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So I'm looking to get some general information here, but I'm not sure where to start. I'm thinking of exploring real-time terrain deformation (by which I mean hardcore deformation like digging holes and caves and tunnels, not just heightmap), and my idea was to make a 3D array of points representing cubes which can be solid or not, and can be removed or added. I'm not looking for perfect curvature in terrain or high precision deformation. But I want to write the engine such that the cubes (which are just points, really, not actual polygons) are smoothed out into something resembling a mesh (not a highly detailed mesh). The intent is that the limited deformability of the terrain would both simplify the algorithms necessary and hopefully reduce the processor power required.

Basically, I want to make something like Minecraft but with the visual illusion that the world isn't made of cubes, but rather of a mesh. I'm just interested in seeing if it can be done, and making a bare-bones demo of it. But I have no idea where to start, and what the current state of deformable terrain is amongst programmers. I've found a few articles on things like voxels and volumetric rendering, but I'd rather hear some input from live programmers. What do you think?

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voxels done right: procworld.blogspot.co.uk ... god knows how he does it though, i'm trying to figure it out too :) –  Wardy Apr 10 '13 at 18:16
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You're looking for marching cubes or marching tetrahedrons (if I'm saying the latter correctly).

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