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[phlerp]

If I understand it right, Outerra is generating terrain details, forests etc procedurally. Is there any ideas of using similar ideas for cities and other stuff?

Found these movies as examples of auto generated cities. Not realtime graphics but still a pretty impressive concept.

[cameni]

We have some ideas about procedurally generating the cities, but none of it is tested yet. Should come after finishing the procedural tree generator, that will provide some feedback in this area as well.

[phlerp]

Great to hear. Will be interesting to see the result.

[flightmaster]

would there be any way to generate it based on a map that would be the input?

[cameni]

There are several possibilities how to do it, but I'd like to divide it into a few independent stages. For example, we could generate the city layout as a collection of areas (industrial, residential ..), and then another component populates the generated polygon sectors with buildings. Alternatively we could use OSM data as the input for the second stage, so the generator as a whole could be usable in different scenarios.

But for flight simmers the best path would be the generation from OSM data. In that case, if you wanted to add another city, you'd first create the vector map in OSM, that can be then imported as a source for the generator.

[molnibalage]

Ok, the examples are shown how you can create highly populated urban areas. What about outskirts of big cities, small tows, factories, ect...?

And one more question. Does Outerra use DX10/11 technology?

[cameni]

Small towns and the outskirts should be doable too, although they need more variety and thus the requirement on a generator will be higher here.

We are using OpenGL3.3 and later will be using also some GL4/OpenCL features, which are more or less equivalent to DX10 and DX11, respectively. They also allow for the engine to be ported to different operating systems.

[phlerp]

The variety of auto generated stuff is very important. And even more so, to make sure that local differences are included. For example farm buildings can often vary as much between regions within the borders of a country as between different countries. The same applies to how farmland looks like. Some regions gros crops in one way and other in a totally different way even though it's the same crop.

[SpaceFlight]

I understand that it could be possible to enter all those buildings
and walk (or use an elevator) to the different floors in a procedurally generated city.
Is that correct or would the buildings be more like eyecandy
and it would be too time consuming to make the buildings explorable ?
Anyways, impressive stuff.

[Vicious713]

I've always wanted to see something that used Google Maps to build streets and roads, and then procedurally fills int he rest with buildings or houses. And then when were all driving in our hometowns, we can have car chases and drive irresponsibly.

[cameni]

All in its time. With a procedural generator it will be possible, but initially we are focusing on getting the exteriors right before the interiors are generated and explorable. It will be definitely going that direction.

[Obscurity]

This could be a techique/dataset that is more in line with the current engine design.

edit: that was actually the bad video. This is better:
[youtube2]BaahKhvO_E4[/youtube2]

[youtube2]gZNFBeZc338[/youtube2]

Thank you cameni

[cameni]

btw, how do you embed a youtube video on this forum?

Just wrap the video identifier in youtube or youtube2 tags like this:

Code: [Select]

[youtube2]gZNFBeZc338[/youtube2]