CityEngine 2009.2 Released

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Procedural Inc. has announced the CityEngine 2009.2, the latest version of its software for the fast creation, visualization and analysis of large 3D cities. The software is used by high-profile companies such as Foster+Partners, Microsoft, Navteq, Boeing, IBM, Thales, Blizzard, Square Enix, etc. and was awarded Killer Technology 2009 by 3D World magazine.

Personally, we really like the integration into game engines - the example of Crysis is notably impressive:

Key Highlights of CityEngine 2009.2

– Large Data Set Support (over 500‘000 buildings on 64bit)
– Map Projections (over 80 projections are supported)
– Accuracy Enhancements (enabling high precision at global scale)
– 3DS Export (plus advancements of Collada and FBX export)

Other improvements of CityEngine 2009.2 include selection-sets handling, interactive editing extensions, GUI refinements, better ATI-support, advanced python scripting and many more details providing a good user experience. For more information, see: http://www.procedural.com/cityengine/whats-new.html

Pricing and Availability
A free 30-day trial version is available for download at http://www.procedural.com. The software can be purchased via Procedural Inc.’s website, or by telephone order at +41 76 720 3303. The CityEngine retails from a starting price of $ 3,450.

Those wanting a cheaper route, complete with integration with Crysis via 3D Max take a look at the developing Procedural Buildings Generator or for the completely free package, Suicidator for Blender.

These are interesting times in the field of procedural cities...

CryEngine 3: Global Illumination Demo

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Crysis showed what was possible in terms of using game engines for architectural visualisation. The third version of the engine has just been demoed at SIGGRAPH 2009 -



Take a look at incrysis.com for more footage and information, we cant wait to give it a try...

Thanks go to Ben for emailing us the link, work, interviews and deadlines have annoyingly got in the way this week of the blog, considered our hands slapped for missing the Crysis update and a whole day yesterday without a post...

Crysis Physics Engine

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Our previous post featured tweaking the physics in Grand Theft Auto, the Crysis Engine is far more flexible, allowing for any number of simulations to be set up. The movie above by V1nc3nc0 provides a series of physics test running in real time on a AMD Athlon X2 6000+ @ 3.0 GHZ NVIDIA GeForce 9800GT 4 GB Mushkin Ram rig.

Crysis can also render out simulations allowing more complex interactions to be put in place, as the buildings movie below illustrates:



Finally you cant have any post on simulation in crysis without including the infamous
Lego Map:

Crysis LEGO map from Robert on Vimeo.

CryEngine 3 Preview

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In the midst of attempting to import objects into the CryEngine 2 - see our post on 'A Return to Crysis? SketchUp and 3D Max Progress' we missed the sneak preview of the CryEngine 3 at the Games Developers Conference.

As the specs state: CryENGINE® 3 is the first Xbox 360™, PlayStation® 3, MMO, DX9 and DX10 all-in-one game development solution that is next-gen ready – with scalable computation and graphics technologies. With CryENGINE® 3 you can start the development of your next generation games today. CryENGINE® 3 is the only solution that provides multi-award winning graphics, physics and AI out of the box.

The complete game engine suite includes the famous CryENGINE® 3 Sandbox™ editor, a production-proven, 3rd generation tool suite designed and built by AAA developers. CryENGINE® 3 delivers everything you need to create your AAA games.

See the Crytek page for full info and updates, as a tool for architectural and geographical visualisation the CryEngine 2 is unsurpassed so we are looking forward to version 3...

A Return to Crysis? SketchUp and 3D Max Progress

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A while ago we ran of posts on importing into models into the Crysis Sandbox - ranging from models direct from the 3D Warehouse such as the Tate Modern below and the following city model direct out of our Greeble Tutorial in 3D Max:



Greeble City in Crysis:


Progress via 3D Max 9 was swift with a few hoops to jump through but an export route that generally worked, embedded below is an example featuring the Swiss Re, Tower Bridge, London in the Sandbox:



The potential of using Crysis for both urban and landscape visualisation is well known and with the introduction of various modifications such as the 'Natural Mod' below we thought it was timely to take a new look at Crysis:


Natural Mod 2.0 for Crysis from pydon on Vimeo.

Sadly we have to report that the importers do not seem to of improved all that much, the latest version of 3D Max is incompatible with the previous plugins and we have failed to get the SketchUp to Crysis plugin work at all.

That said it is well worth taking a look at the SketchUp to Collada direct export thread at Cryteks Official Modding Portal as well as a free plugin from PlayUp for SketchUp that allows models to be exported to both Crysis and the HalfLife engine.

We are almost tempted to go back to modding Oblivion which was relatively straight forward:


Oblivion Mod: University College London Quad from digitalurban on Vimeo.

See How to Import SketchUp/3D Max into the Oblivion Engine for Architectural Visualisation - Part 1 for more info.

The point of this post? Part frustration at the number of hoops still to be jumped through and high end software required to modify games such as Crysis. We know that its still a thriving scene and we have shown its possible to go from the Google 3D Warehouse to the game engine, its just annoying it is still a slightly painful route.

Crysis: Physics Engine Movies

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Crysis LEGO map from Robert Tieber on Vimeo.
The Crysis engine has an inbuilt physics system that supports vehicles, rigid bodies, liquid, rag doll, cloth and soft body effects. The movies in this post provide a glimpse of the physics engine in action, the first clip above demonstrates the 'Lego' modification running in real-time.

The following movies illustrate the use of the physics engine of Crysis in maximum effect. Note each one was rendered frame by frame using the 'linked method', take a look at this thread for full details.


Crysis Mass Physics HD By ÂLÐÒ•Ó from Ald0o0 on Vimeo.

Continuing the theme:


Crysis Mass Physics HD VOL II By ÂLÐÒ•Ó from Ald0o0 on Vimeo.


Crysis Mass Physics HD VOL III By ÂLÐÒ•Ó from Ald0o0 on Vimeo.

Finally applying the technique to buildings:


Readers may recall our work earlier work in Crysis, a change of deadlines stalled the earlier work somewhat but we will be returning to Crysis in terms of physics, agents and urban modelling in the coming months...

Oblivion in Crysis Engine

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We have worked in both the Oblivion and Crysis Engines and the movies below represents an interesting crossing of worlds - Oblivion running in Crysis:



The work was only a proof on concept but still fell foul of copyright - see here for full details. As a proof of concept its an impressive one and again shows the power of Crysis for visualisation.

The Renaissance of Geographic Information: Neogeography, Gaming and Second Life: Working Paper 142

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The world of Geographic Information (GI) Science has changed. It has experienced expeditious growth over the last few years leading to fundamental changes to the field. Web 2.0, specifically The Cloud, GeoWeb and Wikitecture are revolutionising the way in which we present, share and analyse geographic data.

In this paper we outline and provide working examples a suite of tools which are detailed below, aimed at developing new applications of GIS and related technologies. GeoVUE is one of seven nodes in the National Centre for e-Social Science whose mission it is to develop web-based technologies for the social and geographical sciences. The Node, based at the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, University College London has developed a suite of free software allowing quick and easy visualisation of geographic data in systems such as Google Maps, Google Earth, Crysis and Second Life.


These tools address two issues, firstly that spatial data is still inherently difficult to share and visualise for the non-GIS trained academic or professional and secondly that a geographic data social network has the potential to dramatically open up data sources for both the public and professional geographer.


With our applications of GMap Creator, and MapTube to name but two, we detail ways to intelligently visualise and share spatial data. This paper concludes with detailing usage and outreach as well as an insight into how such tools are already providing a significant impact to the outreach of geographic information.

Such tools open up a cornucopia of possibilities for the world of GI Science, especially for geovisualisation and it is high time to embrace the Neogeographer, the data and perhaps more importantly the services they are creating.

Welcome to the new world of geographic information.

Authored by Dr Andrew Hudson-Smith (Digital Urban) and Dr Andrew Crooks (gisagents.blogspot.com)

You can download the full paper The Renaissance of Geographic Information: Neogeography, Gaming and Second Life in .pdf format (9.8Mb).

Road Networks: Bringing 3D Greeble Cities to Life

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Our Greeble City Tutorial provides a walk through on how to quickly and easily create a cityscape, complete with custom skyscrapers. Creating a city is all well and good but it is the fine details that brings a 3D city to life, the first of these is the road network.

Creating a road network in 3D Max is to be honest a tedious process but once they are in place complete with pavements (sidewalks) a basic render can begin to look more city like.

The three renders here are from our 'City Road Pack' which we will be uploading to TurboSquid or some other file sharing site free of charge. This should save anyone wanting to build a quick city having to go through the two day process of making roads. The pack will include a series of objects that will snap together to create a grid or path layout.

Soon as its ready to go we will put up a post, in the meantime if there are any other parts of cities that people would like to see let us know via the comment box.

We should also have a post on roads and agent based traffic simulation in Crysis later this week as well, the main Crysis tutorial has been delayed due to a 'shadow bug' in the latest build. Soon as this is fixed we will put the SketchUp/3D Max to Crysis tutorial online.

Cities in the Crysis Sandbox Editor

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Our city - built as part of the Fantasy Architecture project - is normally our first test point for importing into new engines. It provides a good test of the ability to cope with large cityscapes and real-time lighting etc.

With our work using the Crysis Sandbox Editor ongoing in preparation for a tutorial we have finally managed to embed the city into the game, as the movie below illustrates.



Working out a smooth work flow has been slightly more problematic than planned with crashes and reboots an added 'feature' to the development. With a bit of patience however it does work. The movie above is work in progress but the engine is coping well with extending the city to almost the horizon.

Below is the city imported into the Oblivion Engine for way of comparison:





See our Oblivion Tutorial for the above, we should be able to get the first Crysis tutorial online next week....

Crysis Update: Importing from Google 3D Warehouse

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A quick update on progress - see our Crysis Thread for more posts and movies - we have a work flow in place to take any model from the Google 3D Warehouse and import it into Crysis. The image above is the Washington National Cathedral - direct from the 3D Warehouse.

It gets around the multiple texture limitation and seems to be working so far - we are currently working on importing the Church from our Churches: Modelling Architecture post.

We are not sure of the legal implications of taking models made for Google Earth and using them in Crysis but the potential for entire city models is intriguing...

Crysis Mod SDK Released and London Update Movie

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We have been holding off on writing the tutorial on how to import objects into Crysis as a new release of the development kit was due and with it various changes that would of made our current method obsolete.

Crytek have just released an official update and we are currently putting it through its paces in the office, once we have a final import path confirmed we will put a full tutorial online. Till then embedded below is the movie shown at the Barbican, Cinema 2, London as part of our talk on Digital Geography and Web 2.0:




We should have some news on how the update changes importing objects for architectural visualisation in the next couple of days.

Google 3D Warehouse: Importing into Crysis

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The latest in our series of posts on importing into the Crysis Sandbox looks at the Google 3D Warehouse. The warehouse is a repository of over 200,000 models and a unique archive of buildings and street furniture from around the world.

Its taken some time but we now have a path for importing any model from the 3D Warehouse into Crysis, the movie below details the Tate Modern:



We are not sure what the license implications are, but as soon as we know and as soon as the latest exporter is out from EA (soon) we will have a tutorial and work flow online.

Our progress to date movie is embedded below, featuring the Swiss Re, Tower Bridge and work in the Sandbox:



The potential of using the 3D warehouse in Crysis is intriguing to say the least...

London in Crysis: Update 3 Tower Bridge, Swiss Re & The Sandbox

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An update post and movie detailing our progress on importing our Virtual London model into Crysis. We have now been working on the model for little under a week at CASA and progress is good, the geometry has been extended out to Tower Bridge and we are experimenting with various texture configurations.

The movie below provides an insight into the movie to date with sections from both gameplay and sandbox modes to illustrate how the model is edited:


The move from holding the model in a fully functional Geographic Information System, aka ESRI's ArcScene to SketchUp, 3D Max and a finally into the Crysis Sandbox has been interesting. The engine is probably the most powerful on the market today and the speed in which it is possible to work is refreshing.

See our previous post for more movies, including a texture mapped model direct from SketchUp:

Crysis - Importing City Models: St Pauls Cathedral

We will have more updates and a tutorial as soon as the workflow is finalised.

Crysis London Eye - Screen Grab

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Time has got the better of us this evening but the test import of the Virtual London model into Crysis is going well - the screen grab below illustrates the London Eye imported from 3D Max in Crysis:


For those interested our movies of the model from ealier today can be found in our Crysis - Importing City Models: St Pauls Catherdral post.

More hopefully tomorrow...

Crysis - Importing City Models: St Pauls Cathedral

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A second post on Crysis as we continue to experiment with the game engine for importing architectural and city models direct from Sketchup/3D Max and ESRI ArcScene.

Embedded below is a movie detailing progress on importing sections of our Virtual London model. Note the landmark buildings - St Paul's Cathedral and the Tate Modern. Also note the satellite photograph which can be used to trace in the road layout, placement of vegetation etc:



Our previous movie for reference is embedded below, illustrating a textured model originally constructed in SketchUp:



We should have an update movie later today with road layouts and reflective water etc, once we have the import path complete we will also upload a tutorial.

At the moment Crysis is proving to be an extremely effective engine for both city and architectural visualisation...

Crysis - Importing Architectural Models

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Crysis comes with its own Sandbox allowing 3d models to be quickly and easily imported into the game engine. Its early days but we have a quick and dirty model of the University College Quad, the London Eye and the Greater London Authority building running within the engine.

Developed purely as a proof of concept the movie below provides an insight into how architectural models can be imported and visualised in realtime:



The engines features realtime shadows direct from the geometry - a significant step forward in terms of visualisation. Our previous work has focused on using the Oblivion Engine, although the work above is far from complete it is worth taking a look at the same model in Oblivion:



At the moment we are working on importing a 2km square section of London into Crysis, we should have a movie online in the next couple of days.

Thanks got to Joel at CASA for creating the work flow and import path - of note is the ability to import from SketchUp via 3D Max, allowing potentially any model from the Google 3D Warehouse to be imported, although we assume this would break license restrictions?

If you havent got a copy yet it is well worth buying a copy of Crysis...

Crysis - 3000 Barrels

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We promise to get round to modding Crysis as soon as we get chance, in the meantime take a look at the 4 minute movie based around arranging 3000 barrels into buildings and knocking down them down:



It is an impressive showcase for the level of real-time visualisation possible using the Crysis Engine.

Picked up via Joystiq.

Crysis Demo - Due October 26th

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Over the last few months we have taken a couple of looks at the forthcoming game Crysis using the CryEngine 2 for architectural visualisation.

The movie below provides a quick recap on the quality and realtime lighting:



The single player demo, apparently also with the sandbox included is due for launch on October 26th, a counter towards launch is currently running at http://www.crysisdemo.com/.

Recommended specs are:

OS - Windows XP / Vista
Processor - Intel Core 2 DUO @ 2.2GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+
Memory - 2.0 GB RAM
GPU - NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS/640 or similar

As ever with the coverage of games on Digital Urban we are interested in using the game engine for visualising architecture and the city in general.

We'll bring our views as soon as we open up the Crysis Sandbox..

Crysis Engine Level Editior - Rapid Level Modification

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Over the last few months we have taken a couple of looks at the forthcoming game Crysis using the CryEngine 2 for architectural visualisation.

The movie below provides a quick recap on the quality and realtime lighting:



Of interest for urban visualisation is the level editor which is detailed in the next movie embedded below. If you get through the first minute or so it provides a good insight into the capabilities of the engine:



Although the movie is focused on game editing it is equally applicable to architectural visualisation, especially with the realtime shadows and lighting.

If your interested in using game engines for visualisation take a look at our two part Oblivion Tutorial. Oblivion is still the easiest engine to import into, the following movie was the result of less than one hours work:



For those interested we are currently building the same model in Second Life - see our previous posts for the location, feel free to pop along to check on progress.