I’ve had this idea for awhile and ectizen urged me to blow some life into it.
Basically, I’d make some sort of landscape and divide it into plots. Anybody who wanted to could then build a house and send it to me and I’d place it in the requested plot.
Of course there’d have to be restrictions on polycount, lights, materials, etc. (suggestions?)
The .blend would then be freely available to the community. A nice testing ground for a walkcycle or whatever.
Ok!
It happens that I’m working at a cathedral… (post in WIP later on today, maybe)
So, if you need a church 
(Bad news is that Ve:706530 Fa:745329 and far from finished 
)
Stefano
Im in.
Time to start blending up a building of sorts.
maybe it will be better than just a large box. oh i know, howbout a cardboard box for the bum on the corner? j/k
Heh, that’s a bit heavy on the polycount :-?
I was thinking something like 2000-3000 faces. Is that way too little?
But first we’ll see how many are interested :).
Hehe 2000-3000 poly’s? That MIGHT work if you only model the outside of buildings
Oh,
please, please, please,
at least 16k faces
Stefano
Great Idea !
I’m going to start my blender’s home :).
STEMax
Hey, that sounds like a pretty cool idea!
But the best you’re going to get out of me is a nice box with a little roof extruded off the top .
Pooba
Wasn’t there something about linking between URL’s, ie, different blender files? Maybe this also works in GE mode? Just seems a solution to restricting the polycount, ie, outside polycount can be restricted then jump to another file when entering a building.
Anyway, great idea rather than everyone moaning about the situation(including me).
I like this idea
Some assorted thoughts on this:I would favour emphasising the city-nature with relatively low poly counts (for external house models, and landscaping :o ), theoretically allowing many many houses
Perhaps a tradition of putting a low poly, external model in the city, with a doormat that has on it a url for a complete, high poly model of the house.
Restrictions on materials sounds interesting… Would reuse of other people’s existing materials be free, or count towards your own limits?
Lights, huh? Would two different lighting settings be problematic? I’m thinking of day and night scenes…
If you don’t like your neighbour’s house, can you move? 
Hehe if I put grass in my yard it will be about 500,000 poly’s… I guess I will just make a concrete slab yard :P. Wish I could do that with my real house… mowing/weeding is such a pain in 100+ degree weather (factoring in humidity).
Pooba wrote nice box with a little roof extruded off the top
.
Hey im the one to make the boxes for the city. well i guess i can let you
make a pointy box cause that aint quite the same. But we cant have to many box like things.
Intresting idea,
What you could do is act like a planning authority:
assign a number of blender units area within which each individual can build,
you can also set a height limit,
Once every month/week or say 10 plots built, we get to vote, those who rank at the top, get more space/height allocated and so can extend their property.
Public things (such as parks, churches, monuments etc, can be submitted and these can maybe be group works)
Eventually, we could elect a goverment and claim independence… 8)
Oh and don’t forget to put your letterboxes with names on them
I think we’ll want to stick with the outside. Otherwise it could soon become huge and unworkable.
My computer is far from top of the line. If I get more than 350,000 faces in a scene it’s almost impossible just to rotate it. And that’s without subsurfs 
So lets say 3500 faces and I should be able to handle 100 buildings/parks/monuments.
ectizen: about the materials, what I meant was more like, no extreme envmap refractive glass simulations and such that take alot of time to render.
I think also no llight beyond your property. And perhaps no more than one spot per person.
render? I thougth you were talking about realtime stuff
That’s sounds like an awesome idea!
I’m not a 100% sure if that’s possible, but someone could do a script that shows only the visible objects, simply by having all of them in a separate scene, and then moving them between scenes (using the Blender210 api) depending on the viewvector of the camera.
Pofo: if you don’t have an able computer, why don’t you let someone host it on theirs?
Martin
Ah, right perhaps that’s a better idea.
But I don’t know squat bout realtime
anyone else want the project?
No, please don’t make it realtime (or at least split the project in two for those that want a realtime counterpart).
Martin
Ok, I’m gonna keep mine ‘unrealtime’, if anyone wants to make a realtime version, please do so.
How about square properties with 10 units on a side (a standard plane is 2x2) where one unit represents 2 metres? Buildings not higher than, say 30 metres as a start?
I’m gonna put in a lake too, as I know at least one who might want to make a boat instead of a house
Hope to have landscape up tomorrow
cant wait, even a lake (what do you make a house boat? )
how are you going to figure out the streets and such?