Procedural City Generation

[mkandersson]

Oh this would save sooo much work!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDrALvAqsaI

[Seldoon182]

Yeah ! This looks much more as a prototyping tool than final product use.

Edited September 12, 2013 by Seldoon182

[Kedhrin]

LOL their analogy of crunch is hilariously bad. 

 

I love the thought of this stuff.  But he was wrong when he said "artist can just focus on the creative stuff" - when this procedural shit takes away the control from the artists and forces them to make bad looking art most of the time.

 

I've yet to see anything that looks very good using 100% procedural techniques, there are shortcuts with hybrid procedural+traditional, but the press easy button == look like ass button.  This setup could be a great 1st step to produce stuff then an artist comes in and makes it look good.  The volume editor is really cool.  

 

Not to mention having to deal with the groans of making sure it can work with your engine and the performance specs.

 

good video though, i'd love to see how far you can customize the very specific and unique details - most of the problems lie on edges and corners, the lack of trims/chamfered edges is the think that makes it look like butts upon butts.  I could see it being really beneficial for us if we could integrate it into CryENGINE (lulz) for Revival.

[Em']

That procedural stuff looks pretty amazing for large open world that take so long to fill up with content. I think it depends upon the game and gameplay targeted : Half-life would not need that sort of tech, nor a COD, but imo for some really huge scale maps it could save time to artists and designers... I think those techs (not especially this one, but all prodcedural) will be fantastics once they'll be polished and that we'll find a way to include properly procedural creation to game engines ! Because right now this vid isnt selling me the art

 

 

The VBS2 features look nice ! Imagine a game with that sort of tech, a decent engine and GTA5 budget

Artist could still focus and polish art while making some "focus places" in the landscape... Or directly edit what that shity generator did.

 

Procedural ftw !

Edited September 11, 2013 by --Em--

[blackdog]

Woa, that stuff with Houdini is really impressive. And it's not completely procedural, is a hybrid, so there's really much more value.

I sometimes think about my "definitive sandbox game", and so how could/should an engine/tool work to speed up production and allow new things for gameplay. I dunno if anything i imagine is possible, but this walkthrough shows stuff that in some aspects definitely go beyond what I ever imagined.

PS: also the Bohemia tools are very very smooth, I never happened to stumble on those. Frak!

Edited September 11, 2013 by blackdog

[Evert]

The vid isn't selling it no, but why does these tools need to be "fantastic" when people are still using Maya and Max to create video game assets lmao.

I think it's super interesting to see the development of stuff that's about creating a lot of content fast, where focus can be composition (spatial and color) and lighting instead of aligning windows with brick textures. I agree that I'm not completely sold on this from looking at the examples provided in the video, but what sold me on Hammer was not John Carmack or some Valve programmer, but people who used the tools to make amazing stuff.

[mkandersson]

Yeah I agree on the visuals on it but I was thinking of using it more as a white boxing tool that lets me mock up a detailed level and do quick iterations on it with not much work. Then when the level is done, just go in and use the procedural models as a base for the environment art.

[jeeny123]

i would like to appreciate you for sharing such a great info with us

[mkandersson]

thanks

[Thrik]

I think that's a bot but we'll see... 

[Vilham]

definately.

[blackdog]

The vid isn't selling it no, but why does these tools need to be "fantastic" when people are still using Maya and Max to create video game assets lmao.

Well, I'm no expert but the tool shown doesn't seem –to me– to be used for making game assets, not in the form you mean. It seems to work on some kind of instance of an archetype, so maybe you are still creating the window frame with all the details you want, but in such a way the tool understands how to break it down and mold it?

[mkandersson]

I think that's a bot but we'll see... 

Then its a nice bot I have never seen one that gives compliments before

[Evert]

Blackdog fair enough

Which to me seems like a pretty decent middle ground, and if you have good art assets to begin with I think these kinds of editors can probably be pretty powerful.

Also no expert but new, faster ways of creating things that we've been building for a thousand times during the last 20 years is always welcome.