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General => Image Sharing => Topic started by: cyphyr on December 15, 2010, 10:33:27 AM

Title: First City Engine Render
Post by: cyphyr on December 15, 2010, 10:33:27 AM
No artistic merit at all but I thought I would post this as a taste of things to come. City modelled and exported from City Engine (http://www.procedural.com/), no effort or time taken I just loaded the default scene, selected everything and exported the lot!
Not bad for about 2 min work ;D
Cheers
Richard
Title: Re: First City Engine Render
Post by: Zairyn Arsyn on December 15, 2010, 10:55:22 AM
looks good to me so far, doesn't need to be artistic, if its a taste of things to come. :)
the new wireframe feature goes a long way for this sort of scene.

i'm buying myself a i7 machine as a sort-of birthday present, i think after that i'm going to get the indie version of city engine, after i try the trial.
which version did you purchase?
Title: Re: First City Engine Render
Post by: Dune on December 15, 2010, 10:56:47 AM
Bloody hell, that's awfully nice already!
Title: Re: First City Engine Render
Post by: FrankB on December 15, 2010, 04:20:56 PM
great stuff Richard!

If only City Engine's pricing wouldn't be so steep :(

... but this struck me in the heart: http://www.cornucopia3d.com/brokeredfor.php?artist_store=137

City Engine for Vue (inside Vue even) for $299 ! Dammit. I want that for TG2 as well!
Oshyan, please talk to these guys :-)

Cheers,
Frank
Title: Re: First City Engine Render
Post by: goldfarb on December 15, 2010, 06:16:22 PM
I've mentioned this before but it's worth doing again...

these kinds of procedural cities can be made in Houdini (apprentice version is free) - a bit more work but the results are as good.
Title: Re: First City Engine Render
Post by: Henry Blewer on December 15, 2010, 06:20:38 PM
This certainly blows away the Blender city generator.  Looks very good, with a little work on the landscape this would cause some people to take a real interest how it was done.
Title: Re: First City Engine Render
Post by: otakar on December 15, 2010, 06:22:02 PM
Nice! Question: How big is the object file? Are the textures high res? Just wondering if TG can handle a city like this on a modest machine...
Title: Re: First City Engine Render
Post by: Walli on December 16, 2010, 03:15:49 AM
nice result and actually the pricing is not that steep in my opinion. Of course it sounds steep compared to pricing of TG, but for most freelancers thats a bargain (the indie version). If you have to do a city, now you can save so much time...
As mentioned before, with some more work you can do stuff like that in Houdini too and I think the learning edition of Houdini is pretty cheap.
Title: Re: First City Engine Render
Post by: Henry Blewer on December 16, 2010, 05:26:01 AM
I downloaded the free version of Houdini. It does not like my computer very much,too slow. After it figures out the machine, it seems to work well. I think the HD version is $99.00. Gets rid of the watermark, higher render resolution...
Title: Re: First City Engine Render
Post by: Zairyn Arsyn on December 16, 2010, 10:43:28 AM
hey cyphyr, i are you going to try making a city with a heightfield terrain? i'm wondering how that will turn out, or how easy it would be.
Title: Re: First City Engine Render
Post by: Tangled-Universe on December 16, 2010, 10:57:29 AM
Quote from: zaai999 on December 16, 2010, 10:43:28 AM
hey cyphyr, i are you going to try making a city with a heightfield terrain? i'm wondering how that will turn out, or how easy it would be.

I was just about to ask the same question :) It would be cool to have houses on hills etc.
Title: Re: First City Engine Render
Post by: cyphyr on December 16, 2010, 11:41:19 AM
Thanks for the buzz guys :)
This really was just to see if the package worked, and yes it indeed do :)
I will be making some cities that conform to landscape topography, the process looks not too difficult, height maps etc are just grey scale images.
The model above came in at 20Mb with 40+ ! texture layers but the images are in the 200kb to 500kb range. It did need to be baked out through Poseray as the mtl file was read incorrectly by Terragen. I think Terragen could well handle MUCH bigger models stretching way off into the distance. ;D
I will be returning to CityEngine once I have some time, over Christmas or once my current work has finished.
I took a look at the Houdini and the Blender versions of city building plugins and although each is ok they're not a patch on CityEngine.
Cheers
Richard
Title: Re: First City Engine Render
Post by: FrankB on December 17, 2010, 03:58:44 PM
so again - like Vue - can we have this for an extra $299 integrated with TG2 please? ;)
Title: Re: First City Engine Render
Post by: rcallicotte on December 21, 2010, 09:06:55 AM
That has potential.

I agree with Frank.   ;D
Title: Re: First City Engine Render
Post by: cyphyr on December 22, 2010, 01:06:51 PM
A few more samples ~ The Venice is from their online demo library ...
:)
Richard
Title: Re: First City Engine Render
Post by: dhavalmistry on December 22, 2010, 03:04:45 PM
nice.....
Title: Re: First City Engine Render
Post by: Dune on December 23, 2010, 03:06:30 AM
This has huge potential! Keep'm coming, Richard.
Title: Re: First City Engine Render
Post by: Mohawk20 on December 26, 2010, 10:20:46 AM
Hey, nice software!

I need to make a city of slums, favela stile, for a friend. The buildings need to go up the mountainside as well...
Can City Engine do that?
Title: Re: First City Engine Render
Post by: cyphyr on December 26, 2010, 05:40:59 PM
Yes it should be doable,  I'll be investigating the finer points of the program in the new year and I'll post back in this thread.
Richard
Title: Re: First City Engine Render
Post by: Zairyn Arsyn on December 28, 2010, 02:29:40 PM
those last 4 renders looked great. :)

say Richard, do you know if its possible in cityengine to import 3d models of actual existing buildings?
Title: Re: First City Engine Render
Post by: cyphyr on December 28, 2010, 05:38:32 PM
Yes you can although I don't know the entire process yet. Its more about defining the "shape grammar" of different buildings but that also I still need to find time to investigate.
Richard
Title: Re: First City Engine Render
Post by: Dune on April 02, 2011, 03:14:32 AM
By the looks of what I've seen of city engine, it is only believable at larger distance.