London's Twitter Island - From ArcGIS to Max to Lumion

As part of the MRes in Advanced Spatial Analysis and Visualisation, here in CASA at The Bartlett, University College London, we are exploring new methods and techniques for visualising data. As part of the course we are looking at collecting data from the Twitter API and using the resulting .csv file as an input into a variety of software, including Processing and ArcMap.

One such known example is the London Twitter map by UrbanTick, developed using the data collector created by Steven Gray and imported by Fabian into ArcMap, it developed a style of its own as the 'NewCity Landscape' collection. From a digital urban point of view the next stage of the map is a 3D extension, a transformation that proved surprisingly difficult due to the nature of combining the worlds of traditional GIS and game engines such as Lumion.

We are still in the early stages of development but the movie below illustrates the NewCity Landscape Map of London visualisation in Lumion as a 'Twitter Island':



Music by Pigeman over at MP3 Unsigned. There are of course many arguments on the pro's and con's of visualising data in such a way, indeed the visualisation is developed to open up the debate as part of the MRes course allowing various visualisation techniques to be compared from the same data set.

We will have more updates as the visualisation develops, along with a walk through of how to build it. If your interested in such output our MRes is now open for applications, entry 2012-2013...

Leadwerks Engine for Architectural Visualisation

Its always good to see innovation in the field of real-time visualisation in relation to architectural projects. Our argument is usually not to go for the known route, the high priced software engines, but to explore other solutions for clients. As such it is really nice to see visualisation company Pure3d using the Leadwerks Editor.


The movie below details realtime rendering, for a french client with the purpose of selling real estates:

Pure3d's remit was to deliver a rendered movie template which could be used for further editing and audio overlay. The visualisation was based upon CAD floor plans which they used as a base for modeling and layout.

In terms of Interactivity, the project can be presented in a game like setting with realtime interactivity, this allows prospective purchasers to take a free look around the site and properties.

Rendering is quick with the source material movie output to 4000x3000px per frame in less than 30 minutes on a single workstation, this in turn means notable savings in production costs.

Head over to the Pure3d Leadwerks Meets Architecture blog for more info and screenshots.

Architectural Visualisation in Crysis (The Engine)

Vladymi, an architect from Ukraine, got in contact to let us know that as a result of some of our blog posts he has decided to move almost entirely to game engines for visualisation.

His current 'engine' of choice is the CryEngine2:



Vladymi makes the point that such engines allow A0 size renders in seconds and export movies at above HD resolution in near real-time. The work load is also minimal in importing models, whats not to like?

See the ArchMod site for more details.

German and UK Truck Simulator

We can't quite remember our search terms on game engines this morning but we stumbled upon a game entitled 'German Truck Simulator'.

The game allows you to drive across a realistic depiction of Germany, visit its cities, choose from over sixty kinds of cargo, and deliver them. The game progresses by growing your truck fleet and hire the most experienced drivers to build up a business:

The game has been developed by the makers of simulations in the 18 Wheels of Steel series and authors of Euro Truck Simulator. There is quite a niche market for this type of game although the web page states that 'we are happy to confirm that the game has been released in Poland - a country where we know our games have lots of fans'.

Here is the official Polish game website: germantrucksimulator.pl.

It would be easy to put in a few jokes here and there, but in terms of simulation and visualisation this has got potential and we note there is now a UK version:




The UK version was relased last week, ever had a craving to drive the motorways of the UK and chose between over sixty kinds of cargo to deliver? Head over to http://www.uktrucksimulator.com/ for full details.

The the 1-hour trail demo version of the UK game is not available until April 19th, 2010 but you can download the German version now.

Do let us know how you get on if you do, happy trucking.

How the 3D Engine is Changing the World: The Guardian

Keith Stuart has a good article in today's Guardian Newspaper entitled 'How the 3D Engine is Changing the World'. Keith notes that John D Carmack, the programming legend behind the Doom and Quake games runs an aerospace company as a relaxing diversion from his role as technical director at games developer, id. Which goes to show that 3D engine design isn't rocket science – it's far more complicated than that.

You can read the full article online, including our thoughts on Google SketchUp....

Epic Announces Free Unreal Development Kit

Epic Games, Inc. has announced the launch of the Unreal Development Kit (UDK), a free edition of Unreal Engine 3 that provides community access to the game engine and toolset.

The software release is available to anyone interested in using 3D game engine technology, including game developers, students, hobbyists, researchers, creators of 3D visualizations and simulations, and digital filmmakers:



There is no charge for noncommercial or educational use of UDK. Over 100 academic campuses currently use Unreal Technology as part of teaching game development-related courses.

Anyone can start working with the industry-leading Unreal Engine 3 toolset by downloading UDK at www.udk.com, where detailed product features, technical documentation, commercial licensing terms, support resources and more are also available. This is quite an interesting development as it could enable some neat architectural ports into the engine.

CryEngine 3: Demo Movie

The movie below provides an insight into possible new workflows for urban and geographic visualisation - detailing the new sandbox of the CryEngine 3 from Crytek it has us flicking through the pages of PC World to upgrade our graphics card:



Take a look at http://www.mycryengine.com/ for full details.

CityEngine to Unity: Rapid City Modelling for Game Engines

The CityEngine is a unique professional tool for creating, visualisating and exporting cityscapes. As such it is of notable use to the games industry with a quick and easy route into either 3D Max or the Unity Engine.

Unity supports a number of input formats, allowing for direct integration with the CityEngine with the following features:

* Direct model export to Unity via Autodesk FBX including textures - thus, generate'n'play your environment with a few clicks only.
* Arbitrary mesh granularities such as per-material groups or editable scene nodes are possible thanks to CityEngine's various export options such as "merge by material" or "single node objects". Most of these options are supported by Unity.
* Collider meshes (almost) for free: The CityEngine's CGA shape grammar is a perfect tool to generate and control low-res collider meshes in Unity (and they always adapt to model iterations).

The video below demonstrates a CityEngine-Unity-workflow.



It is impressive how easy it is nowadays to create buildings/cities and visualise them direct via a game engine...

See http://www.procedural.com/ for full details.

IGN's Top 10 Game Engines

IGN has just published an interesting article on the top 10 game engines -

Webster's Dictionary defines a 'game engine' as 'the word you've entered isn't in the dictionary,' but if it were to define it, it would probably explain that a game engine is used as the overall architecture to develop and run a game – it gives developers tools to create the disparate elements of a videogame and then pull them together to create a functioning whole. From the renderer to the physics system, sound architecture, scripting, AI and networking, game engines either natively power every aspect of a game, or they allow other specialised middleware to slot into the game's framework. In any case, game engines are the workhorses of modern videogame development.

The list comprises the top commercial engines, many of which come with a 'sandbox' mode when purchasing a game allowing one to add in architectural, geographic and urban content to visualize.

Take a look at the Top 10 Game Engines at IGN for a full run down.

Unity: Project Double Zero

Project double zero is a FPS running in the Unity game engine, the project is being developed collaboratively by several interested parties. The driving force behind the project is Thomas P who is documenting progress via YouTube and their blog. The first movie below provides an insight into developing a level in Cinema 4D and then importing into Unity. The C4D development is broadly similar to 3DMax/Maya/Blender techniques:



The second movie details the latest progress:



Our own work with Unity is on going, below details progress to date:



Obviously with architecture, agent based modelling, urban design and planning based visualisation we have had to 'lose the gun' aspect of a FPS but in terms of development and concepts the work is similar. We should have a release out the door in the next few weeks...

See http://blog.projectdoublezero.com/ for full details on Project Double Zero, its one to watch...

Augmented Reality with the Sauerbraten Game Engine

In the clip above the Sauerbraten game engine is used to render a game map in real time onto a video feed. The game is run in multiplayer mode and one of the characters can be seen walking around.

We especially like the concept of holding a multi-player game map in your hand, to such an extent that we have suddenly got an urge to hold all of those little people from Populous in our hands via AR...

Take a look at the AliveTeam channel on YouTube for more movies.

Venetica: Modelling and Making the Game

Venetica is a game for Windows and the XBox 360, currently being developed by Deck13 and published by DTP Entertainment. Due for release later this year the developer has published an insightful video into the making of the game, including building and modelling the environment:

The official trailer is embedded below:



The mix of the iconic architecture of Venice in the game engine is quite striking...

Full details at http://www.venetica-game.com/

Call of Duty World at War: Mod Tools Tutorial

Call of Duty: World at War is a first-person video game developed by Treyarch and published by Activision for Microsoft Windows, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Wii, and Xbox 360. While using war based games for geographic, urban or architectural visualization can be controversial the principle is the same - you strip out the game and use the engine to allow real-time walkthroughs and the game assets to populate scenes with pedestrians, traffic etc.

Nixon has uploaded a useful tutorial to Vimeo that details how to create a house using the modding software that ships with Call of Duty, World at War and run it in-game:

Call of duty Mod tools Tutorial. from nixon on Vimeo.

For more info on the mod tools see the Treyarch wiki page, the AI navigation page is of particular note for those interested in agent based modelling in game engines.

Mirrors Edge: A Change of Pace in Architectural Visualisation

Suddenly all the architectural animations we have featured here on digital urban seem rather dull. The movie below is a remix Mirror's Edge Music Video 2 by Enhaton, music Madonna - Jump Remix with Mirror's Edge running on a PC and additional remixing using Adobe Premiere CS4 :


Mirror’s Edge is a first person adventure game currently under development by DICE, available on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC its shows innovative use of the cityscape:


The story is based around a city...

where information is heavily monitored, agile couriers called Runners transport sensitive data away from prying eyes. In this seemingly Utopian paradise, a crime has been committed and now you are being hunted. You are a Runner called Faith - and this innovative first-person action-adventure is your story.

The PC version is moddable which opens up quite a few opportunities for how we explore architecture and the cityscape in general, yet another example of the power of game engines for urban visualisation.

Grand Theft Auto: Editing the Physics Movie

Simulations in social science often ignore the use of any physics engine yet is it can be invaluable for modelling real world situations. Games such as Grand Theft Auto have a built in physics and dymanics simulation to provide variables such as mass, velocity, friction to the in game objects - thus simulating the required environment.

These are often taken for granted, by editing the handling.DAT file in the Grand Theft Auto III directory/data you can change the settings, as the movie above details to interesting effect...

Movie by http://www.youtube.com/user/AnytimeGamers

For more on physics engines see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physics_engine.

See also the latest post on Physics in the Crysis Engine.

SketchUp: Import into Left 4 Dead Engine

Our trial version of Unity has annoyingly timed out (see here for work to date and demo) so while we wait to sort out a license the beta of Left 4 Dead Authoring Tools caught our eye. Currently in beta the tools are available as a free download for all owners of the PC version of Left 4 Dead, and can be found under the "Tools" tab in Steam. Of note is the integration with SketchUp to create building blocks and props that can be imported into Hammer for use in game levels.

Using the L4D Authoring Tools, you can create your own campaign maps, character skins, 3D models, sound effects, and music and load them into the game.

Here's what's included:

• Updated version of Hammer, the source level editor
• Updated suite of command line compiling utilities
• Updated Particle editor
• Updated Faceposer
• Example maps, common infected, props, and explosives

Head on over to the Left 4 Dead blog for more info.

Thanks go to Thomas Wenzler for sending this in and the source via http://news.sketchucation.com/

Unity: City Data and Simulation Exhibition Space - A Work in Progress

We have spent the day giving the Unity Game Engine a spin and to be honest we are really impressed. The interface is simple to use and the ability to drag and drop files direct from 3D Max/Maya/Blender etc is refreshing. We have been able to import various simulations into a city exhibition space, a process that would taken of a good few days using other game engines.

By way of a work in progress we have a new video below:


We will have more next week... any thoughts, comments or questions are of course welcome...

Unity Game Engine for Architectural Visualisation: A First Look

This is our first look at Unity - an integrated authoring tool for creating 3D video games or other interactive content such as architectural visualizations or real-time 3D animations. The editor runs on Windows and Mac OS X and can produce games for Windows, Mac, Wii, or iPhone platforms. It can also produce browser games that use the Unity web player plugin, supported on Mac and Windows.

We have spent the morning dragging and dropping files into the interface for direct viewing in the game engine. In short, we are impressed at the shear ease of use, within 15 minutes we had our both our 3D Tube Map and Greeble City complete with sky box, lighting and first person viewpoint up and running:


For anyone used to having to jump through various hoops to get models into a game engine Unity is quite simply a breath of fresh air. There are two main licenses: Unity Indie ($199), and Unity Pro ($1499). Unity Pro is required for businesses with over $100,000 turnover/year.

Our movie was produced via the 30 day trial of the Indie version, we will be taking a closer look at Unity over the coming weeks, for now see http://unity3d.com/unity/ for more information.

Unity Game Engine

Wikipedia describes Unity as an integrated authoring tool for creating 3D video games or other interactive content such as architectural visualizations or real-time 3D animations. Unity is similar to Director, Blender game engine, Virtools or Torque Game Builder in the sense that an integrated graphical environment is the primary way of authoring the game.

The editor runs on Windows and Mac OS X and can produce games for Windows, Mac, Wii, or iPhone platforms. It can also produce browser games that use the Unity web player plugin, supported on Mac and Windows.

The movie below by 3dnemo provides an insight into the possibilities:


Version 2.5 now supports the ability to drag and drop .max files right into the Editor, including support for all skeletal based animation, multiple UVs, and vertex colors. This builds on the existing support for Maya, Blender, and all other 3D applications that integrate with the latest FBX plugin on the Windows platform.

There are two main licenses: Unity Indie ($199), and Unity Pro ($1499). The Pro version has additional features like render-to-texture, postprocessing effects, and the ability to build standalone Windows games. Unity Pro is also required for businesses with over $100,000 turnover/year.

The second movie, again by 3dnemo , illustrates a cityscape running within Unity:



We will be taking a closer look at Unity over the coming weeks, for now see http://unity3d.com/unity/ for more information.

Thanks go to an anonymous commenter in our post on hyperShot: Near Realtime Rendering System for Windows and Mac for mentioning Unity...

Update - See our Sample City Exhibition Space in Unity for Windows and Mac.

Frank Lloyd Wright: Fallingwater Architectural and Game Visualisation

Fallingwater from Cristóbal Vila on Vimeo.

The movie above by etereaestudios.com represents one of the best visualisations of Fallingwater we have seen.

Fallingwater, also known as the Edgar J. Kaufmann Sr. Residence, is a house designed by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1935 in rural southwestern Pennsylvania, 50 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, and is part of the Pittsburgh Metro Area. The house was built partly over a waterfall in Bear Run at Rural Route 1 in the Mill Run section of Stewart Township, Fayette County, Pennsylvania, in the Laurel Highlands of the Allegheny Mountains (Wikipedia)

The movie provides an interesting contrast to the Half Life model of Fallingwater built by Kasperg. Using the Source Engine, as opposed to more traditional Architectural Software, allows the use of dynamic lighting and a real-time walkthrough of the scene in high resolution:


Falling Water by Frank Lloyd Wright in Half Life from digitalurban on Vimeo.

The movie demonstrates the quality of Half Life, and games engines in general, for visualisation using both a standard walkthrough and half way through a fly-through using the Half Life 'Noclip' option. It cant uite match however the beauty of etereaestudios visualisation.

You can find out more about Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater at http://www.fallingwater.org/