2 ms·

Sure, but if one were to design the software to construct houses in a distinctive style that a lot of people like, then it probably won't be too hard to find pe

by elihu 6y ago

Sure, but if one were to design the software to construct houses in a distinctive style that a lot of people like, then it probably won't be too hard to find people willing to buy. Part of the developer's "brand" could be to invent new and interesting styles without getting too carried away with ornamentation for its own sake, or adding features that most people don't want. Flying buttresses and gothic arches were kind of a silly example; probably most houses wouldn't benefit from looking like Notre Dame (especially if everyone started building their houses to look that way), but there may be other styles that would look nice and would fit well into their environment, but which wouldn't catch on now because it's too complex and therefore too expensive to build.

notahacker 6y ago
It's not difficulty in planning that's responsible for the ubiquitous right angle, it's the tendency of people to like familiar features and want their furniture to fit (they're also often fond of materials not particularly amenable to 3D printing). Architects would love to design the sort of curvaceous things from concrete, steel and glass they went to architecture school to admire, but the need to sell the houses gets in the way. I'm struggling to see procedural generation of the designs as doing anything but subtract from the ability to conceive 'distinctive style a lot of people like', given that architects are people with likes, can talk to prospective purchasers about their likes and understand at a high level how people might use [or not use] particular design features and what designs regulators might reject. Neural networks, on the other hand, produce outputs which are just a function of their inputs. Procedural building generation is what designers of 3D worlds use for the bits whose appearance they don't care enough about to detail by hand. The one place software design might lead to improved efficiency is randomising features for McMansions on a street from a simple library of squares and automatically generating the docs...

by elihu 6y ago

notahacker 6y ago

It's not difficulty in planning that's responsible for the ubiquitous right angle, it's the tendency of people to like familiar features and want their furniture to fit (they're also often fond of materials not particularly amenable to 3D printing). Architects would love to design the sort of curvaceous things from concrete, steel and glass they went to architecture school to admire, but the need to sell the houses gets in the way. I'm struggling to see procedural generation of the designs as doing anything but subtract from the ability to conceive 'distinctive style a lot of people like', given that architects are people with likes, can talk to prospective purchasers about their likes and understand at a high level how people might use [or not use] particular design features and what designs regulators might reject. Neural networks, on the other hand, produce outputs which are just a function of their inputs. Procedural building generation is what designers of 3D worlds use for the bits whose appearance they don't care enough about to detail by hand. The one place software design might lead to improved efficiency is randomising features for McMansions on a street from a simple library of squares and automatically generating the docs...