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Precreated Cities Using Greeble City Blocks Pack

Medron PrydeMedron Pryde Posts: 304
edited December 1969 in Product Suggestions

I just picked up the Greeble City Blocks bundle with 1, 2, and 3.

It looks awesome, but building a city takes a long time and a lot of trial and error.

And I can't find the pre-gened city they say is there. Yes, i've found 1 and 2 in the content panel over in stonemason directory...while greeble 3 are smart pane.

What I'm interested in is sample cities. Already laid out using those greebles. I would love to load one in as a base and then edit it to get exactly what I want.

Alternatively, a random city creator using those blocks could work too, though getting the streets to match and such would be an interesting enterprise...

Has anybody provided anything like this?

Comments

  • XenomorphineXenomorphine Posts: 2,421
    edited December 1969

    Yes, pre-sets... Brilliant things! Has my vote.

  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,639
    edited December 1969

    I would like that too. Especially since the cities are sort of for distance work. I did do it once, and it took quite a while. Would love something simpler.

  • Medron PrydeMedron Pryde Posts: 304
    edited December 1969

    Yeah, I wonder how people put together entire cities using these greebles. The dystopia ones are kinda cool in that they include premade sections of up to 6 by 6 or so that you can put together however you want, but the stonemason greebles look better. I would like to use them. I just don't want to spend hours putting them together piece by piece.

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,200
    edited December 1969

    well I do not have any of the greebles but know carrara can and imagine Bryce too create a city using replicators
    I can then in carrara create real instances and export an obj for DAZ am not sure if you can in Bryce but suspect so.
    as I said I do not own the greebles but have done so with other low poly buildings.

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,200
    edited December 2014

    You could try LAMH
    it does surface replication or you can buy Infinito http://www.daz3d.com/infinito-1-0

    Post edited by WendyLuvsCatz on
  • namffuaknamffuak Posts: 4,144
    edited December 1969

    Medron Pryde said:
    Yeah, I wonder how people put together entire cities using these greebles. The dystopia ones are kinda cool in that they include premade sections of up to 6 by 6 or so that you can put together however you want, but the stonemason greebles look better. I would like to use them. I just don't want to spend hours putting them together piece by piece.

    I've found the easiest way is to view from the top and add one block at a time. Select the new block in the scene tab and then use the X and Z axis position sliders to move the second and subsequent blocks.

    This is a little proof of concept image I knocked together in about 40 minutes last night, inspired by James Blish's "Cities in Flight" stories. Five city blocks from set three, a Predatron rocks & drops rock, a sphere primitive, and a NASA hubble image as a backdrop.

    spindizzy-mining-town-final.jpg
    1201 x 1260 - 375K
  • Medron PrydeMedron Pryde Posts: 304
    edited December 1969

    Yeah, that is easiest way I have figured out too.

    I was really hoping for something more...comprehensive and...full featured than that...

  • namffuaknamffuak Posts: 4,144
    edited December 1969

    The problem with anything in the way of a preset is that the number of combinations just gets enormous; if you add in the other two sets AND allow for various rotations and building repetitions . . . It would take longer to figure out what preset to use than to just plunk the blocks in place yourself. :-)

  • pwiecekpwiecek Posts: 1,577
    edited December 1969

    Okay, there are a lot of caveats here...

    I'm a Poser user so I don't know if this will work in DS. Does DS support geometry switching?

    If it does, take a look at the 2 or 3 free dystopia packs. They have variety of cr2's that let you build cities using their buildings. I'm thinking you can look inside the CR2's and substitute the Greeble buildings for the original geometries. You would probably have to resize them also.

  • Medron PrydeMedron Pryde Posts: 304
    edited December 1969

    I have no idea if daz studio can do that.

    I'm still new to this stuff. ;)

    As for the presets getting a lot...you are right. They would.

    But if someone were to make a map...or make a pack that includes a few three by three or six by six or such block sets using the greebles, I'm sure they could find people willing to buy them here on the Daz website...make them an addon to the existing greeble bundle and I'm sure people would jump at them.

    The dystopia sets already have this you know. ;)

  • XenomorphineXenomorphine Posts: 2,421
    edited December 1969

    There would be a lot of pre-sets, but no more than there are for poses - and it isn't uncommon to get more than twenty or sometimes fifty, per pack.

    So, let's say each of the three sets get an equivalent of a 'pose set'... In essence, these would be pre-sets to arrange the blocks into a specific key section. That would allow for, say, ten or more the blocks to be pre-arranged into a certain city-like structure. You'd then get between twenty/fifty of these pre-sets - and then the user can just select those entire pre-set arrangements and manually arrange them next to one another (you'd have to move one lot way over to the side before loading the next, of course or they would all end up on top of one another).

    It'd essentially be the same as you have to do now, except that entire cityscapes would be much quicker to accomplish and there are definite individual pieces which are meant to fit next to one another..

    Alternatively, I think if Stonemason released a free top-down map of every individual piece with their names under each block, it'd make it much easier to figure out which piece you'd need next. As of right now, the isometric view we're given makes it difficult to figure out the most desirable city bock plan.

  • Medron PrydeMedron Pryde Posts: 304
    edited December 1969

    Yeah, you pretty much nailed exactly how I've seen it work elsewhere.

    And it would be make it much easier to assemble cities that way.

    :)

  • StonemasonStonemason Posts: 1,179
    edited December 1969

    to quickly get a big city I usually parent a bunch of blocks to a null, then instance that group several times,for buildings in the distance I often scale them verticaly to get a different look ,making tall slender looking buildings..and also make good use of atmospheric/fog cameras to get some aerial perspective

  • Medron PrydeMedron Pryde Posts: 304
    edited December 1969

    Those sound like awesome ideas.

    Something like that in an addon pack would probably get attention from people.

    Though that does bring up another question. In Daz Studio I have yet to figure out how to copy and paste something already in a scene. I gather from Stonemason's message that there IS a way. What is it?

  • XenomorphineXenomorphine Posts: 2,421
    edited December 1969

    Took me a little while to figure it out, but if you have something selected, go to the edit menu, then to 'duplicate'.

    There are two options:

    Duplicate Node(s)
    Duplicate Node Hierarchies

    Not sure what those terms mean, but it seems that if you have selected, say, a human figure, then the first option will just copy the figure, itself. If you do the second option, then it will copy both the figure and any hair/clothing they're wearing.

    Haven't tried it with props, but I'd assume it would probably work with those, too. My guess is that one copies the base object, while the other copies the base object and anything smart-propped to it. Just a guess, though!

    The best thing about it is that it will copy not just a figure you've selected, but the pose it's in at the time, too. :) I'm guessing that will work for articulated vehicles, but I've only ever used it for figures.

    A word of warning, however: If you're planning to use it, the new version of Reality 4 seems to be having trouble with applying textures to duplicated figures created in Daz Studio. Not sure why. Hopefully, they'll fix that.

  • Medron PrydeMedron Pryde Posts: 304
    edited December 1969

    Got it.

    Thanks for the warning.

    I don't use reality yet, though I may look at doing so in the future.

    I'm still a newb at all of this, but I'm learning every day. :)

  • XenomorphineXenomorphine Posts: 2,421
    edited December 1969

    As are we all! :)

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