Creating a city

KurtR

I'm sourcing some more in-depth information on creating cities, such as GTA V or Watch Dogs legion. Especially when it comes to the city base. Landscape and roads with or without height variation. I understand that spiderman used a flat surface so they could easily randomize city elements throughout the world using Houdini.

If you approach it modular, would you still use the landscape tool, or just use a modular approach too both roads, sidewalks and city blocks? What is done in Watch Dogs legion, as an example? Do they have fully modular pieces for the full city, or do they use some sort of landscape tool to put everything on top of?

If you approach is with a fully flat surface, I can understand that making a larger modular kit can be approachable, but if one introduce slopes and height differences in the city, the kit needs to be massive, dosen't it?

cspahr

You can easily use a modular approach with height variation. You can use Houdini and build out road networks off splines, which interact with Houdini generated terrain+buildings. You just need to think of procedural generation, rather than procedural placement.