Jump to content

Procedural City


Andz

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 108
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Hey there,

I'm not sure if you're already doing this, but you can try and experiment with CopyStamping your own hand-rolled assets which can have some intelligence in them. This will let you do some really cool things and it's really fun to build.

Check out the image and the zipped .hip file for a look-see.

post-4-1125387828_thumb.jpg

stamped_hda.zip

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You're right DaJuice Greeble was on my mind, also a "city maker" routine I once saw for POVRAY.

Jason, CopyStamp is exactly what I'm doing, I guess I didn't explane well up there :) . Thanks for the file, Now I have somewhere to start for the more complex buildings.

Cheers!!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, lots of ideas spring to mind..

Like:

*/ create several SOP assets - 1 for each type of building style: house, mansion, townhouse, office block, mall, ghetto, shantytown, skyscrapers - all with some variable parameters like "number_of_floors". Nest these assets in a City Populator asset that will choose between them based of random attributes and some nicely generated attributes, like "affluence" and "zoning" which could be painted or generated with low-freq procedural noise.

*/ each building-type asset could be asked to select a random building which would fit into a certain area - the plot to build on. This would ensure buildings never interpenetrate and you can lay roads on the poly edges.

Make a nice challenge:)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Jason, CopyStamp is exactly what I'm doing, I guess I didn't explane well up there  :) .  Thanks for the file, Now I have somewhere to start for the more complex buildings.

20924[/snapback]

Excellent.

The HDA route is super-powerful I think. I realized in my setup that I have an if() statement that if the the pitch of the roof of the house is too shallow (where it becomes both useless and silly-looking) then I snap the roof height to zero and go with a flat roof. This type of check should be handled by the asset and not by me, the CopyStamp params.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Has anyone tried to do this in Houdini 8.0's PolyExtrude? In 8.0, PolyExtrude has local variables and can extrude different polygons by different amounts in a single SOP. For example you can take a default grid in the Local Translate z, type something like rand($PR). May be quite a bit faster than doing copy stamping.

George.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Has anyone tried to do this in Houdini 8.0's PolyExtrude? In 8.0, PolyExtrude has local variables and can extrude different polygons by different amounts in a single SOP.  For example you can take a default grid in the Local Translate z, type something like rand($PR).  May be quite a bit faster than doing copy stamping.

George.

21006[/snapback]

Ooh - that sounds nice! Thanks George!

I guess a Divide>Bricker and a rand($PR) would make a quick and easy Greeble to any model, eh?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

im still so impressed by this... i was going to ask about the different building types but thats been covered too.

this is probably a simple question but why cant i edit any sops in the building object in Jason's file? the SOP's have like a net effect over the display and render flags. i extracted them and then put them back in a subnet but it broke the output :unsure:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

im still so impressed by this... i was going to ask about the different building types but thats been covered too.

this is probably a simple question but why cant i edit any sops in the building object in Jason's file? the SOP's have like a net effect over the display and render flags.  i extracted them and then put them back in a subnet but it broke the output  :unsure:

21010[/snapback]

Not sure if this is it, but have you tried turning off the Secured Selection..?

Alex

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not sure if this is it, but have you tried turning off the Secured Selection..?

Alex

21021[/snapback]

I think its because they're in synchronized (locked) HDA's. RMB on the Buildings node and select "Allow Editing Of Contents", and you should be good to go.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ooh - that sounds nice! Thanks George!

I guess a Divide>Bricker and a rand($PR) would make a quick and easy Greeble to any model, eh?

21008[/snapback]

Yeah -- should do. It was a feature added at old_school's request to make just that. I can't wait to see pretty pictures made with it :)

Take care,

George.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.


×
×
  • Create New...