7 ms·

Pixel City – Procedurally generated city (2009) [video]

210 points by jdmoreira 11y ago

jdmoreira 11y ago
http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=2940 http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=2940
opless 11y ago
Also add [2009] to title.
- dang 11y ago
  Thanks, done.
striking 11y ago
Shamus Young's stuff is pretty incredible. Not the programs themselves, because it's "been done before." Rather, it's his writing skill that really shines. He has a true talent for describing and illustrating difficult or complex programming, and then showing it in action in a nicely-wrapped binary executable. You can see all of his wonderful series here: http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?page_id=16458 http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?page_id=16458
- geon 11y ago
  If you like scifi, go read his System Shock fanfiction novel. It's great.
  - ersii 11y ago
    Would that be his book "Free radical"? He mentions System Shock in the Forewords at: http://www.shamusyoung.com/shocked/ http://www.shamusyoung.com/shocked/
    - geon 11y ago
      Yes.
- gavanwoolery 11y ago
  He has also had a bit of a rough life, good to see he making the best of his: http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=12687 http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=12687
david-given 11y ago
Polygons are for the weak. https://www.shadertoy.com/view/XsBSRG https://www.shadertoy.com/view/XsBSRG (There are several awesome-looking procedural cities on ShaderToy. Here's another nice one: https://www.shadertoy.com/view/MdXGW2 https://www.shadertoy.com/view/MdXGW2)
pavel_lishin 11y ago
I would love to have this as a screensaver.
cpayne 11y ago
Step 7: Release it as a... Damn. I actually have no idea what this thing is for Summarizes my development career to date. Still awesome to watch...
- andrewfelix 11y ago
  I would love this as a screen saver.
  - Ologn 11y ago
    It exists as one for many platforms http://rss-glx.sourceforge.net/screenshots.shtml http://rss-glx.sourceforge.net/screenshots.shtml I ported some of the RSS-GLX screensavers to Android, but never tried this one.
- irascible 11y ago
  It's on github and compiles to an .exe and a .scr.. but ther is a buffer overflow on on of the building geometry generating routines that I had to add a check to , to get it to build under free vs2013.
martin-adams 11y ago
I used to be into modo as a hobbyist and this reminds me of the Telematics City showreel which for me was a true work of art (also from 2009). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PodUqc4B5Fc&list=PL4DFBA006A47E6420 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PodUqc4B5Fc&list=PL4DFBA006A...
daviding 11y ago
I really enjoy these, and had this bookmarked. A nice example here: http://alteredqualia.com/three/examples/webgl_city.html http://alteredqualia.com/three/examples/webgl_city.html Holds up very well and looks very impressive (plus the source is uncompressed and interesting).
- daviding 11y ago
  Plus if you ever need to warm up your hands on your old laptop, this is another very good example from the same author: http://alteredqualia.com/xg/examples/animation_physics_vehicles.html http://alteredqualia.com/xg/examples/animation_physics_vehic...
adamrezich 11y ago
This was from the scrapped game project that Introversion Software ended up not finishing in lieu of making Prison Architect: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J30i0gABfS8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J30i0gABfS8
- dsrw 11y ago
  What makes you say that? I'm fairly certain the two projects are unrelated.
  - adamrezich 11y ago
    I'm sorry, I was in a rush to write that comment and didn't make myself clear. I was bringing up a similar, related thing, and did not mean to conflate the two. I like the Introversion one better because it builds the city organically out of roads, personally.
- tomc1985 11y ago
  Did they ever release the source to that tool? I'd love to take it apart
lamuerteflaca 11y ago
Funny, I was just looking at this yesterday night to get some ideas on building design.
stretchwithme 11y ago
Makes me appreciate the Chrysler build all the more.
userbinator 11y ago
A little surprised that this doesn't seem to be a demoscene production, because it has all the characteristics of one. I was even expecting greets in the endscroller. If he could get the contents of this video down to a single 64k or 4k binary (including the music), it would make a great demo. Cityscapes are pretty common and definitely doable in 4k or 64k; here are two examples of winning demos containing similar scenes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UgbKQKD9I4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UgbKQKD9I4 4k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaNYOzwlVC8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaNYOzwlVC8 64k
FraKtus 11y ago
ArtMatic Voyager has amazing procedurally generated cities and landscapes: http://uisoftware.com/Voyager/index18.html http://uisoftware.com/Voyager/index18.html It's based on a powerful texture engine to generate colors and height maps and the model is ray traced...
bipin_nag 11y ago
I have one question, are the buildings generated randomly or is there any algorithm that generates which building goes where. The generation is like the urban version of "No man's Sky".
birger 11y ago
10/10 would buy it as a screensaver! It has been years since I saw a cool screensaver that is just fun to watch when I am not doing stuff. [edit] There is a screensaver and it works! http://code.google.com/p/pixelcity/ http://code.google.com/p/pixelcity/
- skeuomorf 11y ago
  I generally use videos as a screensaver, it allows me to have pretty cool screensavers fast. I use xsecurelock [0] with the saver_mplayer backend, which means that when I lock the screen, xsecurelock runs the videos in my ~/Videos directory on repeat. I couple that with something like the Iron Man schematics videos made by Territory Studio [1] and I've got myself a pretty rad looking screensaver (with minimal effort). [0] https://github.com/google/xsecurelock https://github.com/google/xsecurelock [1] https://www.behance.net/gallery/26009421/AVENGERS-Age-of-Ultron-UI-Screen-Graphics https://www.behance.net/gallery/26009421/AVENGERS-Age-of-Ult...
m_eiman 11y ago
I ported this screensaver to OSX way back when, and I think it still works: http://emage-software.com/ http://emage-software.com/
- mcphage 11y ago
  It does! Awesome, thanks :-)
Wingman4l7 11y ago
Introversion, the indie game dev, also different-but-equally-amazing procedural city generator, for their now-cancelled game Subversion. It was actually bundled in the Hunble Introversion Bundle, and you could play with the parameters and make your own city. You can see a demo here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pR8jpK4ETk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pR8jpK4ETk
felhr 11y ago
The whole shamus projects, from books (I read his autobiography) to programming posts are awesome. His game "Good Robot" was greenlighted recently so we are going to see his first released game soon, which is pretty interesting coming from a guy who talked so openly about it http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=20638 http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=20638
djent 11y ago
Seems like it would make an amazing GPL Mirror's Edge clone.
iamcreasy 11y ago
The best part was when he added the yellow red lights. The swing of mood was stunning.

210 points by jdmoreira 11y ago

jdmoreira 11y ago

http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=2940 http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=2940

opless 11y ago

Also add [2009] to title.

dang 11y ago
Thanks, done.

striking 11y ago

Shamus Young's stuff is pretty incredible. Not the programs themselves, because it's "been done before." Rather, it's his writing skill that really shines. He has a true talent for describing and illustrating difficult or complex programming, and then showing it in action in a nicely-wrapped binary executable. You can see all of his wonderful series here: http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?page_id=16458 http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?page_id=16458

geon 11y ago
If you like scifi, go read his System Shock fanfiction novel. It's great.
- ersii 11y ago
  Would that be his book "Free radical"? He mentions System Shock in the Forewords at: http://www.shamusyoung.com/shocked/ http://www.shamusyoung.com/shocked/
  - geon 11y ago
    Yes.
gavanwoolery 11y ago
He has also had a bit of a rough life, good to see he making the best of his: http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=12687 http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=12687

david-given 11y ago

Polygons are for the weak. https://www.shadertoy.com/view/XsBSRG https://www.shadertoy.com/view/XsBSRG (There are several awesome-looking procedural cities on ShaderToy. Here's another nice one: https://www.shadertoy.com/view/MdXGW2 https://www.shadertoy.com/view/MdXGW2)

pavel_lishin 11y ago

I would love to have this as a screensaver.

cpayne 11y ago

Step 7: Release it as a... Damn. I actually have no idea what this thing is for Summarizes my development career to date. Still awesome to watch...

andrewfelix 11y ago
I would love this as a screen saver.
- Ologn 11y ago
  It exists as one for many platforms http://rss-glx.sourceforge.net/screenshots.shtml http://rss-glx.sourceforge.net/screenshots.shtml I ported some of the RSS-GLX screensavers to Android, but never tried this one.
irascible 11y ago
It's on github and compiles to an .exe and a .scr.. but ther is a buffer overflow on on of the building geometry generating routines that I had to add a check to , to get it to build under free vs2013.

martin-adams 11y ago

I used to be into modo as a hobbyist and this reminds me of the Telematics City showreel which for me was a true work of art (also from 2009). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PodUqc4B5Fc&list=PL4DFBA006A47E6420 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PodUqc4B5Fc&list=PL4DFBA006A...

daviding 11y ago

I really enjoy these, and had this bookmarked. A nice example here: http://alteredqualia.com/three/examples/webgl_city.html http://alteredqualia.com/three/examples/webgl_city.html Holds up very well and looks very impressive (plus the source is uncompressed and interesting).

daviding 11y ago
Plus if you ever need to warm up your hands on your old laptop, this is another very good example from the same author: http://alteredqualia.com/xg/examples/animation_physics_vehicles.html http://alteredqualia.com/xg/examples/animation_physics_vehic...

adamrezich 11y ago

This was from the scrapped game project that Introversion Software ended up not finishing in lieu of making Prison Architect: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J30i0gABfS8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J30i0gABfS8

dsrw 11y ago
What makes you say that? I'm fairly certain the two projects are unrelated.
- adamrezich 11y ago
  I'm sorry, I was in a rush to write that comment and didn't make myself clear. I was bringing up a similar, related thing, and did not mean to conflate the two. I like the Introversion one better because it builds the city organically out of roads, personally.
tomc1985 11y ago
Did they ever release the source to that tool? I'd love to take it apart

lamuerteflaca 11y ago

Funny, I was just looking at this yesterday night to get some ideas on building design.

stretchwithme 11y ago

Makes me appreciate the Chrysler build all the more.

userbinator 11y ago

A little surprised that this doesn't seem to be a demoscene production, because it has all the characteristics of one. I was even expecting greets in the endscroller. If he could get the contents of this video down to a single 64k or 4k binary (including the music), it would make a great demo. Cityscapes are pretty common and definitely doable in 4k or 64k; here are two examples of winning demos containing similar scenes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UgbKQKD9I4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UgbKQKD9I4 4k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaNYOzwlVC8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaNYOzwlVC8 64k

FraKtus 11y ago

ArtMatic Voyager has amazing procedurally generated cities and landscapes: http://uisoftware.com/Voyager/index18.html http://uisoftware.com/Voyager/index18.html It's based on a powerful texture engine to generate colors and height maps and the model is ray traced...

bipin_nag 11y ago

I have one question, are the buildings generated randomly or is there any algorithm that generates which building goes where. The generation is like the urban version of "No man's Sky".

birger 11y ago

10/10 would buy it as a screensaver! It has been years since I saw a cool screensaver that is just fun to watch when I am not doing stuff. [edit] There is a screensaver and it works! http://code.google.com/p/pixelcity/ http://code.google.com/p/pixelcity/

skeuomorf 11y ago
I generally use videos as a screensaver, it allows me to have pretty cool screensavers fast. I use xsecurelock [0] with the saver_mplayer backend, which means that when I lock the screen, xsecurelock runs the videos in my ~/Videos directory on repeat. I couple that with something like the Iron Man schematics videos made by Territory Studio [1] and I've got myself a pretty rad looking screensaver (with minimal effort). [0] https://github.com/google/xsecurelock https://github.com/google/xsecurelock [1] https://www.behance.net/gallery/26009421/AVENGERS-Age-of-Ultron-UI-Screen-Graphics https://www.behance.net/gallery/26009421/AVENGERS-Age-of-Ult...

m_eiman 11y ago

I ported this screensaver to OSX way back when, and I think it still works: http://emage-software.com/ http://emage-software.com/

mcphage 11y ago
It does! Awesome, thanks :-)

Wingman4l7 11y ago

Introversion, the indie game dev, also different-but-equally-amazing procedural city generator, for their now-cancelled game Subversion. It was actually bundled in the Hunble Introversion Bundle, and you could play with the parameters and make your own city. You can see a demo here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pR8jpK4ETk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pR8jpK4ETk

felhr 11y ago

The whole shamus projects, from books (I read his autobiography) to programming posts are awesome. His game "Good Robot" was greenlighted recently so we are going to see his first released game soon, which is pretty interesting coming from a guy who talked so openly about it http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=20638 http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=20638

djent 11y ago

Seems like it would make an amazing GPL Mirror's Edge clone.

iamcreasy 11y ago

The best part was when he added the yellow red lights. The swing of mood was stunning.