CityEngine is without question one of the best city authoring systems out there. In the past we always noted pricing as an issue, but with the release of City Engine 2010 they have a whole new pricing structure in place.
Highlights of the update are interactive editing of dynamic city layouts, node-based rule authoring, and a sketching tool for facades. In addition to that, CityEngine 2010 include advanced block subdivision, modeling of curved streets, new rule operations for instancing and asset search, native Collada support for assets, export instances with the new FBX 2011.2.
The clip below illustrates the power of the latest version:
As part of the new licensing models the CityEngine INDIE is available for $495 and CityEngine STUDENT for $149.
Head over to http://www.procedural.com/ for full details and a free trial. Really, if your interested in cities in any shape or form the trial is a must.
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I have to say - I used this CityEngine package after paying lots for it. The support is abysmal and the software is barely capable. It crashes regularly over several versions, wait-locks routinely (spinning wheel of death), maxing out an 8GB quadcore CPU. Good idea in there, but exceptionally frustrating to use.
ReplyDeleteHi Julian,
ReplyDeleteHave you tried PixelActive CityScape yet? It's a city authoring program that you may find useful. It sounds like you were running CityEngine on a Mac? PixelActive CityScape is PC only, btw.
Cheers,
Joseph (I work for PixelActive)
Oh, curious. Looks like it's a bit out of my price range! $19,000! I'm just a guy with a backyard shed/office!
ReplyDeletePixelActive is very neat software, especially the up and coming crowd implementation.
ReplyDeleteThe pricing structure is a bit of a sticking point though. Perhaps a student or an indie license is worth thinking about as the $19,000 would put most people off...
Just a thought..
Andy
Hi Andy,
ReplyDeleteI do appreciate the feedback. We would love to get more people using the software with a more attractive price. Maybe something we can look into soon.
Cheers,
Joseph