[sushisource]

Please, creators, if you're reading this: Stop labeling things 8-bit that are in no way 8-bit except there are some big squares/cubes involved.

[crazygringo]

"8-bit" is clearly and widely understood as meaning "intentionally pixelated for artistic effect with a limited color palette, with an overall aesthetic comparable to classic 8-bit game consoles", whether in 2D or 3D.

Obviously it's not meant to be taken literally.

You might as well complain that "modernism" isn't modern anymore or that "gothic" novels aren't from the same time period of gothic architecture... or that roman typefaces come from places other than Rome, or that italic typefaces aren't all from Italy.

[TeMPOraL]

> You might as well complain that "modernism" isn't modern anymore or that "gothic" novels aren't from the same time period of gothic architecture... or that roman typefaces come from places other than Rome, or that italic typefaces aren't all from Italy.

I learned not to in front of people, but honestly, this is a problem - a problem of people introducing bad names, and then no one correcting them even decades later.

[OskarS]

It’s not actually a problem. It’s fine. We all understand each other.

[TeMPOraL]

It's more and more cases of terms where the meaning in use is different from the literal one. I.e. more exceptions to remember. More unnecessary cognitive load.

[jb1991]

The majority of phrases and words in any language have a modern meaning that does not resemble their literal origins. That’s how language works.

[OskarS]

You find it cognitively burdensome to remember that italic fonts aren’t necessarily made in Italy?

[koonsolo]

> Obviously it's not meant to be taken literally.

In that sense, we could also say that Minecraft has voxel graphics, since a lot of people seem to think so. It looks blocky, so it must be voxels.

I wonder which "voxel"-engine Minecraft runs on ;p

[w0utert]

Well, the Minecraft world is represented as voxels, so it's not that far off to say it 'has voxel graphics'.

[nomel]

In this context, "8-bit" is a well understood name of an art style. In this context, it's well understood that this has nothing to do with the bus width of processor architecture or misc color/data bit widths.

Think of it as a label like "modern art", which is art from 1860s to the 1970s.

[MattRix]

You are correct in general, but in this specific case the program is labelled "8-bit" because there is a palette limit of 256 different colors per model. Note: not output pixel colours, but rather colors that each voxel can be.

[sushisource]

Sure, but they're already saying "Voxel", which seems to be a better, more specific term here.

[nomel]

Technically accurate and precise specificity is rarely a goal when marketing a product. Their target audience will be using "8-bit" in their search terms.

[rpdillon]

The tag line is on the site says:

> A free lightweight 8-bit voxel art editor and interactive path tracing renderer.

Is the sentence in some way more clear with the modifier '8-bit'? What's being clarified?

[ghusbands]

That the voxels are each a solid color and are expected to be displayed at between 1x1 and 4x4 screen pixels per voxel. Definitely not minecraft-style, for example.

[gbear605]

That people are looking for “8-bit.” For instance, someone might google “8 bit editor.”

[PavlovsCat]

Someone might also google "audio editor", so why not also call it an audio editor to be on the safe side?

[nomel]

8-bit style voxel art can easily be made with this. In fact, that's the intended use case.

This would be a very poor tool for creating audio, and anyone looking for an audio tool would notice this immediately.

"8-bit voxel" is completely understood to the target audience. Anything involving audio would not.

[MattRix]

The real reason it's called 8-bit is because each model has a limit of 256 colours, NOT because of "8-bit" retro aesthetics. See: https://twitter.com/ephtracy/status/575207275985530880?s=20

[Kiro]

8-bit has evolved to mean something else to the masses. Deal with it.