PGGC #2: Cities

                         Procedurally Generated Graphics Contest #2

Rules:

• All graphics must be generated with code (no embedded or externally loaded images).
• The final image should be generated with an algorithm and must fit the selected theme.
• A new image should be created whenever the user clicks.
• It can be static or animated.
• You can make any kind of image (of any art genre) as long as it fits the theme.
• You can submit as many entries as you want.

After the deadline, a voting period will start.

I’ll have to finish mine before May 15 (Diablo 3) or I’ll wind up submitting a very incomplete entry. Also, good luck to everyone.

I think I’ll be trying out an Agent Based Model.

Source code will, as always, be public here

v1 (identification of water bodies, possible landing regions)

v2 (chose landing region based on search criteria, identification of mountains, identification of nearby mountains to landing region)

It’s been two days and I already dropped two projects: pseudo 3D, rotating modern city and a Mars colony.

Dropped the first because honestly, I don’t think I would be able to finish it (with all details) before the deadline.
The Mars colony idea was dropped because I stopped liking the theme after a couple of hours.

Now I’m giving a try to something that should look like a vampire town for a pixel art game.
Currently working on the random generation of the main building / castle.

I’ll see if I have enough time to add some bats flying around the top of the buildings. Of course, that’s if I don’t end up dropping this one.

What region is represented with those big waterlooking things?

Originally posted by lSWATLLAMA:

What region is represented with those big waterlooking things?

v1 (identification of water bodies, possible landing regions)

My guess is water :P

Originally posted by Senekis93:

It’s been two days and I already dropped two projects: pseudo 3D, rotating modern city and a Mars colony.

Funny. Those were actually the first two things I considered, in that same order. Although I never did start on the Mars one, I did mess around with a pseudo 3D modern city.

Correct, it is water. :D

No, I mean, is there a true geographical region, such as the area surrounding the Great Salt Lake in Utah?

Its currently randomly generated based off perlin noise. Does it look like teh great salty lake? D: (And which version)

Ok, I think the vampire town is a go, although I’m deviating a bit from my original idea:

It will be an underground city; some buildings will be hanging from the top of the cave.
Also, I’m giving the buildings some sort of “alien” style; they look like some space building mixed with a living creature from a horror novel, or even a tree, since they have roots connecting them to the ground.

I took a break from the “castle”, since I didn’t like the result and deleted it. Here are some pics of the process:

Hanging buildings done:

Added a background (it can be animated or not, controlled with the keyboard):

And today I added some animated bats. Image is zoomed in.

Looks awesome. Bar officially set :)

Thank you. (:

Originally posted by Aaants:

Looks awesome. Bar officially set :)

Yeah. Senekis, I’m taking back what I said about blowing your mind and owning everyone and such. NOT BAD, SON. NOT BAD.

You promised some mind blowing stuff, now you must deliver! >_>

I’ll take a break from this while I think of something (besides the castle) to fill the rest of the screen with.

I personally think the buildings would look better on the ground. Also reminds me of Patapon.

I am now half tempted to make something Patapon-style for this.

while I think of something (besides the castle) to fill the rest of the screen with.

Vampires?

Yeah, will have some vampires walking around, but I don’t know what to use for the rest of the buildings.

I’m thinking of having the castle over some sort of mountain, then making the “apartments” teleport the vampires (with some sort of blood-beam) to the ground, but I don’t want it to end like some sort of vampire-disco with lights everywhere.

About having them on the floor, I had them that way before (actually, the buildings are rotated because I was too lazy to change all the ++y for —y), but then I thought it’d look ugly to have all the buildings down there below an almost empty sky, then I remembered all the pop culture references to vampires sleeping hanging upside down and said, “Well, let’s build their homes that way”. Now I have enough space to spawn some buildings and the main city area on the lower part of the screen.

Holy cow this is fun!

Work in progress. This has been a great way to learn about the graphics functionality. Still struggling with glow filters, though; they do weird things for me.

And yes, the light on top of the Sky Tower blinks.

That looks fantastic, jexia. If you plan on having any animation to it (would look great little cars/planes/clouds moving along), watch out for tons of glows/blurs. Although they are a great way to simulate lighting, too many of them can lag it. You can add filters to an object and then draw it to a bitmap to reduce lag, or try someGraphic.cacheAsBitmap = true;

I’m sure you have other plans, but I’ll throw an idea out. I bet a simple circular/elliptical gradient from white to 0 alpha would look good around the top of the city to simulate the lighting of the city as a whole.

I’m working on a sort of isometric view angle for my city. 3Dish looking with depth perception. It’s so much harder to draw intricate buildings like your tower there. Maybe I’ll look into multiple entries as mine is giving me a headache :P

Definitely planning on a plane, maybe cars / traffic lights. I can’t get the glow filters to do what I expect, which means that my expectations are wrong and I need to spend more time working it out! The bitmap info is interesting, thank you.

I think I will try a circular gradient, good idea. The fake water is SUPPOSED to be a gradient, too, but mumblemumble something wrong mumble.

I tried a 3Dish version and it got ridiculously slow on my machine and my head was about to explode. I’ll post as far as I got, if you’re interested?

Of course I’m interested. You can post it here whenever or link it in GDR. I’m there for a while if you are struggling with any problems with the graphics class or glows or whatever.

I thought that might be water beneath the city. Just waiting on the reflections distorted by the water waves/ripples. :)

My first approach. Gave up ;) Might still have some potential if I took it more cartoony. Have learned more with my second approach!

I appreciate the help.

Gone quiet here!

I’m really not getting the free time I was hoping for to tackle this one. My students finish in the next week and their work (and marking of it) obviously takes priority. What I have isn’t terrible, it’s just very basic. I’m going to open source it, make it a tutorial and leave it for the world to build on…

If by some miracle I get a couple of days free, I’ll do an Away3D quickie that I had planned as an extra

/bowsoutofcontention :(

edit – scrap the last bit! I just spent a couple of hours finishing it and it actually looks nice, so it’ll be a real entry, just early.

Hey again (sorry double post!)

Here’s my entry. I’d absolutely LOVE to keep going with it, it progressed so much during the last few crunch hours, but I’ve just got so much on :(

A few pics:

Hopefully someone can blow it out of the water :)

I approve of this entry. Nice work Aaants.