Create a random town

[Ascension]

That's exactly where I'd like to go, creating an entire fantasy world from the ground up just by pushing a few buttons, then combine it with Sigurd's find of that awesome German terrain renderer, then get something like the Sims to populate the place and I could have my own world/ant farm and with some powerful 3d apps I could walk among the people. Might need to get some of Pixar's computers or ILM's for that tho

[sambrookjm]

I wrote up a quick GIMP script that does MOST of this automatically.

Things I'd like to improve:

• Beveling the rooftops. Right now, this just sets the rooftops to a set color.
• Running the threshold to make the buildings interactively instead of setting values for them in the front end. If you guys know a way to do this, please let me know. This filter doesn't have the interactive/non-interactive flag.
• Any other suggestions you guys might have. :-)

The roads are generated using a Mosaic plug-in, and the somewhat roughened up by a displace map of random noise.

Great tutorial!

[RobA]

I wrote up a quick GIMP script that does MOST of this automatically.

Things I'd like to improve:

• Beveling the rooftops. Right now, this just sets the rooftops to a set color.
• Running the threshold to make the buildings interactively instead of setting values for them in the front end. If you guys know a way to do this, please let me know. This filter doesn't have the interactive/non-interactive flag.
• Any other suggestions you guys might have. :-)

The roads are generated using a Mosaic plug-in, and the somewhat roughened up by a displace map of random noise.

Great tutorial!

Attached is a mod of your script. (funny to see how other code )

This adds a bevel roof layer (overlay mode)

I also changed the simple motion blur into a motion-blur/threshold alpha/gausian blur which (imoo) gives a better result. Also set the opacity down on this layer.

Funny that the threshold doesn't have an interactive mode... should post this on the gimp devel list as it could be an oversight.

I changed the road spacing and width to be /4 so the slider is in pixels.

I also changed where it registers. I moved it to File>Create, which is were (afaik) they gimp devels are suggesting image creation scripts should register.

-Rob A>

[sambrookjm]

Attached is a mod of your script. (funny to see how other code )

Hopefully, it wasn't too difficult for you to follow! I'm still a relative neophyte when it comes to scripting this sort of stuff...

This adds a bevel roof layer (overlay mode)

I also changed the simple motion blur into a motion-blur/threshold alpha/gausian blur which (imoo) gives a better result. Also set the opacity down on this layer.

Yeah, that does give a better result. Very nice technique.

Funny that the threshold doesn't have an interactive mode... should post this on the gimp devel list as it could be an oversight.

I was really surprised by that as well...but this is the first time I've used the threshold filter in a place where it would be useful to run it interactively.

I changed the road spacing and width to be /4 so the slider is in pixels.

*smack* Good catch. Those values were left over from when all of the layers were originally the full mage size. Then I realized that making them one-quarter size would make the script run much quicker and changed the script to do that...but forgot to change them back. I was just happy to get the darn thing working!

I also changed where it registers. I moved it to File>Create, which is were (afaik) they gimp devels are suggesting image creation scripts should register.

I'll remember that. Thanks for the tips and improvements!

[sambrookjm]

I made a couple of changes to your modded script after running it through a few more times.

I used your threshold-alpha filter on the building level to remove all of the buldings that were underneath the roads. With the feathered selection you used for the roads, there ended up being too many shadows. Running the threshold-alpha filter with a value of 200 on the town layer got rid of the buildings under the roads, which eliminated any extra shadows. The method you used to generate the shadows is still in place, though.

I also changed the script so that the random maps no longer have to be square. The maps can be anywhere from 300 to 3000 pixels in either dimension.

Your additions were noted in the comments in the script. Credit is given where credit is due!!

I attached a zip containing the new script, as well as a picture of what my run looked like with the default values. This was a great tutorial to code up, and now I know how to bevel stuff!

[CBDroege]

I think you guys should check-out this program:

Roleplaying City Map Generator:

It randomly generates towns along a lot of really complex options. I've been using it to generate the maps of my cities lately. Its drawback is that its output is particularly ugly (see my map of Loa in the completed works area (and that after touching it up a lot)).

If someone could make a program with the complexity and flexibility of Roleplaying City Map Generator, but with the really pretty, 3D output that you guys are doing here, it would be the best city mapping program ever.

just throwing that out there

[RobA]

I think you guys should check-out this program:

Roleplaying City Map Generator:

It randomly generates towns along a lot of really complex options. I've been using it to generate the maps of my cities lately. Its drawback is that its output is particularly ugly (see my map of Loa in the completed works area (and that after touching it up a lot)).

If someone could make a program with the complexity and flexibility of Roleplaying City Map Generator, but with the really pretty, 3D output that you guys are doing here, it would be the best city mapping program ever.

just throwing that out there

Thanks for pointing that one out. It has been mentioned quite a few times here, and is the basis for a few tutorials.

I see the original author's site is down. We can host the zip here for now as a convenience (it is hosted at a few fileshare sites as well) but we may have to remove it pending any concerns from the author.

-Rob A>

[CBDroege]

Sorry about that. I haven't made it through the archives yet, and as it was really difficult for me to finally find this program, I thought it might not be widely spread. :/

[sambrookjm]

I tried running the file in the attached ZIP, but I got an error saying that comdlg32.ocx couldn't be found. Anyone know if there's a Vista (64-bit) equivalent to that ocx file?

[Korash]

I unzipped the file into the .gimp-2.6>scripts folder but I can't find it when I open gimp

what am I doing wrong?