Thanks for the info on units. I thought I must have been missing something re: size/scaling etc.
Great that you are considering interiors - having a polys of a ceiling as emitters rather than the window surface emitting would add to the realism.
Yeah. Just wondered about the LOD thing you mentioned earlier. I will model my own 3d screws and rivets to fix my balcony mounting brackets onto the sides of your awesome buildings … (sigh). 
I agree with t1t4 - the script ROCKS!
Hey t1t4,
For now that’s a little too tricky to implement.
That being said, the current state of the surface generator allows you to select which faces you’d like to generate buildings on, and then apply a post-generation scale multiplier. So, if you clicked on every-other face on your surface, and set the post-generation scale multiplier to 200%, that would scale each building to approximately the size of 4 faces (assuming the faces have sides of equal length) and because you’re spacing the buildings apart (based on which faces you selected) they wouldn’t overlap.
Just a suggestion:
If this script would act like Greeble plugin (generate building based on selected faces), then you can create a big city just like CityEngine do. 
Don’t know if it has been mentioned yet, but I get duplicate meshes:
Oh, good call! :o …I know why this is happening, just didn’t realize it was happening until you mentioned it.
Yep…you can also specify to generate based on a map!
Here’s what the surface generation parameters look like, to give you a better idea of the types of options you’ll have:
Words cannot express how exceptional you are, sir. You have made a huge impression on me – not because of your extraordinary talent, but because of your altruism, humility and what I have to assume is simple love for your fellow man.
This is an amazing tool by a truly amazing man.
My thanks.
Hi tyson, the changes are massive and great but can you please explain to me a little more about this distribution on a map. I don’t get it. Is this if I applied a checkerboard texture to a plane then it would only generate on the black squares?
I’ve got another question that really should go in another thread but meh, it’s a buildings question. It’s also related to my sky scaper generation question. When I look at sky scrapers (that are mainly glass on the outside) all the different windows on the building don’t make a perfect plane (like they do in 3D land). So whenever I see the sun shining off a building or reflections in a building they aren’t perfect. What would be a good way to add this ‘chaos’ procedurally?
Should I attach the windows together as one piece of geometry and then apply a bump map? Should i apply a bump map to each but just from world XYZ? Should i use displacement? What kind of bump should I use.
(Sorry about the demo image that I took, iphone and no zoom = crap result but I hope it demonstrates what i am talking about)
Wow…thanks for the kind words! The online max community has helped me so much over the years, I felt it was finally time to give something back to it
The effect you are refering to is called oil-canning and a simple noise map applied to the bump should do it. In reality it is going to be different for every pane, but whatever looks correct to you or your clients is the correct way to do it.
-Eric
Hey NSF
Buildings are distributed on any surface, at a ratio of 1 building per face. With a distribution map, the building generator will go to each face, check to see if a color sample of the center of the face is above a certain brightness threshold (I’ve got it at 35% right now)…and if it is above a certain brightness threshold (35%), it generates a building on that face. If not, no building is placed there. Once I release the next version, I’ll include explanatory images …as well as hopefully some short video tutorials covering the features.
I’ve got another question that really should go in another thread but meh, it’s a buildings question. It’s also related to my sky scaper generation question. When I look at sky scrapers (that are mainly glass on the outside) all the different windows on the building don’t make a perfect plane (like they do in 3D land). So whenever I see the sun shining off a building or reflections in a building they aren’t perfect. What would be a good way to add this ‘chaos’ procedurally?
Should I attach the windows together as one piece of geometry and then apply a bump map? Should i apply a bump map to each but just from world XYZ? Should i use displacement? What kind of bump should I use.
(Sorry about the demo image that I took, iphone and no zoom = crap result but I hope it demonstrates what i am talking about)
Yep, bump map is your best bet. Quickest way to do it would be to select all the windows (fastest way might be to select-by-material)…add a UVW map modifier over all of them, set the mapping type to box, make sure the box is “fit” around all of them, then set the mapping channel to 2. Then, in your window material, add a noise bump map, set the map channel to 2, and tweak the settings until you have the desired effect.
So pixel monkey, have you got any map suggestions that work for you and your clients for oil canning?
oh god, three posters all replying at the same time, definitely tripping over this thread right now.
Ok bump map it is. Thanks for the help guys.
It’s funny, to make something real you have to add imperfections. Same goes for lens flare, it’s not a real world phenomenon, but a real camera phenomenon. So to make something photo-real we have to add things like lens flare (and bokeh) and DOF. Oh god, I shouldn’t have started thinking about this.
And anisotropic highlights
and
and…
I don’t do architecture work, so no I don’t have anything. Just a standard noise and size to fit.
-Eric
Tyson, I’ve been having a little bit of a play and have nutted out a few different parameters I need to tweak to get a result I’m after (damn having bevel off but the geometry being square and having no windows on it, did my head in, then set bevel % to zero and I’m happy)
BUT
Here’s a look at a screenshot and a render.
What’s happening with the glass and that texture on it. I got your texture pack, have I perhaps applied a texture randomly/accidentally to the glass. Looks like it. Clearly I didn’t mean to.
Also, near the columns at building corners in the viewport it causes some weird things to happen, some colour change, perhaps coincident faces. Not entirely sure. Is there a setting I should be using to prevent this? To shell the windows more or something?
And something that just came to mind, when you talk about interiors, don’t forget that pretty much every building these days is constructed around (physically hangs off) a central lift core, where all services and stair wells go, it supports 95% of the structure’s weight.
Hey NSF,
I’m not entirely sure of the problem you’re having. Could you save out the preset file of that building and post it as an attachment in this thread so I can take a look?
Here’s a taste of one of the new features that’ll be available in the next version!
Preset files can now be saved with a small preview image of the building their settings will make! Once a preset file is loaded into the preset browser list, having the preview images to the side can really help in deciding which preset to load, and it gives you an instant view of what the building will look like, without having to generate it in the viewport.
Preset files are still backwards compatible though, meaning if you have a preset file with no preview image, the little image box will just display the message “preview not found”, instead of throwing an error because the extra preview data is missing.