http://jerome.le.chat.free.fr

Following the streets parser/creator improvements of the Blended Cities script, I resumed work this week on the use of real plans. OpenStreetMap is a data source must! and of course an excellent file standard to retain the characteristics of a city, that could be used for Blended Cities..


as a definition, and compared to GoogleMap :)
"OpenStreetMap creates and provides free geographic data such as street maps to anyone who wants them.."
"OpenStreetMap is open data, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 licence (CC-BY-SA).
You are free to copy, distribute, transmit and adapt our maps and data, as long as you credit OpenStreetMap and its contributors. If you alter or build upon our maps or data, you may distribute the result only under the same licence. The full legal code explains your rights and responsibilities."..

in particular, it can export a map in XML format...

that Blended Cities will be able to use as a data source.

this release corrects some bugs about zoning, but mainly focuses on the city map creation part.

there were bis issues with the city maps that include dead-ends, blocks surrounded by another block. this update solves most* of the cases.

included blocks :

from a logical representation point of view, there's no difference between two blocks linked together by a road and a block included in another one, both linked by a road.
now the script is able to recognize the two cases, at map 'physical' creation time.



+ dead-ends :

if the generated objects are wrong, try first to scale your input map bigger. if it's still wrong, try to locate the issue by removing the roads, little by little..

* this part of the script is like (re)writing a network logical discovery algorythm, as a network protocol would do at init. then it builds the objects starting from that logical representation. the hardest part is about the blocks recognition.. and when tunnels and bridges features will be added, a new battle will begin... :) )

so if you meet any error, or if you want to share knowledge or algorythms me please contact me in odrder I can improve it ;)

the creation process begins at line 2767 in the main file, blended_cities_0445.py. this part calls  two functions located in the bin/parsers/readmeshmap.py file, that cares about the logical representation and the block recognition.

download !

the new version is published !

• the zoning feature James Lethem created last month has been implemented
• a lot of bugs have been corrected
• big documentation effort
• new data source for the city map : library. maps can be imported from the libraries.
• two methods available to interpret the building elevation image.

release notes :

• the one object mode for buildings has been disabled temporary, to avoid problems with premade meshes.
• the Material part needs an update, it has not been modified and fully tested in this version
• the building lot creation concept must change to allow a better integration of the premade buildings. in this version, the lot perimeter must be large enough in order a premade building can fit inside it (see the documentation about buildings)
• this pack contains only the default libraries. Mandoragon-James and I did conclusive tests with numerous buildings we receive from the community, and the ones fom Philippe Roubal. new libraries will be published soon, contact me if you'd like to share your objects and integrate them as a library.

be sure to read (at least) the installation page, the process has changed since the previous versions..

zoning means here the regulation of the kinds of activities acceptable on particular lots (wiki : zoning, urban planning) : one can define several districts in his town, like a residential area with parks to the West, a commercial area to the North, and a third industrial one to the South for example.

this new feature is based on an idea and a code by James Lethem, who is working on a dissertation : 'To advance understanding and techniques in automated city generation within a digital medium', and that contacts me, showing a big interest about the script. I hope he will continue to contribute with programming and good ideas to develop Blended Cities. if you'd like to join in, we meet almost everyday on IRC #blendedcities.

image zoning is the first data source we implemented James and I :
this terrible image allows to define the different zones :  blue defines for example the industrial area, a strong red saturation defines the commercial areas, green defines parks and houses. the border area at the center between red and green will blend houses and shops.
I integrated the James work to the next release (0.44) that should be published soon. meanwhile you can test the alpha build available on the James site :

James Lethem download mod page + survey
thread on blender artists