CityEngine 2019.0 Available

Esri has revealed CityEngine 2019.0, the update to the team’s procedural 3D city-generation tool with upgraded interactive design tools and extended CGA procedural modeling language.

Users can now export data in glTF format. What is more, the update improves export to Unreal Studio, adds support for Oculus Rift headsets in VR output, and improves the Houdini and Maya plugins.

The toolkit generates detailed city models from simple procedural rules. It imports data in standard file formats like OBJ and DXF, and exports in formats including FBX and Alembic.

It was created for architects and urban planners, but it can also be implemented in entertainment, coming with connections to DCC tools and game engines.

The new version is said to update the tool’s drawing and transformation tools, making “numerous performance improvements”, and improve workflow when drawing 2D arcs, or drawing polygons on the terrain.

Also, CGA, the tool’s procedural modeling language, got new operations, including rectify, for aligning buildings at strict 90-degree angles, and resetGeometry, to repeatedly generate geometry from a single starting shape.

You can learn all about the new version here.