.md;
the Criterion harness lands in the repo before launch.
Roadmap (honest list — not in the build yet)
Multiplayer (TCP protocol designed), GLB model pipeline for AI-generated creatures, spatial audio, quest chains and boss fights. See Multiplayer (planned) for the protocol design. Nothing on this page claims a feature the code doesn't have.
See also: Architecture · AI Engine · Rendering · Multiplayer (planned) · Gameplay · Performance