Since the last dev log, I’ve been working on actually making more use of the building data I’m pulling from OSM and improving how the buildings look in the scene.
I added a basic building feature extraction system that takes things like entrances, windows, balconies, parking areas, and garages from the data and then associates them with the buildings they belong to, using things like proximity and address information to make the matching more reliable. I have to do this because features and buildings are given as separate objects but this gives me a good foundation for eventually generating these details onto the 3D buildings instead of keeping buildings as mundane blocks.
I also started building a material system for the buildings. Buildings can now use different materials based on their building type and material information, while explicit colors are used when available. I also added some procedural variation to buildings using the same material so they don’t look completely identical. The system right now is really basic and doesn’t look too good but it makes everything look a little bit better.
While working on the materials, I ran into a pretty annoying z fighting issue between overlapping building parts. It took a really long time to figure it out but I eventually fixed it by introducing a tiny vertical offset between building parts, preventing those surfaces from fighting with each other.
At this point I’m shifting more toward the visuals of the project. I mean the building data is becoming pretty detailed, so I think the best next step is figuring out how to turn that data into neat visuals. I want to start generating windows, balconies, entrances, and other architectural details either procedurally or from the data when that information is available. Other than that I also want to work on things like roofs to really make the city realistic. After that I’ll work on adding stuff like terrain and infrastructure like roads before moving on to implementing the disasters like floods, etc.