Oh, I'm using a sparse array all right - I "only" have to deal with, oh, 10,000,000 actual voxels. And to be fair, I was being colloquial, not accurate (in retrospect that was foolish on a site so closely linked to AI research) - JVM just threw an OutOfMemoryException and exited gracefully.
It'll vary depending on JVM and Java version and Operating System, but a modern 32-bit Windows environment will default to a maximum heap size of 1/4th of total available memory or 256 MB, and even a 64-bit Windows or Linux server-mode Java environment usually defaults to only one or two GB. With 'only' 10 million voxels, those defaults only give you 200 bytes per voxel in the best-case scenario (and 25.6 bytes per voxel in a plausible scenario), which can be deceptively easy to overfill.
You can change that with the -Xmx option when initiating the JVM in ...
In an attempt to encourage more people to actually do awesome things (a la instrumental rationality), I am proposing a new monthly thread (can be changed to bi-weekly, should that be demanded). Your job, should you choose to accept it, is to comment on this thread explaining the most awesome thing you've done this month. You may be as blatantly proud of you self as you feel. You may unabashedly consider yourself the coolest freaking person ever because of that awesome thing you're dying to tell everyone about. This is the place to do just that.
Remember, however, that this isn't any kind of progress thread. Nor is it any kind of proposal thread.This thread is solely for people to talk about the awesomest thing they've done all month. not will do. not are working on. have already done. This is to cultivate an environment of object level productivity rather than meta-productivity methods.
So, what's the coolest thing you've done this month?