BuildR 1.0 - Create buildings within Unity

Walking buildings? Like in the Simpsons episode? That thing just burst into flames.
Destroying buildings can mean many things - BuildR is a creator, not a destroyer though...
You can generate your own buildings with doors and windows and interior floors. The interior walls and content is up to you though.

 

Hi Jasper,
I bought this asset and it's wonderful and easy to use thank you!
However, I have a little problem when trying to export my buildings: the low poly models export does not work. I have a Debug.Log message saying that "Output Index Too big", and an error message saying that "Array is out of range".
As I'm working on mobile, I just can use low poly models…
What can I do?
Thank you for your time!
Maroun.

PS: In the next update, could you create a public int that allow use choosing the size of the packed atlas ? Like 2048 instead of 1024?

 

Dear @Mons1999,
I'll look into that issue today and get back to you

 

Just a small note that I'm in the process of moving countries at the moment so I'm going to be a little slower at replying to emails, fixing anything that needs attention and so on. I really appreciate your patience during this time but I'll be back to 100% by end of June
Jasper

 

From what I've seen, I believe this only creates modern buildings. Is that so?

 

@j0hnbane - yeah, it's geared towards 17thC onwards really - it's possible to do older buildings but you'll have to be a little clever about how you do it. Windows are always square which would be the biggest constraint for renaissance or earlier buildings.

 

Thank you for the response. Looks like a great tool for the time periods you described.

 

Any ideas on how to get this to work with DunGen, which creates building interiors? https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/15682

In other words, is there a way to generate buildings with BuildR and then somehow generate the interior with DunGen? Thank you

 

DunGen, I gather, is more of a single-level dungeon generator that is aimed at creating maps with a boss room at the back and a mini-boss room in the middle.

What you're probably thinking of, to use with BuildR, is something probably more like Daedalus. Daedalus has multi-floor generation which could possibly fill a building, plus exterior windows, stairs, and elevators.

I have DunGen - I recently picked it up - and I think it suits my needs. However, if you want to fill a building, Daedalus looks more promising to me.

Probably you'd have to ask the Daedalus people if it can be made to work inside of BuildR.

 

Thanks for that hopeful. I'm hopeful that the BuildR guy will one day decide to generate interior walls (even with just simple cutouts for doors), which would make integration with another package unnecessary. But maybe there isn't such a demand from the customers? The existing multilevel interiors are cool, but just looks so empty...

 

Great tool, but I have a few questions.

Normal Maps
When working with a building with this tool I tried to add a normal map, which didn't show well.


Roof Bug #1
When I generate a building and I go to edit the volume, the roof turns into door textures.



Roof Bug #2
The roof disappears when "Model 2" generates...
It occurs when the engine creates "Model 2". Notice at the left "Model 1" the roof is proper.


And when I increase the amount of floors, "Model 2" is generated, where the roofs is now corrupt.


Loop of errors.
When tweaking one building I got these errors, and it repeated even when I stopped tweaking it, later my computer froze the application due to the memory problem that error caused. I researched the error and it's said to be because of a texture that wasn't removed from memory, not sure how true that is.



Hopefully this information can help you fix it. It's very much required for me at this moment and I would love to continue using this tool.

 

I've sent you an email.

 

There's a patch incoming.

 

First off I love Buildr, it's my favorite and most useful asset. But just found an issue, and it may be my doing, not sure. When I add basements the stairs go down to them, but the terrain on the ground floor is still there. The space is open for the building core, just that the terrain still shows and can't go down. Help please!

 

Thanks swglekk, I'm afraid BuildR doesn't control terrains.

 

Hi I like this asset and have used it a bit. I have another asset called PolyWorld, http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/polyworld-for-unity.239365/ . It flat shades models and bakes their texture to vertex color, But it doesn't have a fbx exporter. Since I've had buildr I've known it has fbx export. My question is does BuildR's FBX Export, support exporting vertex color already also, and how hard would it be to make it export models of non buildr assets myself, like any 3d mesh in unity? Thanks in advance and nice asset you've made!

 

@cj31387 - I don't support customising the code that comes with BuildR so it's really up to you.

 

Ok, but does the fbx export already export vertex color information?

 

I don't know.

 

There are two reasonably inexpensive assets that do this on the asset store; I'd try those.

 

hello Jasper
ive had buildr for a while now and im looking into integrating it into my level generator, ive found references to a runtime generation example, ive downloaded the latest version of buildr but i cant find the example, is it still available ? if so where
also if i generate in runtime can it create the lod and set it up so its ready to play.
many thanks for your great addon

 

Hi X_ming_X
There is a scene included in the package called runtimeBuildingCreation that has the example.
The create building in the runtime folder is the script to look into if you need to make lower LOD versions. you should be able to change the rendermode from full to lowdetail (line 353).

 

Hi thanks for the quick reply
im not sure im missing something obvious but ive got the latest version and that file isnt installed, is it a seperate package ?

 

bump

 

hi, i found a few problems when making buildings small ones such as shops, the windows & doors seem to coppy all around the building e.g when making a house style building it has doors to enter on all 4 sides. is there a way to stop this from happening and also door textures are applied to the floor, when i try to drop textures manually onto the building it only works on the walls, not floor and roof.

best suggested way to use BuildR to create houses single story and double story, same as shops that only have 1 or 2 entrances, the rest of the interior i can clean up and create using Pro Core bundle

 

Hi aquilinajake,
You will need to create more facade designs to attach to the building. Go to the facade designer and create a few more and then apply them in the building mode. Textures are modified in the texture tab - changing them in the unity scene might result in your textures being reverted back when you modify buildr again. There is an interior section where you can assign floor textures.

 

Hi Jasper
please can you confirm the location of the runtime example, ive got the latest version of buildr and that file isnt installed, is it a seperate package from the main install ?

 

Hi x_ming_x - in the scenes folder there is a scene called RuntimeBuildingCreation which has the example you're looking for.

 

Hello Jasper,

First off thanks for this asset and the amount of work put into this.

I have some questions In regard of the create buildings script that synergizes with mapity to use real world data to generate buildings. Basically we want to use mapity and buildR in synergy to create Mobile ready parts of villages or cities from real world open street data.

1. So, when I create buildings with BuildRexample script. The width and length of the buildings matches exactly. which is great. However it tends to build huge skyscrapers in an area where there are mostly homes that are 1-3 stories tall. It seems that buildR doesn't convert the height data from map-ity when creating the buildings. Could you explain a bit more about this? I know mapity contains the height data because it takes it a while to calculate when I check the height data box. And geonames has a restriction on data download. So it is taking data from geonames.

2. Is it possible to adjust this feature so that you can control how buildings are created? For example, If I want a lower quality city with low poly LOD model houses and a texture atlas. (More similar to the building creator.)

I don't ask for a fancy GUI with tons of options. Just a few checkers where you can control the buildings generated and how the Textures/UV's are handled!! And a export feature for the created buildings!

I look forward to your reply!!

 

Hi Jasper, i bought your tool on bonanza, and its great nice work

now i'm working on interior wall generator for it, and have 2 problems:
1st:
when I create mesh, texture it and create game object with the walls, look cool, and the uvs are correct
it looks like that:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/kulych34m10t8nf/correct.png?dl=0
but, when I attach the same mesh to details it looks horrible:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/9lmg3506sbwdq2c/incorrect.png?dl=0
any idea why it is incorrect?

2nd:
i'm looking for way to add details right on the world coordinates, because facades are oblique, and FaceUV parameter can be clamped by 0 and 1
i tried BuildrDetail.worldPosition, but it not works
any idea to solve this?
or, any idea at what can i add mesh as interior walls?

sorry for my english, I'm fooking forward your replay

 

Dear CyberKot93
1st, I'm sorry, I don't know what is wrong, the images don't really show me what is going on. I just see bricks!
2nd I'm afraid it's built around 0,1 coordinates. You'd have to rewrite the code to get this working like that. Otherwise, just add the meshes in the scene.
And interior meshes should be just added with Unity. It almost certainly doesn't make sense to add interior meshes to the building mesh for LOD purposes.

 

thanks for your answer Jasper,
you you told, is good idea to generate interior walls outside the building, as a new game object, it will be more "elastic" to use
about 1st - I wanted to show that, if I added mesh with TexturedWrapMode.Repeat (and have uvs vectors larger than 1)as detail via script mesh uvs scattered,and I don't know why ;(
about 2nd - wanted to do it without interfering in your code, any way, if I add walls as other object its not a problem

thanks for your time
when I'll be close to end with my script I'll show the effects

 

Ah - the detail function in BuildR atlases the textures to produce a single draw call. So tiled textures are not supported with this. You'd be better just adding the mesh yourself by hand.

 

ok, I'll do that way
I think I'm ending
interiors look fine for me
screens:




but i have last problem, how to calculate beginig and ending of doorholes and windowholes?
i searched in your code for facades and bays, but have no idea, what it works

 

Yeah - I know the problem
So a better bet would be to use the BuildRBuilding class to scrape wall points that lie between the generated bay shapes. then the walls will only be generated from there and would stop the above final image from happening.

 

Paris example. Switch to Generate mode, choose Floorplan in dropdown, Tick "Constrain to Floorplan" Radio button. Go back to General, Click generate.

Code (csharp):

1. IndexOutOfRangeException: Array index is out of range.
2. BuildrInteriors.AddData (UnityEngine.Vector3[] verts, System.Int32[] tris, Int32 subMesh, Boolean flipped) (at Assets/Buildr/Scripts/BuildrInteriors.cs:739)
3. BuildrInteriors.Build (.DynamicMeshGenericMultiMaterialMesh _mesh, .BuildrData _data, Int32 volumeIndex) (at Assets/Buildr/Scripts/BuildrInteriors.cs:585)
4. BuildrEditMode.UpdateInteriors () (at Assets/Buildr/Scripts/BuildrEditMode.cs:490)
5. BuildrEditMode.UpdateRender (renderModes _mode) (at Assets/Buildr/Scripts/BuildrEditMode.cs:394)
6. BuildrGenerateModeEditor.GeneralOptionsInspector () (at Assets/Buildr/Editor/BuildrGenerateModeEditor.cs:516)
7. BuildrGenerateModeEditor.InspectorGUI (.BuildrEditMode _editMode, .BuildrData _data) (at Assets/Buildr/Editor/BuildrGenerateModeEditor.cs:132)
8. BuildrEditModeEditor.OnInspectorGUI () (at Assets/Buildr/Editor/BuildrEditModeEditor.cs:360)
9. UnityEditor.InspectorWindow.DrawEditor (UnityEditor.Editor editor, Int32 editorIndex, Boolean forceDirty, System.Boolean& showImportedObjectBarNext, UnityEngine.Rect& importedObjectBarRect, Boolean eyeDropperDirty) (at C:/BuildAgent/work/d63dfc6385190b60/Editor/Mono/Inspector/InspectorWindow.cs:1089)
10. UnityEditor.DockArea:OnGUI()
11.  

She dies.

I keep trying to reproduce the exact steps. I think they are those.

I would like to see a quick demo on creating 50 random buildings at runtime - and - usefully placing them. The current demo is helpful but not very real-world.

Much obliged.

Oh, and yes, re the error - that is probably a stupid set of steps to do but meh, if it can be done. some fool will do it.

Another one: Click on CREATE NEW TEXTURE SET, save it as my own (do no actual edits whatsoever)

Try to then load that in the generator...

Code (csharp):

1.  
2. ArgumentOutOfRangeException: Argument is out of range.
3. Parameter name: index
4. System.Collections.Generic.List`1[BuildrTexture].get_Item (Int32 index) (at /Users/builduser/buildslave/mono-runtime-and-classlibs/build/mcs/class/corlib/System.Collections.Generic/List.cs:633)
5. BuildrBuildingGenerator.GetTextures (.BuildrData data) (at Assets/Buildr/Scripts/BuildrBuildingGenerator.cs:284)
6. BuildrBuildingGenerator.RefreshTextures (.BuildrData data) (at Assets/Buildr/Scripts/BuildrBuildingGenerator.cs:73)
7. BuildrGenerateModeEditor.GeneralOptionsInspector () (at Assets/Buildr/Editor/BuildrGenerateModeEditor.cs:263)
8. BuildrGenerateModeEditor.InspectorGUI (.BuildrEditMode _editMode, .BuildrData _data) (at Assets/Buildr/Editor/BuildrGenerateModeEditor.cs:132)
9. BuildrEditModeEditor.OnInspectorGUI () (at Assets/Buildr/Editor/BuildrEditModeEditor.cs:360)
10. UnityEditor.InspectorWindow.DrawEditor (UnityEditor.Editor editor, Int32 editorIndex, Boolean forceDirty, System.Boolean& showImportedObjectBarNext, UnityEngine.Rect& importedObjectBarRect, Boolean eyeDropperDirty) (at C:/BuildAgent/work/d63dfc6385190b60/Editor/Mono/Inspector/InspectorWindow.cs:1089)
11. UnityEditor.PopupCallbackInfo:SetEnumValueDelegate(Object, String[], Int32)
12.  

:\

O for 2 so far. doh. EDIT: Okay, that one is because no actual "Type" information is copied across (see below)

I was surprised there are no keyboard shortcuts for selecting WALL, DOOR, WINDOW, ROOF(s), "types" when creating ones own texture palette, as reassigning them all is hugely tedious. That is to say - simple selecting the correct one of the four empty radio buttons.


And also: http://support.jasperstocker.com/buildr/buildr-runtime-generation/ how come you have blank sections on your support pages? I see that you attempt to offer reasonably timely support via email, however superior documentation. I.E. Some. would go a long way to stopping that flow.

Thanks

 

@twobob,
thanks for the detailed bug reports! Much appreciated.
I'll take a look at them and stop them.
I'll check out the documentation - I think it does need updating... I'm just a little lazy there - it's a thankless task if I do it right I think my host switched servers last month and I've been fixing websites since! Urgh...
I've never looked into keyboard shortcuts - but that's a good suggestion.

 

No problem, I am attempting to justify my purchase of your Buildr series (Including Track)

One tiny car game and a single exported building aren't covering it
I do have access to a lot of substance creation materials and so I am very interested in the possibility of fast runtime buildings. However the runtime building example is - well - hmm.. A little light in the full explanation dept. I would very much like to see a demo scene more like:
http://kaycare.uk/games/city/
which is actually useful in the sense that games designers could look at it and go "Oh yeah".
not "Err, whut?"

I have watched every video. several times, read every docs, everything I could find anyways.
I have yet to find a single reference to anyone actually implementing your buildings at runtime in a gameplay situation, which is sad. I would very much like to change that. Ideally chucking in a variation of this realtime culling https://gist.github.com/aeroson/b4b8b4a4b11ef5549a40 - based on http://www.iddevnet.com/doom3/visportals.php - I will look at your winding/implementation again, perhaps I can figure it out

Will continue on again today.
Kind regards,

Hope HK is working out nice for you.

OH.... on http://support.jasperstocker.com/buildr/ the slideshow is broken. just so you know

 

These errors have been fixed.

 

Hi Jasper,

I'm a huge fan of BuildR, one of the few assets I bought at full price instead of waiting for a sale because I was just so excited about it. It's such a joy to work with, well done!

I'll throw a request in the ring though even though I'm not sure how possible it is. The way I use BuildR is to make very basic prototypes of all the buildings so that there's something there to program with. Later, buildings get fleshed out one by one and then finally exported to add unique features. I would LOVE to be able to draw a city plan in vectors and have BuildR generate buildings in the spaces outlined. That would speed up workflow so much. What I imagine is much like the way Mapity works by grabbing info from OpenStreetMaps except the "mapping" info is hand drawn in vectors in external programs like Inkscape or Illustrator.

A tall order? Probably. But maybe you've also thought of all this and are secretly working on a beta version that needs testing and you're gonna PM me a link and it'll be amazing.

A man can dream.

Thanks for the fantastic asset.

 

I can second this request.

After recently placing one or two buildings by hand, having a way to autodefine would have been great.

Get map, define blueprints roughly, badaboom.

If only.

 

I hear you guys and I'm working on a city generator currently but I'm afraid it's independent of BuildR. A whole new project built more or less from scratch. Interesting thoughts on importing from Inkscape/Illustrator - noted .

 

Is there any way to make stairs go up to a roof? Or do they only go to the last floor?

 

I'm available to Beta test, buy, and generally cheer this idea on.

Any idea when it'll be ready for primetime?

 

@cj31387 - it's a feature in the pipeline. Soon

@Dbone thanks - not sure on a date. Working on April for some kind of alpha. But I'm quite bad at timing stuff and I might be moving house/cities in the next couple of months which would delay things (but hopefully not much). I should begin marketing/blogging about things soon though...

 

Jasper,
Thank you for this wonderful add-on. After fiddling with this tool a bit, I am able to speed up the development of buildings in my city scene. I appreciate the work you have done here. Kudos.

I have noticed some oddities, and could use some additional features if you are still actively developing this asset.
1) Problem: When I create a building that is square, but the sides are not aligned (trapezoid?), add a couple of cores in diagonally opposite corners, the interior floors are sometimes only generated only over half of the shape (a triangle).
2) Problem: Sometimes, when I go to the "cog" icon in Buildr and select create tangents, I get a ton of weird lines emanating from the roof down to the 1st floor, like small planes or edges. I click on any of the other icons and they go away, and then regenerate the tangents and they are usually gone. Just annoying more than anything else, but thought I should note it.
3) Problem: When generating the cores, it would be useful to either see the stairs (if selected to build them) or scale them based on the size of the core.
4) Problem: When building the cores, it would be handy to have the walls that contain the space built as well, with openings for doors and elevators. It's a pain in the butt to try and build and align after the cores are placed.
5) Problem: Cores should be scaled so that the halfway point of the stairs doesn't leave insufficient headroom to get to the 2nd flight up. Causes the user to have to go back and forth in the floorplan to tweak the cores. Real time consuming if you've already boxed in the core with those self made interior core walls.
6) Feature: Allow generating stairs on a per core basis rather than a yes or no. I would like to have cores in the corners with stairs, and a central core that my elevators travel in.
7) Feature: Holes in the roof for cores would be helpful.
8) Feature: Is there a tutorial or write-up somewhere that can assist me with taking Mapity output and having buildings auto-generated with appropriate height data? I don't mind going into each building to stylize them, but this was the key integration feature that moved me to buy these two packages together. I'm sure I just haven't understood how they should work together. If this is my misunderstanding of the integration, can I use OSM data that I have downloaded from OpenStreets to accomplish the task?
9) Feature: This one is probably a "wetware" issue, the loose nut behind the keybaord. I am building a city for FPS, so it would be awesome to have the ability to build a tower on top of a lower, 2 or 3 floor building. Is there something I should be doing to make that easier? Is that what the merge volumes button is for? If so, how do I align the cores, or is that handled automatically after merging? What are the steps to merge volumes in this manner? I want to avoid my elevators or player on stairs from encountering the roof of the wider lowrise when ascending to the tower section.

Once again, thank you for the base asset. I am enjoying learning how to use the asset, but really wish there were more tutorials, guidance and instructions. If there are, can you list 'em so they can be found and followed?
Cheers!
Mark

 

OH YEAH! What's the word on the city generator? Any ETA on release? Might be what I really need...
Mark

 

Thanks for all the feedback Mark, I'll be looking into the issues you've found. The City Gen is coming along but I'm moving house again so I'm not getting much time to do anything at the moment. There should be a few things I will back port to BuildR once I've finished (or before)

 

You seem to be a man on the move, Jasper! I'm going to have to count the threads that have you coming and going. 8)
Get settled in, no rush. I'm enjoying the tool. One more feature request to add to the bunch. Can you add the Mapity integration as a menu item on the Buildr selection choices, rather than having a separate prefab for it?

Regards,
Mark

 

I found a U-tube video showing how to get BuildR and Road Architect to work with Map-ity. The Road Arch did its thing and built the roads. Took some time. Now I am trying the BuildR. My map file was done at zoom level 5, and BuildR choked on it. Lots of data, crashed Unity. I used a zoom level 3, and it did a little better. Terminated with the following error:

Mesh 2 is exceeding 65000 vertices - stop build Which traces back to this line of code:

if (vertexCount > 65000) //Unity has an inbuilt limit of 65000 verticies. Use DynamicMeshGenericMultiMaterialMesh to handle more than 65000
{
Debug.LogWarning(name+ " is exceeding 65000 vertices - stop build");

Any way to either implement "DynamicMeshGenericMultiMaterialMesh" as the comment states, or process the 64999 it can handle and then grab the next bunch, creating two building volumes out of it, or skip that building and continue with the next instead of just stopping?

Other suggestions? Reducing my map-ity zoom level seems counterproductive, as I need to build the city. Level 2 and below only grab a few blocks.

Thanks,
Mark