the city information sources are defined here : different types of datas like images, materials or meshes are used to define the main properties of a city. building elevations, city map and zoning (see introduction).
in addition to the data source type selection and options, each input has its own options that allow to interpret the source in various ways.
City Map
the vertices of the mesh are crossings, the edges are roads or area borders. the road categories and their main direction are saved in the mesh thanks to a tag that correspond to the road category (crease value).
M/bu this parameter is very important : it defines the final size of the city.
for the script, units are in meter, and one meter is equal to one Blender Unit.
but the source mesh M/bu ratio is not always the same and maps can be smaller like the ones provided. M/bu allows to multiply the object source scale. the Preview button allows to display the scaled map, and the main information panel displays the final city size.
at location defines where the city will be built. when enabled, it will be built at the center of the source mesh, else at the world origin.
Building Elevations
when using the images or Material source types, the most red pixels correspond to the highest elevations and the less red ones correspond to the lowest elevations.
the pixel value is red at creation time, for each created building lot. thanks to the values set in the floors section in the Buildings/properties tab, one obtains the number of floor for each building.
for each building lot, the elevation input helps to define the category and the building library to use (Buildings/Categories tab).
min.col any pixel whose red value is lower then the min.col value will be ignored and considered as a 'zero floor' aera.
Method this parameter defines how the pixel value/floor interval mapping will be done :
- relative : the most red pixel (which is not necessarily a 'pure' red) will correspond to the maximum number of floors value. the less red pixel greater than min.col will correspond to the minimum number of floors.
- absolute : the maximum number of floors is always equals to a 'pure' red, and the minimum number of floors is always equal to the 0.1 red value.
examples
- cross city
(image source type)
- zebra city :
( with a material source type, using a 'Wood' procedural texture )
- Min.Col :
min.col equals 0.0 :
min.col equals 0.3 :
Zoning
for now zoning use an image as data source.
for each lot, zoning input helps to define the category and the building library to use. the red, green and blue channels define each a kind of zone, to which several categories of buildings can be attached (see Buildings/Categories tab).
for example blue defines the industrial areas, red is for the shops, green for the parks and condos. pixels with balanced values (like grey 444, or white 777....) will blend the 3 zones together in a balanced way. pixels with values like 306 will blend the red and the blue areas ( 1/3 red and 2/3 blue ).
Priority it appens that the script can't find the right library, that correspond both to the zoning and the elevation, it depends of available and enabled libraries. in such case, either the script respect the zoning source (the value is close to 1) or the elvation (close to 0).
example
the building elevation to the left shows that the higher buildings will be at the center.
the zoning map to the right displays the zone distribution : red for business, green for residential, blue for industrial.
the library used for 'red/business' and for the default category has no limitations, it can adapt to the required number of floor.
but the only available library used for the 'blue/industrial' category cannot produce buildings higher than 4 floors.
this is the same for 'green/residential', there's only one enabled library and it can't produce more than 4 floors.
therefore an issue will occur in the orange area of the elevation map below for the blue and the green zones : in the orange zone the floor number is between 5 and 20 floors, but the library defined by the zoning map can't produce that.
so the script makes a choice for the buildings in the orange area.
- either it respects the elevation map, and choose a capable library in the default category :
- or it respects the zoning map and uses the library that matches the best the number of floors :
