World Building [RELEASED] CScape - advanced building generator

Any eta on the new tutorials?..really looking to get My custom building skins compiled.

 

Struggling with something that should be simple
Trying to create a city grid where the roads don't go to the edge ie something like this:

BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB

BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRB    

BRBBBBBBBBRBBBBBBBRBBBBBBBBRBBBBBBBBRB

BRBBBBBBBBRBBBBBBBRBBBBBBBBRBBBBBBBBRB

BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRB

BRBBBBBBBBRBBBBBBBRBBBBBBBBRBBBBBBBBRB

BRBBBBBBBBRBBBBBBBRBBBBBBBBRBBBBBBBBRB

BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRB

BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB

Where B is a building block and R is a road block.

 

Love this asset thank you! Quick question, how does one modify the signs array texture to customize?

 

Hey Oliver, I've upgraded my project to the HDRP and obviously this has broken CScape

Do you plan on supporting the High Def Render Pipeline any time soon?

 

Shaders created with amplify break between HDRP updates, if you are using custom shaders I don't think switching to HDRP right now is the best choice.

 

I dont think Oliver plans to support the Hdrp.

 

I think he said he has a set of shaders that work with LWRP and HDRP
I was thinking of asking for those since I'm porting my project to HDRP, but man, it really isn't worth it just yet, and just updating from 4.18 to 4.19 breaks the amplify shaders (and the auto upgraded materials don't have the maps right according to the unity changelog). Right now they have on preview 6.0.0 so I don't know what other things it might add/break.
My thinking was the sooner I start with it the better, I was wrong. It was just not worth it (specially since you can get volumetric fog and planar reflections from unity's github for builtin).

 

Any shaders break with each update - and it's quite frustrating.
It's enough to try to open Unity's own demo asset Book Of Dead, and it doesn't work on any Unity version later than 2018.2. So at this moment I'm completely unable to support HDRP - but this doesn't mean I'm not willing to do it.
I will do once a HDRP enters into it's final stage.
But as I've mentioned here before: HDRP doesn't bring you almost any advantage in case of CScape. Framerates are lower as HDRP impacts performance in a big way (even in an empty scene). From my tests, CScape scenes that run at 600 fps, with HDRP run at 80. And this is ten times less.
Also, HDRP doesn't support Screen Space Reflections, and they are essential if you wan't more quality from city rendering (correct reflections on windows).

 

No, I plan, but at this moment this would mean to spend constantly time with any new update of Unity, and not being able to do other developement. I've already spent hundreds of hours in trying to support it, and it always went broken with a new release of Unity.

 

This week I will be submitting my new asset to assetstore (Deckard Render), and afterwards I will go back to actively working on CScape and tutorials.
BTW, where are you stuck?

 

VERY COOL
MY PROJECT FOR YOU
Thank you CSCAPE

 

It does support them, you have to enable them in the HDRP settings (and in the rendering submenu), it also has a smoothness treshold that is quite nice.
But yeah, everything right now is quite broken in HDRP, and lags everything. It's just in constant change, and the performance is subpar (well, it supports more per pixel lights and shadows, so that's nice), better to wait it out.
Apparently it's getting out of preview in 2019.3, so 2020 at least.

 

My custom textures still dont show on my buildings at this point im hoping theres something that has not been explained in the tutorial vid or Something because i have tried just about everything.

 

Hey I'm getting those errors only when playing from a build, not in editor, any idea how to fix ?

 

This happens when

Code (CSharp):

1. #if UNITY_EDITOR
2. ...
3. #endif

encloses the full code-file.

There are 2 variants to solve this:
1.) not recommended and a lot more to do, but will work with older versions: open each of the source files and enclose really only the editor-related code with the brackets shown above, so the main file still exists in the build, but the editor-only stuff is excluded

2.) use Assembly definition files: this also speeds up compiling code and I would recommend this. Do a quick search to find a tutorial of your taste and get familiar to this, afterwards it is easy to use: Create an assembly definition file in the project folder that contains editor-scripts only and set the checkboxes of the asmdef-file in the inspector so that it excludes this editor-scripts from the final builds (for example on your windows-build, etc.). A problem could occur when the runtime-scripts and editor-scripts are in nested folders and not separated at the root.
good:
+scripts-folder
++ runtime.scripts
++ editor.scripts
not so good:
+ scripts
++some.scripts (folder already contains script-files)
+++some.scripts.editor

But it would be nice if oliver would include this asmdefs, because every user will have to do this. And I'm sure he will do it, once he is back to cscape.

 

@olix4242

I am trying to wrap my head around Districts. Are there plans to put out a tutorial soon about them?

If this helps: I mentioned in an earlier post that I will be having 3 distinct areas of my game, so districts seems awesome to handle that.

1. VERY high rise; Steel and glass. Think midtown and downtown Manhattan, but much taller
2. Expensive apts. Think Park Ave, NYC with lots of big bricks/tiles and smaller windows
3. Industrial. This would be concrete, small/few windows.

The thing is each district, I assume, would need to have a different material, so that the style of the area is not limited to the number of textures available when compiling a Material (ie: MegaCity1)

This is why I am asking about a tutorial, to insure I am not wasting my time doing things the wrong way.

EDIT:
Another thought: Maybe if the was a map/flow chart of what aspects of CScape are and how the affect each other. The limitations of textures, etc. While this is an AWESOME asset at a great price, the lack of documentation is affecting my ability to use it.

Also, I would LOVE to purchase "Building Styles Packs" as you have mentioned on the asset page. Especially the Sci-Fi city mentioned. (hint hint)

EDIT 2: re: CDK
I am attempting to figure out and document how to make and use textures and templates. The textures can be found here: Assets\CScapeCDK\Editor\Resources\CScapeToolset\Surfaces
But some of them seem to be rooftops, others are vague as to what they are. I have spent the day looking through the posts here and the on the CDK documentation: https://olivr.info/customizing-cscape-materials-with-cdk/
and I still cannot figure this out (my apologies) For example: The "Facade Material 1" setting on the "Building Modifier" script has 10 values, but I am unsure which textures files I can change to match those 10, etc.

Sorry to be a bother, but for me to move forward I have to have some information from you.

Thanks,
James

ps: Let us know when Deckard Render is available.

 

Hello gang,

I am appealing to everyone here to help me figure out and document this asset. I LOVE this asset, but the documentation is severally lacking. I should know because some of the included documentation was written by me. Again, Oliver has done a great job building this asset, it's very impressive, however without documentation we are all going to spend a lot of time ATTEMPTING to get this working. I have already spent 50+ hours running tests, etc attempting to get to know the flow.

I have been attempting to find out which of the textures apply to which controls/properties in the Building Materials script. Some are roof tiles, some are roof objects, some are basic textures.

The textures can be found here: Assets\CScapeCDK\Editor\Resources\CScapeToolset\Surfaces

Today I changed the first 4 of the textures (basecolor_surface_01 to basecolor_surface_04) to red, blue, green and yellow. Compiled the textures in the textures in the Toolkit, then went into a sample scene and created a city and NONE of the buildings have any of these textures. I selected a building and played with the Building Management script and none of the changes showed up as those textures/colors.

Oliver seems to be spending time on another asset, and I can get that, but the lack of documentation makes this asset SO difficult to use. I can use ANY help from all of you. I will of course share everything I get working, but atm I am COMPLETELY stuck and cannot get anything done.

Any help?

Thanks.

 

James, it should be more than straight simple. If it doesn't work for you, I would check that all packages are installed in correct directories.
Only things to know are:
-Download and Unpack CScape Toolset Sources
-change textures
-check that read-write enabled is set to on in texture settings (for newly created textures).
-open any scene that contains CScape City object.
-go to "CS Material Tools script", and click on "Compile All textures".
This should change your textures.
There is nothnig more to do and it should just work.

 

@JamesWjRose I've had a similar experience as you. A while back I sent an email to the dev with the same questions, and I remember he provided instructions to replace textures, etc. I was never able to figure out what to do to get it to work - I also consider myself a fairly competent and knowledgeable unity developer.

I pulled this asset into a project a few days ago, because I remember him saying a while back it will have support for post apocalyptic texture packs (which is the theme of a prototype I'm working on), but I did not see them in the asset or on the store.

Next test was to at least lower the height of buildings (max 3 stories as an example), I tried for an hour without luck - I might think there would be a field in the inspector specifically for this. I tried changing values in the inspector but not much seemed to change.

I purchased back in November of 2017, I was really hoping to see some good tutorials and user friendly workflow that promotes customization. I will continue to be patient, hopefully the icing on the cake comes soon.

At this point I will make the same request, please focus on tutorials, and creating a user friendly workflow that promotes easy customization of the city - I think this among all else is what users purchase the asset for. I know it's a great tool, but there's no clear way to customize the city. I simply don't have enough free time to go through this asset to figure out how to do it on my own and would prefer to change some values in the inspector, textures sheets, etc and see the city change based on that.

 

Oliver,

>it should be more than straight simple

This is the problem, it's simple for you since you wrote the software. This is a very impressive asset, and I post about it everywhere (my site, reddit, twitter) but it's also a complicated piece of work. It is not straight forward. That is not a complaint, it's just a statement of fact. I say this not to complain, but to inform you. There really, REALLY needs to be a Front to Back video on the processes on how to use the Toolkit and the Asset.

eg: There are 21 images labeled "basecolor_surface_01" to "basecolor_surface_21" and there is no way to know which of these are to be walls or roof or objects.

>>-go to "CS Material Tools script", and click on "Compile All textures".

HERE IT IS! This is the step I missed. Thank you VERY much. Now I just need to understand which of the images match to what. Meaning: When I play in "Building Modifier" script which of the "basecolor_surface" images are used in which of the properties; ie: Faccade Mat 1 and 2, Faccade Mat Laterial, etc.

Couple of MINOR bugs:
* "Facade" is spelled with 1 C.
* Some of the properties in Building Modifier are floats when they should be int. eg: The Facade Material settings. They only change when a whole number changes. VERY minor, but anything that can confuse a user/developer should be fixed.

 

Ive done this atleast 30 times and no textures, could it possibly be some sort of bug?

 

I was able to resolve my problem by this step: -go to "CS Material Tools script", and click on "Compile All textures".

That is on the city itself. However, check for this folder: Assets\CScapeCDK\Editor\Resources\CScapeToolset\Surfaces

Within it there should be a number of image files such as:

• basecolor_surface_01 to _21
  
• normal_surface_01 to _21
  
• roughness_surface_01 to _21
  
• etc

If those are not there, or if they are there but in Read-Only mode then those issues need to be fixed.

 

i was starting to get really worried about this process lol. nice job man!! And Thanks so much for posting...im gonna give this a go soon as im home!

 

- "_01" to "_10" are walls, "_11 to _21" are roofs.
Faccade mat 1 and Faccade Mat 2 can be any of the surface textures from range -01 to 10. They are used as combinations. Let's say if 01 is a brick texture, and 05 is a concrete, using Faccade mat 1 set to 01, and Faccade mat 2 set to 05 will give you faccade with combination of those two surfaces. If you invert values, you will have a same combination, but in inverted mode. As for "front" or "side" assignement, you can assign different textures to front/back side of a building. or to lateral sides of a building. (front side is a side that is facing streets).

 

This is due to shaders can use internally only float properties - and this is also due to some internal workings require float for those properties. I dind't implement some conversions that might be implemented, just for a sake of simlicity.

 

Ah, okay.

Thank you VERY much for the clarification on the texture name patterns, that is very helpful

 

Hello gang,

Because I need it I have written some documentation. I would love for everyone to review it and make any changes you feel of any value.


----------------------------
Info by Developer

• https://olivrproduction.wordpress.com/cscape-help/
• https://olivr.info/customizing-cscape-materials-with-cdk/
• Review the various Read Me documentation prior to starting.

Videos

• Create big cities in Unity (with CScape) - General How-To for making a city.
• CScape 1.0 new features fast tutorial - More recent quick tutorial
• Main optimizations in CScape 1.0
• Making a CScape building template

I highly recommend creating a testbed application to learn how to use this asset. Cscape is an impressive application, however because of the large number of capabilities and options you should take some time to learn to use this in a safe and separate project before integrating it into an existing game.

1. Add Cscape asset to game
2. Add Standard Assets to game (some components used in Cscape)
3. Add Cscape Toolkit Source: https://www.dropbox.com/s/8desklhixvtvr6g/CScapeToolsetSources.unitypackage?dl=0

Cities can have one or more Districts. Districts have one or more Prefab (fbx) templates. Templates are a collection of Facades on a mesh.


Basic relationship

• Cities
  • Districts
    • File Location: Assets/Cscape/DistrictTemplates
    • Prefabs
      • File Location: Assets/Cscape/Editor/Resources/BuildingTemplates/Buildings
      • Material: All buildings will use the same Material. The default Material is MegaCity1
      • Building Modifier script
        • FAÇADE SHAPE (Façade is spelled wrong all over)
        • Shape: Values 0 to 9
        • Front Façade Shape. Don't know what this does
        • Lateral Façade Shape. Don't know what this does
        • Subdivision Shape. Don't know
        • Height Subdivision. Don't know
        • Width Subdivision. Don't know
        • MATERIAL STYLING
        • Façade Material 1 (front/back): Values 0 to 9 - These relate to basecolor_surface_01.png to basecolor_surface_10.png These images can be found at Assets\CScapeCDK\Editor\Resources\CScapeToolset\Surfaces
        • Façade Material 2 (front/back): Values 0 to 9
        • Façade Material 1 Lateral: Values 0 to 9
        • Façade Material 2 Lateral: Values 0 to 9
        • Rooftop Material: Values 0 to 9

Base Process

1. Create Facades. Optional
2. Create Building Templates . Optional
3. Create Districts. Optional
4. Change / Update Textures. Optional. A GREAT site for textures: https://gametextures.com
5. Create City
6. Adjust specific buildings

Step One: Facades. Optional

Facades are 2D objects that are templates used by Cscape to make buildings. There are 40 facades. Each building can have one or more facades. You can review and change values on the "Building Modifer" script on each building in a scene. (Step 6)

1. Open the scene CScapeToolkit. This is found Assets/CScape
2. Select the "CscapeBaker" in the Hierarchy.
3. Set the lock icon (upper right) in the inspector so that the Baker does not move away as you adjust windows, etc.
4. Split your windows so you can see the Game and Scene side-by-side. The Game window will show you a 3D representation of what it will look like. The Scene view is 2D. Note: In the Scene tab select the "2D" button, near the top left.
5. Set any of the 40 tiles as desired. (ie: add, remove, move windows and other objects within the Tile. Press the Previous/Next Tile buttons to navigate.
   1. 1 - 21 are façade styles with windows
   2. 22 - 31 are walls
   3. 31 - 34 are ground level facades.
   4. 35 - 40 ??? I, JamesWjRose, do not know
6. Press the "Bake Textures" button on the SCcape Toolset "CScape Toolset Manager" script
7. At this point we are done with the CscapeToolkit scene. Switch back to a game scene, create a new scene if necessary.
8. If you have not added a "Cscape City" to the scene, do so. Select the "GameObject" menu, then select the "Cscape" menu, then select "Create MegaCity"
9. Select the "CScape City" in the Hierarchy
10. Find the "CS Materials Tools" script attached to the CScape City

Step Two: Building Templates. Optional

• Making a CScape building template - Video
• https://forum.unity.com/threads/rel...building-generator.460380/page-3#post-3234874
• If you are using Unity 2018 then make sure to pull down Probuilder 4.x from the Package Manager (Select the Window menu, then select "Package Manager")
• Pivot point: This is very important. If the pivot point is not set to the correct corner the layout will be wrong when you apply the mesh. Here is the details on how to set the pivot point: Documentation: Element Actions - Center Pivot to Selected Elements

Step Three: Create Districts. Optional

• The included Districts can be found at: Assets\CScape\DistrictTemplates
• If you want to create your own District select one of the Districts and then press CTRL+D to make a copy.
• Select "Cscape City" from the Hierarchy
• Within the "City Randomizer" script there is a "Building Templates" section (3rd section down) From here you can add, delete or change Districts.
• Double-Click on the District/Building Template that you want to modify. From here there are only two options:
  • Size: The number of templates available for this district
  • Elements: Add, delete or change templates

Step Four: Change / Update Textures. Optional

• There are 21 textures, and there associated Normal, Metallic, Roughness images, can be found at: Assets\CScapeCDK\Editor\Resources\CScapeToolset\Surfaces
• "_01" to "_10" are for walls.
• "_11 to _21" are for roofs.
• Texture size info: https://forum.unity.com/threads/rel...uilding-generator.460380/page-24#post-4029151
• Additional info: https://forum.unity.com/threads/rel...building-generator.460380/page-2#post-3150851
• Note from the asset author: Facade mat 1 and Facade Mat 2 can be any of the surface textures from range -01 to 10. They are used as combinations. Let's say if 01 is a brick texture, and 05 is a concrete, using Facade mat 1 set to 01, and Façade mat 2 set to 05 will give you façade with combination of those two surfaces. If you invert values, you will have a same combination, but in inverted mode. As for "front" or "side" assignment, you can assign different textures to front/back side of a building. or to lateral sides of a building. (front side is a side that is facing streets). https://forum.unity.com/threads/rel...uilding-generator.460380/page-25#post-4227169

Step Three and/or Four Addendum: Update Textures/Facades. Optional

• If you have changed templates or textures you NEED to do the following
• Select "Cscape City" from the Hierarchy
• Within the Inspector find the "CS Material Tools" script.
• Press the "Compile only styles" and/or "Compile all textures"

Step Five: Create City

• Read the Cscape_Readme.txt file included with the asset.

Step Six: Adjust Individual Buildings

• Select the building you want to change from the scene or via the Hierarchy: Cscape City/Buildings
• Select the "Building Modifier" script. There are many options to change each building. (too many for me to document atm)

 

Great! thanks!
I will check it later, but I've found one error - Thius step shouldn't be applied and could kill correct functioning of shaders. This patch was for earlier version of CScape - latest one available on assetstore is patched and has many new features so installing that patch will kill all that features.

 

Thanks, I removed it from above and my local file.

 

Hi,
I made some tests and noticed that my mini mac's temperature keeps going up when using CSBuildindShader (I stopped when it came in 72C) in both the playing editor and build for mac. Using other shaders (standard and Unilit for example) does not happen. Is this something that I should be worried about running on mobile devices ?
Im using 2018.3.0f2

Thank you

 

I don't think that this has anything to do with shader itself. It might be more a problem of a whole system, due to a large number of objects that it has to handle or due to physics of such a big world. This means that your scene has to use system resources. 72C isn't anything big.. modern systems can go up to 80 degrees without any problems. You didn't say if it was a new Mac-mini or some of the older models (like 2014). 2014 model is probably much less powerfull than any modern phone. It might render at 60 fps, but if it uses 80% cpu and 80% GPU, it will get hotter than a computer or mobile that uses only 20% of CPU and GPU. But they are all made to work at those CPU GPU utilization levels.

 

Oliver,

I am learning how to create Building Templates. I have watched the video (

) but after I export the cube to a mesh and add it to the existing CSTemplateForEdit the floor and roof area are off to the side; https://imgur.com/a/KM8RaEf

I have attempted affecting various values in the Template Configuration and pressing the Update Mesh Template, etc. What am I missing?

Thanks

 

From what I see here, it looks like your pivot point isn't set correctly. It is essential that a pivot point of your mesh stays in a correct position. I assume that it is set at a back of your template instead of a front.

 

How do I ch

Oliver,

Thanks. This was the answer. FYI: Your video does not state how to do this and I found the answer here:

Have a great day

 

So I managed textures compiled to the street, Thanks @JamesWjRose for your help! It seems in the process the textures are not being positioned nor scaled correctly, Anyone have a Suggestion?

 

Sorry, I'm using Easy Roads 3D for my streets, so I have not worked with CScape roads.

 

@olix4242 do you know how i can possibly go about fixing this?

 

Hello can you help me with this error.

Code (CSharp):

1. UnassignedReferenceException: The variable rooftopHolder of CSRooftops has not been assigned.
2. You probably need to assign the rooftopHolder variable of the CSRooftops script in the inspector.
3. CScape.CSRooftops.OnDestroy () (at Assets/CScape/Scripts/CSRooftops.cs:312)
4.  

 

Oliver,

Is there a limit to the number of templates in a district?

 

SRP support for Unity 2018 is in experimental phase. You can download updated HD SRP from this page:
https://olivr.info/srp-support-downloads/

sorry i' don't see link

 

You have an explanation in 7'th post on this page.

 

@olix4242 can you help me with this please.

 

I really don't understande issue. Can you elaborate more?

 

My textures aren't scaling correct, ive set the street size to 2048 before compiling all textures but they still are not scaling right is there a way to scale the textures?

 

does this asset support HDRP now?

 

Unity doesn't even support HDRP xD

 

Oliver,

I have a question about building templates. If you take a look at these images: https://imgur.com/RGBdG93 you can see that the template has two sections that are wider. What I would like is to be able to have these at each floor, something like this: https://imgur.com/as3yP9G I have been adjusting various values in Template Configuration but that's not working, or more likely I am doing something wrong.

Basically I am attempting to create repeating patterns in the SHAPE of the building.

EDIT: I just looked through the included templates and none of them have this sort of design. Is it even possible?

Thanks,
James

 

Hello this is realy nice
What package did you used for thoes buildings and stuff??

 

I am not the developer of this asset, but since the developer doesn't respond very quickly I thought I'd try to help.

The asset is available here: https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/modeling/cscape-city-system-86716

Building templates can be made using the free Unity asset Probuilder. Oliver made a video on how to create building templates: Making a CScape building template

CScape is an impressive asset, but there are quite a number of pieces to this and I highly recommend looking at the documentation I wrote: https://forum.unity.com/threads/rel...uilding-generator.460380/page-25#post-4229944

 

Dear creator of this great generator!

I thought to share my results, since I am totally convinced about Cscape, as a all-time-solution for generating cities in unity.

Apart from the potential this generator has, it would be incredibly interesting to only optimize Cscape, to make it clearer and faster accessible for artists, instead of implementing new features. This would be my wish for the future of this awesome tool! I would love to help you refining Cscape, since structuring is definitely one of my skills, fi you think you could need help. I can't write a single line of code, but I worked over 20 years in the industry only with programmers and started to dive into project structures, GUI's and the hell I don't know what else... I would be very happy to help, to make this asset getting stronger and stronger! I had so much joy with this project, for this I want to thank you! As a trained commercial artist I can also help with shop shots, descritptions, layout, logo etc. =) However, Thank you for making me this possible!

This is a VR project of a client I work on. The use of Cscape was a fixed decision, after a small test on the Oculus Rift
Sadly I can't show more, since everything related to the project stands under copyright of the company. But I am allowed to show more images on my portfolio site pprosic.com.

best regards