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CiDy 2.7 Procedural City Designer

Discussion in 'Assets and Asset Store' started by RecklessGames_, Feb 11, 2016.

  1. RecklessGames_

    RecklessGames_

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    CiDy 2.6 Update Released!

    Fully Integrated with GAIA 2 and GAIA Pro as well as Vegetation Studio

    New Update Brings New Built-in CiDySpawner System.

    Roads can now Generate Sub Splines with Procedural Attributes that automatically change with Road.

    NewYearSaleGIF_BestCompression.gif


    New Spawner Types Available:

    1.) Road Markings: Double Line, Left Pass Lane, Right Pass Lane, One Way Lane, One Way Lane with White & Yellow Lines

    2.) Generate Prefab Along Spline,

    3.) Power Lines,

    4.) New Procedural Mesh Extrusions Types:
    1.) Guard Rail,
    2.) SideWalk,
    3.) Barrier

    Spawner System Also has a Normalized Length Range, Allowing you to be able to Mix and Match Multiple Road Markings and Other Spawner Types along a Road Spline with User Defined Offsets.

    New Models and Prefabs Added:

    1.) PowerLine Pole and Procedural Power Cables Connecting Between them,
    2.) Street Speed Signs:
    25mph,40mph,55mph,70mph
    3.) Turning Signs:
    Slow Speed 25, Slow Speed 45,Double Sided Chevron Turn Arrow


    Join our Discord Server.
    https://discord.gg/5ErF9MU

    Asset Store Link:
    CiDy 2.0

    Check out our new WebSite for Gallery and Videos:
    https://recklessgamesstudio.weebly.com/

    Follow Us on Twitter for Progress Updates:
    @RecklessGames_

    Join in on the Fun and Drive a Seat Leon Racing Car around an Island City.
    CiDy2_3_Test_Drive_Scene-min.gif

    Playable Demo Test Drive PC:
    966 Mb download Size, (1.4 Gb Hard Drive Space Needed)
    https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PoZ5k0CRkLvZ__GErxF5Q1jKss81Vhbg/view?usp=sharing

    WSDA Or Arrow Keys Controls the car.

    Enter/Return Turn key will Flip the Car right Side up if you roll it.

    Escape Brings up two Buttons in the upper Left Corner.

    Quit
    &
    Restart(If you want to reset the scene after knocking down a bunch of street lights and benches. )

    CiDy 2.4, Fully Integrated with GAIA 2 & GAIA Pro allows for Super Fast City Scene Creation.


    CiDy 2.4 Spawner Showcase


    Fly Through Of City Designed with CiDy 2.0


    Tutorial setup of CiDy 2.0


    //Speed Design using CiDy 2.0


    GaiaProIntegration3.PNG View attachment 704442

    Change Assets Easily (Old Town Buildings) View attachment 704445
    Change Assets Easily (Modular Destroyed Buildings) View attachment 704448
    Change Assets Easily (Futuristic Buildings (KitBash3D Free Models)) View attachment 704451
     
    Last edited: Dec 20, 2021
  2. Teila

    Teila

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    Very nice! I do have a few questions.

    Is it possible to change the texture of the road and sidewalks? Maybe to cobblestone or dirt? Can any prefabs be used for buildings, lights, etc?

    Thanks.
     
  3. RecklessGames_

    RecklessGames_

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    Excellent questions Teila. Yes you can change the materials that are applied to the meshes by the system by simply changing the material settings or you can pick a material for a specific mesh individually. This system is designed to use your projects assets. You can swap any prefabs you want into the cells or the Resources folder and the system will grab them for you. :) These features are shown in the video tutorial. The editor exposes the prefabs that are used for street light placement, clutter prefabs and buildings for lots.

    Setting up your building prefabs only requires you to make sure that the Object has a Mesh Render and the root transform forward matches the buildings forward so when the buildings are placed it will grab that mesh and create a Axis aligned bounding box to fit the building prefab into the lot space.There are royalty free assets that come with the Package in its demo scene. :)
     
  4. Teila

    Teila

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    Great! This is fabulous. :)

    So...can I use it in the 3rd person game? I see from the video that I can change the resolutions of the roads and sidewalks so I am assuming that everything can look good from a character perspective...assuming my textures are good quality, which they are. :)

    I love how you made this to allow for a more organic city. So many are forced to grids. While I am currently building cities by hand, I have several that are not quite as specific and this would speed up development so much! I can quickly lay out villages, towns, and even large cities that look good.

    One thing I noticed was that you can change the size of the blocks. Is it possible for the houses to be very close together, such as row houses? Or...could I add one long rowhouse with multiple residences by changing the size of the plots to very large? Can the plot sizes be changed on both x and z axis so you can get rectangular or square plots?

    Thanks!
     
  5. Teila

    Teila

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    Oops, forgot something.

    Can I build a city on a mesh instead of on the terrain?
     
  6. RecklessGames_

    RecklessGames_

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    Yes this system is geared for First/Third person Quality.

    The Current lot division algorithm simply sub divides the Interior polygon of the Lot continually until the sizes are near the desired lot width/lot depth.

    You could do a row house setup. I was going for a similar look in the Terrain Blending Shot.

    Terrain Blending:
    Currently the blending in the system will only work with unity terrain system. You could build on a mesh but there wouldn't be any blending done by the system to match the mesh to the roads. What kind of Mesh for terrain are you using. Is it just like a plane mesh? 2D if so i should be able to add that type of blending into the system as it is the same process for blending to the terrain heightmap.
     
    Teila likes this.
  7. Teila

    Teila

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    I don't think this would be an issue. I have one city that is being built on a mesh with different levels. It is flat, will be textured with stone. The goal is to have a self contained city area for performance reasons. If your nodes will still work on a flat mesh, then it should be fine. I won't need any sort of terrain blending for that.
     
  8. RecklessGames_

    RecklessGames_

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    Yes will will work with a flat mesh. You can set any mesh to tag: terrain and Layer terrain and the system will build on it.
     
    Teila likes this.
  9. Teila

    Teila

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    Sounds like a perfect match then. Usually I will use the terrain, just this one city is different. :) Thanks! I look forward to seeing it on the asset store.
     
  10. Teila

    Teila

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    No, I meant row houses as in a line of connected houses like you might have in a large city. Not the loveliest example but here is a link.

    https://photos.travelblog.org/Photos/248044/887645/f/8521038-Medieval-row-houses-0.jpg

    Those are pretty though! :)

    I imagine if I can make the plots longer, then I could put the row house in as one object, which actually would be better since there would be no extra walls between them to increase the polys.

    Also..I imagine I could use your asset to generate roads and sidewalks and just place my own stuff, right?

    Oh, I forgot something else..this is procedural. Is it persistent in the editor? My streets won't change if I go into editor mode to add something, will they?
     
  11. RecklessGames_

    RecklessGames_

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    I see you want one Actual Mesh Object representing several side by side.

    If that building is all one Mesh that will work for you.

    Yes. All these assets are created in the Edit mode.
     
    Last edited: Feb 11, 2016
    Teila likes this.
  12. closetgeekshow

    closetgeekshow

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    The blending buildings with terrain feature sold me. I want this immediately :)
     
  13. RecklessGames_

    RecklessGames_

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    Yes that was something I felt was always missing from other city generator style systems. They are always flat and grid/blocky roads. Hopefully the review process will not take too long so I can get back to add the next features for CiDy like the traffic system / Car AI.
     
  14. droderick

    droderick

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    Looks awesome. Have a couple of questions about roads and road types. Is it possible to have multi-lane roads and one way roads?
    Thanks!
    d
     
  15. closetgeekshow

    closetgeekshow

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    A traffic AI system would be cool, though there's already a few assets on the store for that. Might be better to focus on city layout-specific features instead.

    I'd like to multi-lane roads as well, but what you have here already looks great.
     
  16. RecklessGames_

    RecklessGames_

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    Great Feedback. I also agree multi - lanes is a must. I have been looking at the current traffic systems for Unity. They all have one flawed issue. They require manual setup of way points for the traffic lines. Integrating a traffic system into CiDy will allow you to modify the city layouts without worrying about updating any traffic data. In fact the traffic line data is already written in there so now I will just be extrapolating it into the editor GUI and Writing a simple car AI to utilize it. And add the ability to specify how many lanes are on a road. :)
     
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  17. RecklessGames_

    RecklessGames_

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    droderick Version 1.0 doesn't have a traffic system exposed yet. You could simply texture the road with a multi lane texture or a single lane texture to achieve the desired look. :) There will be roadTypes added with the Traffic Feature.
     
    TeagansDad likes this.
  18. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    This looks like a great sister product for Gaia - I reckon a city would look great just down there :)

    Grab 20160210145542 w1900h1200 x62y81z-771r9.jpg
     
  19. John-G

    John-G

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    Can this be used with easyroads 3 to generate the buildings with its Road system?
     
  20. RecklessGames_

    RecklessGames_

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    I have no experience with Easy Roads system. If that system exposes the point data then you could potential tie the two together. You can feed a list of points into the CiDy Library that you want divided into lots for Building Placement.
     
  21. hakankaraduman

    hakankaraduman

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    Hi Reaper, it's a great plugin. Definitely will have it when it's out.

    Is it possible you collaborate with its creator so that the roads created with your plugin will also automatically creates the traffic lines for its?
     
  22. Teila

    Teila

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    I have used Easy Roads and I can't imagine how you can combine the two. ER are very different, even the way they do the intersections.
     
    John-G likes this.
  23. RecklessGames_

    RecklessGames_

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    What is desired end result hakankaraduman? Traffic for your roads?
     
  24. Rombie

    Rombie

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    This looks amazing. It will save me countless hours. Building cities is a ton of work; anything that will allow a drastic "shortcut" would be awesome.

    Have you set a price yet for the asset?
     
  25. RecklessGames_

    RecklessGames_

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    Yes. It will be priced at only $75. There are two features that are coming for this license as well. Traffic and procedural buildings.
     
    Last edited: Feb 12, 2016
    Rombie likes this.
  26. KeaGen

    KeaGen

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    Already any plans for updates?
     
  27. Teila

    Teila

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    Ahh, well, since all I need is the city layout, might be too much for me. Too bad, but traffic and procedural buildings won't fit in with a medieval world.
     
  28. _invalidusername

    _invalidusername

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    This look amazing!
    • When buildings/roads etc are placed on the terrain, does the system remove obstacles like untys terrain trees and grass from underneath the building/road? Or does this need to be done manually?

    • Any idea of when this is going to be released?

    • Do you need beta testers?
     
  29. RecklessGames_

    RecklessGames_

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    Thank you.
    Currently there is no procedural removal of unity terrain objects. Still waiting on Unity Review process. I received an email with this.

    Our Asset Store review team will take a good look at your submission for consideration of inclusion on the Asset Store. Normally this can take 5 to 10 business days, but in some cases it can take a bit longer.
     
    _invalidusername likes this.
  30. RecklessGames_

    RecklessGames_

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    That's understandable. You will have to weight your options. Will you have a need for this product for any future projects and such. Will your medieval town have horses and stuff walking around on the roads? They could use a traffic system. :)
     
  31. Teila

    Teila

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    Maybe...I will watch it and see how it goes. It is still a cool project and more than likely worth the cost but if I don't need half of it, might be better to find another solution. However, I really like it. LOL

    Maybe I could sell a kid. Do you take trades? :p
     
    RecklessGames_ likes this.
  32. RecklessGames_

    RecklessGames_

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    Not a fair trade. lol
    I guess I will just have to add more cool features to sway your opinion. :)
     
    Teila likes this.
  33. hakankaraduman

    hakankaraduman

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    Yes, traffic system in the roads
     
    RecklessGames_ likes this.
  34. Teila

    Teila

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    Hey, I have one that can cook, clean and even program in C#!

    :)

    One thing that might change my mind...

    Something to control periodic vehicles, like a bus or a stagecoach, or something like that. That way, players can click on the vehicle, and "ride" to the next destination where they can get off. Of course, I do not need inside the bus representation, just the vehicle stopping so we can add code to make it appear the player is on the vehicle (vanishes, etc) until it stops. We would need some way to mark the stops. This would work for all time periods..bus, trolley or carpool for modern, stagecoach, carriage, farmers wagon for old fashioned.

    If the vehicle could then head on down the road, maybe fading if necessary into the distance, that would be very cool. It is something we need and will have to program ourselves but you could save my poor overworked programmers from a lot of backbreaking work. :)
     
  35. RecklessGames_

    RecklessGames_

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    I will be adding that feature next. :)
     
    hakankaraduman and Teila like this.
  36. KaseyMisner

    KaseyMisner

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    Hi,

    I have looked at your video. It is a very good job.
    But I think some things are missing (at least for me to buy it and use it in my project).

    Just have a look to the New York assets in the asset store. : https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/search/page=1/sortby=relevance/query=new&york

    The ones from NoneCG are excellent.

    The problem with your asset is that your cells are having too much (empty) spaces in between which is not the case in any city. Take Venice, Paris, NY etc... buildings are standing side by side with small alley in between.

    So I think that you should rename your asset Suburb, because it does not makes actual cities.

    Or please modify it so that it can handle assets like the NoneCG ones and manage to randomize the buildings side by side like this : https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/51250
    and have some backalley around them.

    Do not give up, your asset has the potential to be a killer, I love it, but at $70+, I will buy it only if it does something more realistic as a city builder.
     
    Teila and hakankaraduman like this.
  37. daschatten

    daschatten

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  38. RecklessGames_

    RecklessGames_

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    @KaseyMisner
    Thank you for your input. I actually agree with your point. Which is why there are many features and additions coming. :) It appears the NYC systems are Procedural Building Facades. This is perfect. lol I have already been designing a procedural Facade system. :) So I highly recommend you put this thread on your watch list. There are many factors included in the price of the asset. That one time cost in addition to the product capabilities is also for the tech support and continued development of the system to bring you more city based procedural editor assets. Thanks again for your input. I am always interested in hearing what designers need.
     
    Teila likes this.
  39. Teila

    Teila

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    That is great. If you make a facade system, I would buy it just for that. :) Very cool.
     
  40. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    I have reached out to the author. Integration would probably take 10 - 20 minutes and would be cool imho as well.

    If he wants to swap vouchers, and needs some help to do it I am here for when he is ready.

    Gaia will be on the Unity stand at GDC in mid march. Be lovely to show off some cool integrations :)
     
  41. KaseyMisner

    KaseyMisner

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    YES! the Procedural Building Facades is an amazing idea. But at the same time, you need to make sure that people cannot go behind. So I would make it in a way that complete buildings can be used. What for example one want to blow out buildings by shooting them, or enter thought a door. A facade (like in the old western movies) will probably be limited.

    Actually, just using squared buildings the way you are doing now but have a way to set the cells to be 0% so that each building stick together and take 100% of the cell space, or change to 2% then have the space for a backalley. http://coolvibe.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/future_back_alley-992x536.jpg

    Backalley would be defined the same way for other items, with a folder and we can put anything inside.

    About Gaia, I know people are crazy about this asset, but Cidy is doing about the same work, specific for a city. I think, better focus on doing more features city oriented and let Gaia do the work of designing terrains. Both can work together already. Gaia is at $20 right now which is a steal buy it! The author is updating it almost every 2 days ... it is a good asset.

    Anyway, if you manage you place the cells with buildings filling them as in a real city, then, you can also add randomly small places like these:
    https://ephemeralnewyork.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/shinbonealley.jpg
    http://forgotten-ny.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/title.jpg
    http://iamgalla.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/DSC_0175-edit.jpg

    These alleys are very narrow but adds a lot of diversity and can be good for the gameplay.

    Then, do you remember this scene in Matrix. In the cities there are small park in between buildings that are looking all the same. There are a couple of bench, and trees, and that's it. People come to let the kids play.

    http://www.filminamerica.com/Movies/TheMatrixReloaded/BurlyBrawl/m2reloaded-brawl08.jpg
    These are place where people can play basketball: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/a9/f4/41/a9f44194dcaa088ce9e403aebb5a9bd3.jpg

    For example. Just keep the place empty and we will add whatever we need like playgrounds etc...

    ;)
     
  42. daschatten

    daschatten

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    @KaseyMisner
    The point is to let gaia spawn whole cities...
     
  43. KaseyMisner

    KaseyMisner

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    @daschatten
    I do not agree with that. I don't want to use Gaia to spawn cities.
    Have you tried Word-creator (released today I think). It is better than Gaia, no joke!

    Things are moving fast, I will not buy an asset that relies on another asset for working properly.
     
  44. daschatten

    daschatten

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    @KaseyMisner
    I think there is some misunderstanding... AdamGoodrich and Reaper3223 should work together to make it possible to spawn cities with gaia. There shouldn't be any hard connection between these two tools.
     
  45. Teila

    Teila

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    I think at this time, this is Reaper's decision and I am sure if he is interested, he will contact Adam. You guys really should leave it between the two of them.
     
  46. daschatten

    daschatten

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    Just did some tests with cidy and i have a few remarks:
    • Terrain blending does not work well with uneven terrains (see screenshot)
    • Cells should be able to spawn on each side of a road not only when they are enclosed by roads
    • The cidy window is too small, especially when adding custom prefabs to cell content
    • An option to fill lots with a ground texture and some clutter would be great
    • An option to leave cells empty would also be great
    • Adding lot borders (fences, walls) would also be an improvement
     

    Attached Files:

    Last edited: Mar 13, 2016
  47. RecklessGames_

    RecklessGames_

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    Thank you to all of you who have already purchased a copy. I am currently working on the next update for CiDy.
    I am trying to finish the new procedural facade system for a End of March Update.

    @daschatten
    Sorry you are not getting the desired results. Terrain blending can be a real pain. There are situations that can cause artifacts. Extreme height changes in a small confined area is one of them unfortunately. I would love to speak more about your current project and using CiDy.

    I will be working on adding lot division to non enclosed sides of roads soon.
    I can increase the scroll box for cell prefabs for the nxt update.
    I am adding an option to leave cells empty.(currently you can untick the auto fill in that cell and clear its building prefabs list and regenerate it. This will empty the cell)
    I am also working on adding lot borders and road spline spawning of prefabs as well.
    Also have a wire/telephone prefab system in the works.
     
    KaseyMisner likes this.
  48. RecklessGames_

    RecklessGames_

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    There are alot of things that are being conceptualized and things that are already in progress.

    Works in progress:
    Procedural Wire Mesh System. Telephone Wire Prefab System.
    Setting up prefab mesh with Wire Mesh Points to connect.
    EditWirePrefab.jpg
    //Placing Setup WirePrefabs
    WirePrefabObject.jpg
    Procedural Buildings Extruded from the plotted Lots.
    Ability to edit the facades on Procedural Buildings.
    //Very Early View
    ProceduralBuildings Test.jpg
    //Concepts in progress.
    Prefab Placement Along Road Splines based on user variables ie.(Prefab, Offset from Center, Spacing between Prefabs)
    Fence/Wall Mesh Editor Similar to Wire Prefab system allowing the placement of Fence/Wall Meshes.

    I would love to get CiDy to the Visual Quality of Cities like Prototype 2 or GTA.

    More to Come. :)
     
  49. HeadClot88

    HeadClot88

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    Hey,

    Are there any plans for open street map support? So generating a city on the fly from available data and premade game assets
     
    Last edited: Mar 23, 2016
    Andy3D likes this.
  50. RecklessGames_

    RecklessGames_

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    @HeadClot88

    Thank you for your interest in CiDy. I have been looking at some OSM Data and preliminary testing shows the OSM data has some errors in the road networks but I may want to work on implementing it. I wont have time to add it to the current coming update but it may be added to the features list in a future update. :) I think it would be a great feature.
     
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