SceneCity (previously Suicidator)

[piiichan]

Hello sh1kuoro,

to replace the traffic signs, telephone booths or any other object in the streets, you can edit the objects themselves,
street objects.jpg
you can delete the instances from the road models or the building models, or you can add new objects to the road models, and then all the road instances in the city will have the changes applied.
objects instances on roads + buildings models.jpg



Oh I see what you mean... yes this is a kind of artificial intelligence that can redo a road network based on some example input model. I have one research paper where they show how they did it, and indeed that would be a very nice addition!
But before that, SceneCity must support curved roads.
I add your idea to the list of features for future releases, thank you for the feedback

[SHABA1]

Okay After about Five years (at least) of following this thread, I finally broke down and BOUGHT Scene City. I just got tired of waiting for the free version of the newest uploads by piichan. And since I had some extra money I treated myself. I have not even run it yet. Just installed it in blender 2.78 and made sure it showed up in the addon panel. I am waiting for a day off from work so I can really play with it. I will let you know my impressions. My main interest is using it to create cities that can be exported to other programs and sites like OpenSimulator,Second Life and Unity3d. Any help in that direction would be appreciated.

Take care.

[piiichan]

SHABA1,
I know you've been waiting for the free version. SceneCity being a Python-based addon makes it difficult to provide a free version without giving away the whole thing. I'm still figuring out how I can provide a free version... perhaps when SceneCity is bigger, I can make a subset of its functionalities and its included assets totally free.

In the current version, some people had success with exports, while others had difficulties. I guess it's because exporting cities depends on your experience with exporting from Blender in general, it's not easier nor more difficult than exporting any other kind of scene.

However, the very next version will include export facilities for Unity. It's in progress, so please let me know your impressions and feedback so I can improve the export workflow.

[xan2622]

Salut piiichan.

1. Could SceneCity feature an option similar to RichDirt or RichScene (plugins for 3DSMAX that add dirt on facades, increasing the realism of the buildings) ?

2. And it would be cool if there was another option to make buildings not brand new, making them old or a little bit destroyed. Ideally, your addon would feature an option to set the level of degradation (cracks, more faded paint on walls, dirt, holes in walls...).
Example: https://www.cgtrader.com/3d-models/e...buildings-pack

[xan2622]

It looks to me like version 1.0 still has the same basic 10 buildings, although I look forward to using the new tools to create some of my own. Is there a way that SceneCity users can share our models online? It seems like a few people working together could create a lot of meshes that would really extend the software.

Hello Jim,
thanks for the feedback, allowing the users to share their buildings seems to be a pretty good idea, I'll think about it!

This is a brilliant idea! It would be awesome if http://cgchan.com/store/scenecity/ could feature a repository (a gallery with screenshots) of user-submitted buildings and urban props (trees, bushes, signs, rooftop elements, public benches, street trashcans, cars ? ...).

Julperado, HeadClot,

about Open Street Map support, you've convinced me it's an interesting feature to have. I'll work on it right after the imminent 0.8, and I'll keep you informed of my progress here and on my blog.

I've also started looking into easily getting Google Maps images to map on a terrain, eg below the buildings, but that's as far as one can get with GoogleMaps, as Google doesn't make their underlying data accessible (pity).

Hey Piichan,

Thank you for considering support for Open Street maps. Really is sad that Google does not make their underlying data accessible to more people. That said Open Street maps is a good substitute.

I look forward to seeing your blog updates

Open Street Map support is something that I would also like to see in SceneCity! I hope you'll add this feature soon.

[piiichan]

Bonjour Xanax

that would be a cool feature to have, to make the buildings as clean or dirty as the user needs, but I think it's a bit out of scope for a city generator. Or it is a late feature for a very large product with tons of features. It is the role of a texturing software/plugin, in my opinion. However I am already including more realistic assets into the coming version of SceneCity, with more dirt on them but the level of dirt will not be dynamic, unless...

User-generated content is a good idea. The work to make it happen, especially the web part (with upload and security stuff... my head hurts already), will be substantial though. So it's not a high priority at the moment.

OSM is much more interesting. This is already in the todo list, and I will start including OSM features as soon as SceneCity can manage non-grid-based cities.

[xan2622]

Check what this guy did with a rig: It's really impressive (from new building to damaged building) !
https://twitter.com/floatvoid/status/899901332185694208

[Bernardo]

Hi Piichan!

Got your city generator some time ago. I am starting to play with it more seriously now. I was wondering a couple of things.

-At the moment I have the feeling the city can be generated only on a flat surface. Is this correct? Do you have plans to add the ability to generate it on non perfectly flat surfaces in the future?

- I read that you are looking into the ability of using open street map for road pattern generation. Is there also some more customizable road network solution for the future?

Thank you!

[piiichan]

@xan2622
Yes thanks for the link I saw that one on Twitter. I think it's good for a single building, or several. But a whole city block... I'm not sure, performance-wise. I keep it mind though, it deserves some thoughts as to where this kind of rig could fit in SceneCity's workflow.

@Bernardo
Hello Bernardo.
Yes at the moment cities can only be built on flat surfaces. This is a limitation I'm planning to remove. The main challenge with the current way cities are built is for the roads to follow an uneven terrain.

I have plans for the road generation system. It is doable to generate roads from open street maps or from an algorithm, the challenge is to do so with a high enough visual quality, and/or to allow the user to use his/her own models in the process. I cannot say when, but those features are on my list.
I post regular updates on my Twitter, so stay tuned!

[Bernardo]

@xan2622
Yes thanks for the link I saw that one on Twitter. I think it's good for a single building, or several. But a whole city block... I'm not sure, performance-wise. I keep it mind though, it deserves some thoughts as to where this kind of rig could fit in SceneCity's workflow.

@Bernardo
Hello Bernardo.
Yes at the moment cities can only be built on flat surfaces. This is a limitation I'm planning to remove. The main challenge with the current way cities are built is for the roads to follow an uneven terrain.

I have plans for the road generation system. It is doable to generate roads from open street maps or from an algorithm, the challenge is to do so with a high enough visual quality, and/or to allow the user to use his/her own models in the process. I cannot say when, but those features are on my list.
I post regular updates on my Twitter, so stay tuned!

thanks for the answer!

It's great to know those features are one the list.

Yes, I agree that slopes are a big challenge. I deal with city creations daily on my work, and having to cope with a non even terrain is quite difficult.

As for the roads, personally I am not so much interested in open street map itself, rather on the ability to draw custom road networks. The cities I mainly deal with are ancient and rarely the road network is a parallel and perpendicular lines grid. I would love to be able to draw my custom road grid with non straight roads as well.

I will keep an eye on twitter. I don't have an account there, but maybe it's time to do one

[cet77]

Will the 'better support for night scenes' include random lights in the windows? I'm struggling a bit with that now, cause i need a night scene with lights... I suppose i'll figure something out for now. But it would be a nice addition.

[dimitarsp]

hello, i am new to scene city. how would one go about generating a european type of city, e.g. non-grid-based but diagonal and curved based?

[piiichan]

@cet77
Yes, coming versions will be able to generate textures with randomly lit windows As well as placing real lamps, though this is already possible. But night scenes are extremely difficult to render by Cycles, I'll have to look into that issue.

@dimitarsp
Curved roads are a coming feature, it is not yet included. Stay tuned

[cet77]

Cool, looking forward to that.. I like these plugins very much already. Do you have anything to say about maybe when the next update on this will be? Eager here.

[Scigor]

We are all waiting in line, for the "big" updates!

[northstreamcreations]

This is awesome