Digital Urban: September 2009

2009-09-30

Suicidator City Engine - Free Procedural City Script for Blender

You wait for years for a free building/city generator and then two come along in the space of the week. Yesterday we detailed the Procedural Building Generator for Max and now the Suicidator City Engine (SCE) has been released. Running via a Python script in Blender, the results are as equally impressive:

The script allows you to automatically create a city by adjusting various parameters, such as city size and complexity, rather than creating each building, each street, and each texture manually.

Creating detailed cities and buildings has suddenly got so much easier and indeed free, which can only be a good thing.

Head over to the Suicidator City Engine page for full details.

2009-09-28

Free Procedural Buildings Generator - Now with Textures

The procedural buildings generator from http://www.tysonibele.com/ has eaten up quite a lot of our free time in the week since its was released. With updates coming thick and fast it now includes automatic texture creation complete with an included texture pack.

If digital urban gave out awards, this plugin would win a big shiny gold one, fantastic stuff and so refreshing to see this level of quality without an equally high price tag.

Head over to http://www.tysonibele.com/ for the download.

Archi-Me - Launches to Transform 3D CAD Models (?)

To be honest we are always a little skeptical of press releases and tend not to post direct quotes as they often simply over-hype a product. As such it is with interest that we find the following:

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MOOFU, a fast-growing UK company focusing on emerging technology, emerging markets and emerging people, today announces the launch of Archi-Me, a new solution that enables designers to create fully interactive avatar-based virtual environments from 3D CAD models.

Archi-Me changes the way designers and clients imagine, visualise and test projects by creating high-quality environments that people can explore in much the same way as in a computer game, with an avatar and user-friendly interface.

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The clip below details the system:

The clip is not all that impressive and the with systems based around Unity or OpenSim via the ArchNetwork it looks like Archi-Me has a lot to live up to - but as the press release carries on -

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MOOFU has launched Archi-Me after receiving an exceptional response to calls for early adopters from companies in the UK, USA, India, Italy and New Zealand. The technical team has created stunning virtual environments for schools, recreation buildings and a luxury villa.

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Perhaps we have got the wrong end of the stick on this one but we cant see designers using the system with the current state of the avatars/lighting compared to others on the market (?)

See www.archi-me.com for full details.

Feel free to agree or disagree via the comments....

Research Associate (GENeSIS project) - CASA Jobs

We have another job vacancy here at CASA - its actually my old job as ive just changed roles within the lab.

If you would like to become part of the CASA team then below are the details and how to reply:

Duties and Responsibilities

This is an ESRC-funded research position working on the Generative e-Social Science (GENeSIS) project. This post is funded until 30th September 2011. The main purpose of this post is to develop urban simulation models, specifically in London and the South East and to interface the model with CASA's London database.

Key Requirements

The ideal candidate will have a PhD in a related area, substantial programming knowledge and considerable experience of working with large-databases. Modelling skills are essential (for example agent-based or land use modelling) and a background in Urban Studies (eg urban geography / urban economics) is highly desirable.

Further Details

An information pack containing further details of the project is available from the main application page.

Closing Date 23 Oct 2009
Latest time for the submission of applications midday.

Interview date Thursday 5th November 2009.

2009-09-25

Infoterra prepares launch of cutting edge 3D city mapping tool – Skape

Infoterra Ltd, is a UK based provider of geographic information products and services. We have worked with them quite a lot over the years and they are one of the leading innovators in the field of commercial photogrammerty. It is therefore of note when they send a press release round regarding a brand new 3D city mapping service launching later this year which it says “will have to be seen to be believed”.

Named Skape, it aims to provide B2B professionals with presentational 3D city and mapping data as well as high accuracy building information of the UK’s major cities, all captured by the company’s own dedicated fleet of aircrafts and sensors.

The movie below provides a first look at Skapes output:

The days of grey scale buildings seem to of gone, with Google launching its automated photorealistic cities - see out post on 3D Birmingham - and Infoterra rolling out a similar commercial service it looks like we are entering a new phase of digital cities.

Skape will be launched to the market later this year. To register interest and to receive updates prior to launch, please visit www.skapeworld.com.

See also the Skape Blog for the latest news on the software, views and development.

2009-09-23

Photosynth Point Export - Photosynth as a 3D Scanner?

Take a look at the movie below and make sure you watch it all the way through - note the export of the model from photosynth into a stand alone 3D package:

This opens up the possibility of using photosynth as a free 3D scanner, and one that would work on objects up to the building level scale. It seems to be early days but there is a lot of discussion going on around the tutorial here.

If anyone has any more insight do let us know via the comments...

2009-09-22

Free Procedural Buildings Generator Released for 3D Max

Procedural building generators are few are far between so when one comes along that is not only powerful but also free it is well worth our attention. Tyson Ibele, over at http://tysonibele.com/ has released version 1.5 of his Building Generator for 3D Max 9 and above.

The clip below provides a glimpse of its output:

We are going to give it a spin later today - you can download Building Generator free via: www.tysonibele.com.

Thanks go to Karel Airapetjan for emailing us in the link.

2009-09-18

NetLogo and Repast to 3DMax to Unity: ABM Visualisation

Our work on Unity stalled for a while due to another projects and deadlines, but we are back on the case from next week with the aim of providing a quick and easy route to visualise agent based models with an urban theme .

The movie below details where we left off:

The ultimate aim is go from popular agent based modelling packages such as NetLogo or Repast into 3D Max and subsequently out to a game engine.

The movie below shows basic agent based models created directly inside of 3D Max:

Crowd and Delegates - Emergent Behaviour from digitalurban on Vimeo.

Finally, below is output from NetLogo visualised in Max - this is now up and running in Unity so the proof of concept seems to work:

Flocking in NetLogo exported to 3D Max from digitalurban on Vimeo.

All being well we should have a plugin for 3D Max available in the next quarter allowing direct input for agent based models.

2009-09-16

Dynamic 3D Models in Google Earth: Traffic and Pedestrian Visualisation

The movie clip below provides an insight into some particularly note worthy research, not just in terms of Google Earth, but also in terms of collecting and visualising traffic and pedestrian data:

Its not the overlaying of video clips in Google Earth, but the animation of complex traffic patterns in a digital city which we see as innovative. This has notable potential for populating city models with real-time traffic and crowd data as well as for the validation of agent based models.

Picked up via http://www.gearthblog.com

See http://www.cc.gatech.edu/cpl/projects/augearth/ for full details - very neat.

2012: City Visualisation

We are a bit of a sucker for a good 'disaster' movie and the forthcoming film 2012 ticks all the boxes, including some impressive city visualisations:

The scene at 1.17 / 1.19 is particularly well done..

2009-09-14

3D Birmingham now in Google Earth

Google Earth has taken some notable strides forward recently with the inclusion of auto generated 3D cities. To such a level that the output rivals Microsoft's Earth which for a while did have the lead in terms of visual quality. The Google Earth blog reported last week that Cardiff and Dublin had been added and now Birmingham joins the throng - see the movie below:

We are really impressed, the city actually looks like the city should, the auto generation system holds up well with the facades of the buildings not suffering from the traditional 'stripes' as seen in other models. It would be nice to see each building 'click-able' allowing for the integration of data within the built environment but we are sure this is coming. These are exciting terms in terms of 3D cities.

Thanks go to Phil for his comment in our Google Earth in Second Life post regards the model...

2009-09-11

Data Visualisation: Budgets and Good Morning Twitter

If like us you are often trying to find interesting new ways to visualise data then a quick look at the collection on Vimeo can lead to many lost hours.

One excellent example is of British Columbia's budget update by blprnt:

BC Budget Visualization Tool from blprnt on Vimeo.

blpnt seems to have quite a talent for visualisation, below is his work regarding people saying good morning on twitter:

GoodMorning! First Render from blprnt on Vimeo.

The movie details approximately 11,000 tweets collected over a 24 hour period between August 20th and 21st. The tweets were harvested to find people saying 'good morning' in English as well as several other languages. It was built in Processing (processing.org) using Twitter4J, and a home-brewed client for MetaCarta's geo-parsing APIs.

It is well worth a visit to the blog - blog.blprnt.com, excellent stuff...

2009-09-10

A New Take on Timelapses: Camera Matching and Blender: Game Day At Nokia Arena

Sometimes you load a movie thinking it'll be the same old visualization or timelapse and you suddenly sit back and think, wow. The movie below by Ariel Leviatan over at Waves and Pixels takes timelapses to a new level by building in camera matching and blender:

Game Day - At Nokia Arena, home of Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv from Ariel Leviatan on Vimeo.

We really like the technique and in the spirit of sharing information Ariel has provided a full write up of how its done over at his Waves and Pixels site. We also note the kind nod from Ariel to our original timelapse tutorial for starting the whole process off - its nice to know the tutorial led to something really creative...

2009-09-09

Neo City

We don't have much information on this one, but anything that includes in the title 'neo and city' obviously gets our attention and its a good one:

Neo City from Hao on Vimeo.

The clip was produced by Hao, it is well worth heading over to his Vimeo page to take a look at his demo reel...

The Parallel City

Instead of touring Copenhagens well-known streets and alleys, the team behind the Parallel City initiative invite you onto a journey that takes you through some of Copenhagen's many hidden courtyards - giving you a peek into the city's parallel universe:

The Parallel City from JAJA on Vimeo.

Most of Copenhagen's historic inner city consists of private and closed courtyards, the project poses the question what would happen if they were to open these courtyards? What would happen if these courtyards were made publicly accessible? What would happen when these courtyards become a part of the urban space?

The Parallel City is an invitation to rediscover and rethink the historic city of Copenhagen - you can find out more and full details at: http://theparallelcity.blogspot.com/ - its a nice idea, well presented thus the post :)

2009-09-08

Monopoly City Streets: Google Maps/Earth and SketchUp?

Google has teamed up with the people behind Monopoly to launch a global online version running on top of Google Maps and perhaps Google Earth (?). Details are scarce at the moment but an announcement is imminent via both the game's official site and the blog.

Of note is the mention for SketchUp users to check back September 7th (today)....

Miniture City Timelpase: Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)

We know, we know... the effect has been done time and time again over the last year and we have featured many mini city timelapses here on du. That said, we still like them, below is mini Ho Chi Minh:

Miniature City HCMC Tilt-Shift Time Lapse from Joe Nafis on Vimeo.

The clip was captured by Joe Nafis using a Canon A540 with the tilt shift effect done in post.

Spheres: Panoramas and Step Inside Worlds

Ok so its not city related but the movie below is worth a post as we have a bit of a 'thing' on visualising spheres, they are really useful for creating movies of panoramas.

Spheres from Regis Hervagault on Vimeo.

Therefore, you could put a panoramic image on each of the spheres and create a series of 'worlds within worlds'. For those who may of missed our posts a few years back on panoramic spheres, the movie below details the first concept:

Panoramic London Churches - HD from digitalurban on Vimeo.

Building on this further with 'step inside spheres':

Worlds within Worlds: Using Panoramas for Sense of Location and Place from digitalurban on Vimeo.

Its a theme we may return to as they are quick and easy to create yet we think provide an interesting way to visualise the urban environment (?)

4D Cityscape Time Puzzle

Sometimes when trawling the ether for the latest and greatest in digital cities you come across something that although not digital is worth posting. The 4D Cityscape Puzzle is a case in point, it includes 'GIS' type layers complete with a time dimension allowing you to view the growth of the cities architectural landmarks. The video below explains it all:

Its horribly nerdy but we kind of like the idea of a cardboard/gis/3d architecture puzzle, head over to http://www.4dcityscape.com/ for full details.

2009-09-04

HD Timelapse: Downtown Tampa Florida

Another in our series of city timelapses, this time by AlanSmithee over on Vimeo who has uploaded an impressive clip of Downtown Tampa, Florida:

HD Time Lapse of Downtown Tampa Florida from AlanSmithee on Vimeo.

It is well worth heading over to Alan's video page as it features a number of great timelapse sequences. Timelapses are relatively easy to capture nowadays using systems as CHDK for the Canon series of cameras. The major limitation however is battery life with, for example, the G9 only lasting around 2 and a half hours before giving up the ghost.

It would be interesting to hear of any readers thoughts on which camera to use for the best battery life...

Cities XL Demo

The demo of Cities XL is out on the 8th September, it is shaping up to look like the current 'must have' city game, a hands on look is embedded below:

You can download the demo direct from the Cities XL site.

2009-09-01

London Tube: Geographical Extent Draft Movie 2

Regular readers will be aware of the long thread involving various renders of the London Tube network. Below is the latest update on 'growing the network', still in draft form as it needs some additional clips but i think its shaping up, albeit in a slightly eclectic way:

Music 'Strange Train' by The Creeping Charlies over at MP3 Unsigned

Everyscape Launch New Viewer and Christchurch, New Zealand

We have always liked the panoramas over at Everyscape and now they have launch as new high res viewer along with coverage of Christchurch in New Zealand thanks to the nice people over at ZNO. The new viewer includes a full-screen option and zoom functionality, which creates a fully immersive user experience, allowing users to explore Christchurch streets and businesses as though they were there in person.

Of note is the inclusion of interiors and the nice transition between scenes - take a tour at http://www.everyscape.com/index.nz.aspx. We are now intrigued as to who is doing London, or come to think of it most of Europe which we assuming is coming soon.