I recently discovered a new MMORPG called EverQuest Next (EQ Next) and I was amazed at what they are doing. The world is completely distructible and its apparently because of these things called voxels. So my question is: What exactly are voxels?

From searching the internet i heard they are kind of like minecraft blocks, by stacking them to create an object it allows them to be destroyed. So, are they easy to program? Would it take longer to make an object from voxels than pixels?

For a start, you might want to read through the Procedural World blog, by the guy who wrote the voxel technology that Everquest is using.

Essentially, a voxel is a 3D pixel (hence the similar naming). Just as a 2D image is constructed of pixels, a 3D image can be constructed of voxels. That's pretty much it; the idea is quite simple. The hard part comes in the implementation. Adding a dimension adds an exponential increase to the complexity of your algorithms for handling the data, as well as exponentially increasing memory storage requirements. Simple voxel systems are pretty easy, but elaborate ones such as the tech behind EQ, intended to build vast worlds, are quite complex and require a strong knowledge of parallel systems design and optimization to implement.