Yes, at the lowest level it uses 3D arrays, but that is used primarily for constructing the visuals (displaylists/polygons) - after each chunk gets constructed, a lot of data gets thrown away, although it will cache the majority of the data on disk and a bit less of it in memory, so long as it is within a certain range of the player. Currently, with these view distances, 2-4 gigabytes of memory is being consumed at any given instance -- however, there is still a ton of room for optimization (both in terms of speed and memory footprint). Additionally, while this game will be playable on lower-end systems, I also want it to be a major catalyst (if possible) for pushing the amount of memory and cores on a computer.

It REALLY benefits from more cores (chunks get processed almost twice as fast on a quad-core as opposed to a similar dual-core system. It also really benefits from a lot of memory - I want to push 32-64 gigabytes as a "reasonable amount" for high-end settings. Really, systems should be taking advantage of memory prices, but most aren't. At under $300 for 32 gigabytes, it should be pretty standard in a gaming-oriented system. (http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007611+600083963&QksAutoSuggestion=&ShowDeactivatedMark=False&Configurator=&IsNodeId=1&Subcategory=147&description=&hisInDesc=&Ntk=&CFG=&SpeTabStoreType=&AdvancedSearch=1&srchInDesc=)

And yeah my site stats list GameDev.net as the main contributor. :) Going to try and post a video right now, I guess I will just post what I have - I can always make fancier videos later.

Thanks!