Planetside Software Forums

I just keep my hands off these city-idea.

I'll keep you informed on improvements.

Volker

Edit (2010_09_01): Updated: http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=5670.msg109827#msg109827

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Very nice job :). The first one looks like my Coruscant project from a while back, but with better texturing ;).

This is interesting.  I'd like to see it with a night shot with lights in the buildings and streets.  Or not.   ;D

Calico is kidding again  ;D

Old_blaggard ... I missed that one, or it is long ago!?!

Nonetheless, I rearranged the nodes and am able to control the city quite well.

Next step is to get some more organic variations.

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I'm not kidding about the lights.  You could use the Paint Shader with a population of lights...errr, or can we make a population of lights?

I already hav an idea for placing windows on the buildings - first I have to refine the shader-setup again ... after that I go for time consuming add-ins ,-) ;)

Nice use of the software! In the current incarnation, it would work great as a backdrop/matte painting or for surface detailing like the old-school modelmakers used to do. What did they call those little doo-dads they'd add to give visual interest and scale to something like the Death Star? Something like Nurnies and Gurbles?

Cool.

Nurnies and Greebles ... yes.

Still working on some improvements that not only work on the XZ-Plane but in space ... went a bit off the topic myself, as I got some fascination to functions.
Some decent results soon.

Just to keep you on track.
A two day old render on some sine and cosine functions.

I am refining now.

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Dystopia!  Can't wait to see the final result.

How incredibly unique and interesting.  Keep going!

Okay here is another Sine and Cosine function procedural ...

Next to come is a combination of the last ones with some more interesting distributions. ... Though still have some other variations in mind ...

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Stopping this project right now due to an unresolvable bug ... as soon as possible, I'll return.

Well, I'm watching.  This is interesting. 

What were you trying to do that didn't work?

Quote from: Volker Harun on February 14, 2009, 11:12:02 AM
Okay here is another Sine and Cosine function procedural ...

Next to come is a combination of the last ones with some more interesting distributions. ... Though still have some other variations in mind ...

Wow a replicator planet!

I keep on going ... the problem is that pure cubic shapes ignore a breakup along the Y-axis.

So while I went dimming into sleep last night I changed my mind to go back to the more organic looking shapes ....

The last one is looking good. I kind of gave up on this angle due to horrendous render times are problematic vertical faces. My computers aren't that fast.

The first render is very cool because I think striated textures like this could actually be very useful for rocks. Some rocks have patterns like this. Just mess it up a little so it's not so regimented.

It has been some while ... and I come up with a newer, faster node-setup ... which is very much influenced by mogn's work over here: LINK (http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=10612.msg109486#msg109486)
His node setup is the clue to provide some very interesting distribution-settings ...

The attached image is a view of some quick setups ... after building the (attached) clip, it took about 30 minutes to make the scene and a bit less than 2 hours to render.

More to come (whenever) ,-) ...

Volker

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Thanks!

Good to have you and guys like Mogn here , Volker :)

Very creative - thanks for sharing!

this looks fascinating!
thanks Volker Harun

That's very clever, Volker. I really like the last one and the 'city after total destruction'. If you can also add some asphalt, it's very convincing!

this is really cool VH.

thanks a lot for sharing the nodes. :)

Hi Volker,
had a quick look at your file,thought i might learn something and indeed
i learned that i still don't know how to read these invisibly connected
nodes/groups.Is there a way to find out which internal group is connected
to which other group? Or in which order?
Please,Grandmaster of the Internal Network,Initiate of the Invisible Connection
enlighten me. ;D
Cheers,J.

@all ... thanks for the encouragement
@Dune ... I would love to have a good idea for convincing procedural asphalt ,-)
@j meyer ... well, I learned a lot by the functions you supplied. So the applied TGD is for your eyes only ,-)

(attached a very simple scene with a distribution example. Other than the above clip: There are no internal networks and I killed the Y-axis part, as it rather complicates the distribution)

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Thanks for sharing this, Volker. It may come in handy whenever I have to make a city overpowering an ancient Roman farm site  8)

As for the asphalt; I wouldn't know how to get the 'road plan' in procedurally, but color wise, I simply use a distance shader as base color gradient blended by a mask, to simulate reflection. Or use a real about half reflecting shader over some dark colors.  But Greg Sandor is the asphalt man here!

 ;D Thank you very much!

An evolved stage ...

Thanks for viewing ...

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Wow, looks like a big step forward - impressive work!

its Trantor!!!

Quote from: Volker Harun on September 08, 2010, 06:32:14 AM
An evolved stage ...

Thanks for viewing ...

that looks really good, keep us updated with your further progress.

That is cool. Can this be used with a distribution shader or the shapes shader for controlling the coverage?

Quote from: njeneb on September 08, 2010, 08:35:04 AM
That is cool. Can this be used with a distribution shader or the shapes shader for controlling the coverage?

Yes - you can use any kind of distribution you like ... the only point to take care of is: The buildings' roof follows the underneath terrain - so the terrain should be very smooth for healthy looking cities. ;)

And now for procedural cars and people. ;)
Good job!

I have looked at your implementation of the perlin distribution. Except for for the conditional for creating a LowPass mask.
I feel kind of stupid using 0 and 1 constants when creating a mask.

The way to implement such a mask is:

LowPass(variable, Upper value) == HardStep(Upper value, variable)
HighPass(variable, Low value) ==   HardStep(variable, Low value)
BandPass(variable, Low value, High value) == product of above.

This is a good idea ... using your lowPass is faster than the conditional ... at least on my subjective perception.
Thanks for the advice! :) :)