The Blender City

General Forums Blender and CG Discussions
21

I was thinking Blendopolis (you know, like Metropolis), but I’m open for suggestions.

As to the file, yes, something in that regard. I’ll use something smaller, tho, and without roads built into it (those are seperate). I’ll get something down in writing ASAP, and prepare that file (I just got my old BlendLife stuff unpacked and am already thinking of how to update it for our new purpose).

One note, tho: I have no problem doing this, but I need to get a feel for how many are interested. So anyone who is lurking around and would like to get a virtual home in Blendopolis (or other final name), please just post a quick line so I can count you (even if you already posted in the thread earlier). If only one or two post, I think I’ll have to prioritize my time differently :wink:

22

I’m interested :slight_smile:

Also, once we get started and have a very organized plan, I think more people will show interest.

23

Hi, im rewind81’s friend that helped him with also came up with the idea. I really like the idea of a mass project and I think people would love to explore a 3D virtual city. Im definitely interested.

24

Not sure if I should post this but some time ago there was a project called “crosswalk”. It hasn’t quite fallen as I saw an image from the named project recently. Anyways, one of the team emailed me the *.blend file. It has lots of models of buildings and stuff, and can be a base of excellence. From what I gathered was that loads of folks contributed to it. If anyone is interested in hosting this somewhere it’s accessible, I wouldn’t mind emailing the file to them. In my opinion it has historical significance, and does have some the “exploring” elements there.

25

I can host it when I launch my site.

26

This would be great.

27

Thanks rewind81 - if you want, I can maybe jack you up with a webhost. It’ll be totally free, but as you know, since I am quite heavily involved in another project at the moment, we may need you to put a link to our site too.

28

Hmm, what web host?

29

im in! Sounds like an excellent idea!!!

30

Not so much resurrection <sp?>, continuation.

It all looks promising, and I’m a serious fan of potential. I’ve had a look at the Blender Life files and site and thinkmoult.com, skippy :spin:.

[skippy is going from link to link to link to… you get the idea].

Seems to me that you have done a lot, and a little bit of support from the community will help move things along.

My “contribution” to the discussion is:

You’ll need a distributed resource system. Yes, I choked on the words as I typed them. I have a web site, you have a web site, we all have a web… consolidation isn’t the answer, and collaboration will change the possibilities, but, you still have to work out “how” to make it happen.

  1. Shared usage requires trust between all contributors.
  2. Continuity will be limited by user system and access capability.

There’s more, but this is turning into a ramble.

The combination of “aspects” involved in such an endeavor may well bring out the best of the community; keep on keepin’ on.

31

There is a free MMORPG “PlaneShift” with a GPL codebase using the CrystalSpace engine. What about using that codebase for this project?

32

Hosting is not an issue. I have plenty of space for now (i.e. until we have a few dozen complex citizen homes). the technical stuff will be a bit trickier, but I think the main plan from BlenderLife will be (re)usable. I should know by Sunday.

Great, do you have a link or something, I’d love to check it out?

EDIT: I found Crosswalk, and though it is a very different project, there are definitely things worth looking at. Once Blendopolis (verdict pending) is founded, Enriqo will be made fully aware of it! Also, I like the idea that Blendopolis would be usable for creating animations. Who hasn’t wanted to just pick up a diverse and creative city and just start telling its stories?? :slight_smile:

33

yeah Im creating a city for a short of mine, so once that is out, I could probably add some 20-30 buildings consisting of alley, park and commercial district, but the best thing is as cognis says, by sharing these kinds of resources we can go straight to story telling- without having to worry too much about using our time and resources reinventing the wheel… the only thing is, my buildings are just the shells- Im not going to be creating insides, is this a problem- are you guys only looking for fully furnished, models?

34

Well… I had a really crappy day. But that just meant I flipped my surroundings the finger and went home and did some good ol’ blendering instead. So I guess it all worked out one way or another…

Anyway… I got the first model of Blendopolis going. In essence, I created a handful of basic files and then one file that they were all linked to. So if I, say, change my basic model for a slab of road, all the roads in the main file change automatically. [end techno-babble, cue pretty pictures]
http://www.tayds.com/Blendopolis/City%20View.jpg
This is the city as it looks now. It is the main file; all the things in it (except lamp and camera) are linked to external files. So when I changed the stairs in front of City Hall (big white building), this city file updated all on its own. Little people in front of the stairs show scale :slight_smile:
http://www.tayds.com/Blendopolis/Home%20View.jpg
This is a basic home in Blendopolis. The idea is that we will start ‘selling’ the 36 homes already seen in the city picture, cheaply. How to ‘buy’? Provide models or assistance to the creation of Blendopolis, and you get a bunch of “Blendits” (better currency name??). Getting a home thus becomes a matter of designing a few models for common use. I’ll do some commision examples (“Make four pieces of furniture”, “design two windows and two doors”, etc.) that people can perform to ‘buy’ a home in Blendopolis :slight_smile:

Of course, once you buy a home, you can design it as you wish; the cardboard house is just there to have something visible. Make a giant tipi, a blue dome, a little black castle (or pink like My Little Pony?). you get the idea :wink:

That’s it for now. The whole thing is still being tampered with little by little, but something should soon be up and running!

@ave: Sounds like you already have some good stuff waiting! And no worries, for larger city projects, we’ll start with just empty shells. The idea is that I, as mayor :D, can then commission city contracts to people to produce stuff to fill the buildings etc. in need of filling. I’ll do some more detailed writing on the whole city contracts and stuff later.
http://www.tayds.com/Blendopolis/City%20view.jpg

35

Does anybody remember Beast? It started off to be a city generator kind of thing, but I don’t think it was ever finished. But taking Beast as a starting point, it might be worthwhile to greeble out a basic city, carve it up into districts (toon district, gang district, etc…) and then when ever someone makes a building for whatever district, just swap out the placeholder greeble and drop in the model.

Also, to keep scale consistent, if we accept that the default cube is a box 2x2x2 meters, then there could be a shared file with doors, windows, basic cars, all modeled on that scale. Then whoever is doing a building can shift+f1 whatever they need and model to that scale.

36

No worries and I am glad that Enriqo will be made aware of this.

Sooo . . . . pm me your email. Bear in mind the *.blend file is about 20 megs or so, and even though I have for month of Sundays, I haven’t had a chance to study it. I can’t email it right now - it may take a week or so before I get on the 'net again.

37

Hello future citizens of Blendopolis (the only city in the world that has nether debt nor inflation),
Have you considered Discombobulator? With a little bit of setup, meaning cutting the roads and side walks before using the plugin, the base meshes could be generated in a way to have a “city” look to it.
I use it for car shots or animations but only finish the sides that are seen from the camera and like someone mentioned above, there are no interiors. But with a lot of man power, the cubes generated by Discombobulator could be separated and then the new “owner” of the building can paint the textures and map them.
This method is game engine friendly but it all depends how big the project is going to get.

Good luck guys the (blender) world is watching you!

How about BlenDoller (or blendollar) for a currency?

38

that is a great idea, the blendits… gives people an incentive to contribute…

ok im a little slow on the uptake, but how do we get to view the city?

oh yeah and one last question… what is the max poly count per building?

39

I like bobmiq’s idea of having different districts for different categories… especially if we eventually use this as a resource for shorts- it will keep the settings consistent, initially they will be a bit sparse though, so we could build up to that… unless of course we have someone wanting to make mega blendits/blendollars

could also be cool to have different classes… exclusive neigbourhoods if you will, that cost big bucks to buy- big stands, little bikini pool cleaning ladies… palm trees, casinos… sort of have to work your way to get property there, and not everyone can explore inside those areas…you unlock them by contributing more to the city…

40

Okay, think I am getting things into place…

RE: Districts: Yes, there will be blood… sorry… districts hrahram. In time, there will be expensive districts for those who earn lots of blendits by supporting Blendopolis, and there will probably be small cheap apartments for the newcomers at some point. At first, there will be only basic design limitations, so houses will probably end up looking… unique :spin:. But later on, we will set up type-defined districts for those wanting more cohesion (I guess there should be a city counsel at some point for that…?).

RE: Discombobulator (sp?): I really want to avoid it. It is far too random for my taste, considering the trickery needed to make this project work. I’d much rather see people actually delivering creative content, filling the holes with standardized units. But some middle ground might exist beyond my knowledge of Blender!

RE: Scale: The standard Blendopolis home beginner’s pack (the house I showed above) has a little guy standing in front of it. He is 180 centimeters / 6 foot tall. That makes 1 standard Blender unit 5oo centimeters or 200 inches (16 feet 8 inches). The scale was chosen for reasons too uninteresting to mention here.

RE: Viewing the city: There will be at least one camera in the city that can be moved around to get viewing for the editor and thus for rendering. People who find cool views can then just save the camera position (or path, if animated!) and others can import just the camera(s) they want to try out. I will upload a guide on this at some point.

RE: Poly count: No such thing. Instead, a 5MB file limit. Remember, you HAVE to pack your textures etc. into the file!

AND!

The first four homes are now up for grabs! This is to make some early tests before opening up entirely for settlers :slight_smile: One home is already reserved for my deputy mayor, rewind81 (once the website is working ;)). The remaining three can be acquired for the cost of 1000 blendits each(I will avoid Blendollar to avoid jinxing our economy. Have you seen the US exchange rates lately :eek:). Only one per person (for now!). The following minor commissions are available to earn the cash:

  • Design a (pretty) door, max polycount 100. Worth 250 blendits.
  • Design a (pretty) window, max polycount 100. Worth 250 blendits.
  • Design a (pretty) fountain for the coming city center, max polycount 500. Worth 500 blendits.
  • Design a fire hydrant or free-standing mailbox, max polycount 100. Worth 250 blendits.

All models will be public domain (as will your homes!!!). I would like someone with Creative Commons experience to help draft a CC for Blendopolis; the commission is worth 500 blendits, but only one is needed (PM me!).

Future commissions available will involve some larger structures (city hall will be commissioned in stages). Feel free to comment or suggest other models, but please do not spend a lot of time designing them and then expect them to immediately make the list; I am moving at small steps to avoid the project stumbling over its own feet.