Direct Link: https://www.simpolium.com/documentation/?tab=getting-started

Main Toolbar

The Main toolbar is used to generate result and access material library. The interactive generate button turns blue and flashes when changes are detected.

Note: After the installation, Cityscape Pro helper will appear in Create panel > Helpers > Simpolium > Cityscape Pro.

Overview

1. Material Library – Contains over 70 high quality Vray and Corona material presets. The materials can be applied to Cityscape elements as well as any other object in a scene. (See the Material Library section).
2. Surface – Surface geometry is used as a base for all calculations. Once the Curbed Areas are generated on top of it, the exposed part of surface turns into road.

   To start, click the <Pick Surface> button and pick the surface geometry in the scene.

   Note: For best results, the base surface should be a clean, uniform geometry without double faces, holes, flipped polygons or long triangles. Quad polygons are recommended. For optimal calculation times, the surface area and polycount  should be low. (See the Knowledge Base section)

3. Generate – An interactive button which generates a result. The button turns blue and flashes when changes are detected. The button turns red when problems are detected with input elements.
4. ? – Support contact Information.
5. Select all splines – Select all input splines.
6. Hide warnings  – If checked, warning messages will be hidden, but when a problem is detected, the generate button will still turn red.

Notes:

• All input splines must be closed and should NOT be self-intersecting. It is recommended to name input splines to make the workflow more intuitive. (See the Knowledge Base section)

Direct Link: https://www.simpolium.com/documentation/?tab=main-toolbar

Curbed Areas

Curbed areas are elevated areas (0.01m to 0.2m) from a road surface which is surrounded by curbs. The remaining exposed part of the surface object that is not covered with curbed areas, acts as a road model.

Notes:

• Use the “Generate” button in Cityscape Pro helper > Main toolbar to generate result.
• After the installation, Cityscape Pro helper will appear in Create panel > Helpers > Simpolium > Cityscape Pro.
• All input splines must be closed and should NOT be self-intersecting. It is recommended to name input splines to make the workflow more intuitive. To read more (See the Knowledge Base section).

Overview

1. Curbed Areas – List of curbed areas defined by splines. Height and curb type can be controlled with dropdown menus.
2. Select curbed area – Select curbed area geometry.
3. Curbcut – Spline area, which defines where to create curbcuts. To create curbcuts, click the <Pick Spline> button and select a closed spline from the scene. The spline area should be wide enough to cover the curbcut slope ~ 1.2 meters.
4. No Curb – Spline area which removes curb. To create no curb areas, click the <Pick Spline> button and select a closed spline from the scene.
5. Hardscape Areas  – List of hardscape areas, which have unique material lD. Areas are defined by closed splines. To start, click “Add” button and pick a closed spline from a scene, the item will appear in the list. Up to 11 hardscape areas can be added. The list numbers are corresponding to Material ID-s. The list acts like layers, item with higher number will cover other areas with lower number. Note: Click to remove list item, to move list items up and down,  To select input spline, to select curbed area geometry. It is recommended to name splines correctly, to make the workflow intuitive.
6. Select  – Selects input spline.
7. Refine  – Refines local area to improve calculation precision and fix problematic areas. Procedure: Draw a small rectangle that covers the problematic area, pick it as a refine spline and generate. The Refine tool will subdivide the specified area and calculation resolution will increase to generate a correct mesh.
8. Curb type dropdown menu.
9. Curb height value.
10. Curb width value.
11. Curb gutter checkbox with width value.

Direct Link: https://www.simpolium.com/documentation/?tab=curbed-areas

Cityscape Mapping modifier

Cityscape mapping modifier is used on hardscape area and curbed area splines to modify tiling, offset and rotation of map channel 1.

Notes: 

• Use the “Generate” button in Cityscape Pro helper > Main toolbar to generate result.
• The Cityscape Mapping maodifier gets automatically applied to a spline once it is picked in hardscape area or Curbed area lists.
• The result is not realtime, it gets calculated during the generation process.

    Overview

1. UVW tiling – Control U V W tiling on hardscape areas.
2. UVW offset – Control U V W offset on hardscape areas.
3. Rotation – Adjust mapping rotation.

Direct Link: https://www.simpolium.com/documentation/?tab=cityscape-mapping

Supergrass

The toolbar allows user to automatically create Supergrass object on selected hardscape area with few clicks.

Overview:

1. List – Existing hardscape area list
2. Enabled Checkbox – Creates supergrass on a selected hardscape area. When unchecked, Supergrass object will be deleted.
3. Supergrass Library – Load Supergrass templates. Once loaded, short name of the loaded template will be displayed in the list.
4. Select – Select supergrass object.
5. Level of detail – Control grass density on distant areas. To lower the density of the grass on large areas, use the dropdown menu, use low or Medium detail on distant aerial views to speed up render time.

Supergrass object

Supergrass is a procedural grass plugin for vray. The grass is generated only during render time and is not actually present in the scene.

To create a Supergrass object, you must first select a mesh with real-world mapping from the 3ds Max scene, then go to the Create panel, choose the VRay category, and then click on the Supergrass button. Note that if you have not selected an object, or you have selected an object which is not compatible with Supergrass, the Supergrass button will appear greyed out.

Overview:

1. Source object – Specifies the source geometry with a real-world mapping for the grass. You can click on this button only from the Modify panel (and not from the Create panel).
2. Grass Template – Load a grass template from the list.
3. Density – Specifies the number of strands per squared scene unit. For example, if the the system units are in meters, this parameter specifies the desired number of strands per square meter, if the system units are centimeters, it specifies the number of strands per square centimeter and so on.
4. Placement – Determines which faces of the source object will generate grass strands. Entire object – All faces will generate fur.  Selected faces – Only selected faces will generate Grass.
5. Parameters: Length – Specifies the length of the grass strands. Thickness – Specifies the thickness of the strands. Gravity – Controls the force that pulls fur strands down along the Z-direction. Bend – Controls the elasticity of the grass strands. When set to 0.0, the strands are hard and all straight lines. Greater values cause the strands to bend (e.g. under the influence of gravity). Taper – Allows the user to add a taper to the individual strands of grass. Increasing this value will make the each strand thinner in its upper end and wider in its base. Knots – Grass strands are rendered as several connected straight segments; this parameter controls the number of segments.
6. Lvl of detail – Level of detail. When enabled, V-Ray will generate less grass geometry for parts of the scene which are far away from the camera. This is done by decreasing the density of the grass strands and increasing their thickness. This parameter helps for two things: First, it conserves memory by decreasing the detail where it is too far to be visible. Second, it helps reduce animation flickering of very fine grass strands when they are far from the camera.
7. Variation: Direction variation – Adds slight variation to the direction in which fur strands grow from the source object. Any positive value is valid. This parameter should be adjusted according to the scale of the scene. Length/Thickness/Gravity/Curl var – Adds variation to the corresponding parameter. Values range from 0.0 (no variation) to 1.0.
8. Generate W-coordinate – In general, all mapping coordinates are taken from the base object. However, the W mapping coordinate can be modified to represent the offset along the grass strands. When this option is enabled, the W coordinate is the offset along the hair strands (0.0 is the strand base, and 1.0 is the tip). The U and V coordinates are still taken from the base object. Channel – When Generate W-coordinate is enabled, this parameter specifies the channel for which the W coordinate will be modified.
9. Curl – When enabled, adds curls to the grass. Curl Radius – The radius of the individual curl. Curl Angle – The number of curls on a strand.
10. Base map chan – Some of the texture maps represent vectors in texture space, where the x and y directions are derived from the u and v directions of a texture mapping channel. This parameter specifies which mapping channel is used.
11. Bend direction map – This is an RGB map which specifies a bend direction of the grass strands in texture space (according to the specified Base map channel). This is the direction in which the grass strands curve to (the amount of curvature is also controlled by the Bend parameter). The red component is offset along the u texture direction, the green component is the offset along the v texture direction, and the blue component is the offset along the surface normal.
12. Initial direction map – This is an RGB map which specifies the initial direction of the grass strands, in texture space (according to the specified Base map channel). The red component is offset along the u texture direction, the green component is the offset along the v texture direction, and the blue component is the offset along the surface normal.
13. Length/Thickness/Gravity/Bend map – These maps are multipliers for the corresponding parameters where black is a multiplier of 0.0, and white is a multiplier of 1.0.
14. Density map – This map is a multiplier for the strand density. Black portions of the map correspond to zero density (effectively no grass will be generated in these areas), and white represents the normal strand density, as specified by the Distribution parameters.
15. Curl map – This map is a multiplier for the strand Curl. Black portions of the map correspond to no curl, and white represents the set curl, as specified by the Distribution parameters.

Direct Link: https://www.simpolium.com/documentation/?tab=supergrass

Material Library

The material library contains over 70 high quality tileable materials that can be used within Cityscape Pro environment as well outside of it. The materials are designed for real world mapping.

Note: To access material library, first create Cityscape Pro Helper from Create panel > Helpers > Simpolium > Cityscape Pro, then Click on orange Material Library button in the Main toolbar.

Overview

1. Choose Custom Library – Specify a directory for a custom library (Should contain the same folder structure as the original library directory). The individual *.mat files will be loaded as material presets. For thumbnails, create additional “Thumbnails” folder in the directory and place images with corresponding material names in .jpeg format, recommended resolution: 600X600 pixels. New material presets should be saved from a scene that uses  inches in 3ds max System Units Scale –  Costumize>>Units Setup>>System Unit Setup>>System Unit Scale: 1 Unit = 1 Inches.
2. Filter – Isolate Dry, Wet or Winter material preset categories.
3. Filter By Category – Filter Material presets by selected list element category.
4. Thumbnail Size – Control thumbnail size.
5. Material Button – Copy selected material preset or apply it to objects by dragging and dropping.
6. Randomly Load To all Elements – Randomly load  material presets to Cityscape Pro elements.
7. List – List of all Cityscape Pro elements with a material.
8. Select  – Highlight an input spline in a scene.
9. Load Selected Material – Applies selected material preset to a highlighted list item. Double clicking on material thumbnail is an alternative way to load a material.

Direct Link: https://www.simpolium.com/documentation/?tab=material-library

Modify Surface

The toolbar is used to edit existing surface, add water areas – Lakes, ponds and reservoir as well as terrain areas – Berms, holes (in a surface) and terrain depression. When the checkbox is enabled, a Cityscape Surface modifier gets applied to the original surface object. The modifier stores a newly generated surface model, but also lets you edit the original surface object under the Cityscape Surface modifier.

Notes:

• Use the “Generate” button in Cityscape Pro helper > Main toolbar to generate result.
• To use this feature, the Surface geometry should be picked in Main toolbar.
• DO NOT collapse Cityscape Surface modifier, that can cause issues.

Overview

1. Enabled – The checkbox enables or disables modify surface feature.
2. Water – List of water areas. To start adding water areas, click “Add” button and pick a closed spline from a scene, then use the Generate button from the main toolbar. Up to 3 water areas can be added. Note: Click to remove list item, to move list items up and down,  To select input spline, to select water geometry.
3. Template – Lake, Reservoir and Pond templates. The spline for lake and pond should be simple and smooth sharp corners must be avoided. Note: To build a complex water area  with different types of banks, start with Reservoir template and build banks manually.
4. Depth – Specify depth of a water area.
5. Water Fill – The checkbox enables a water geometry generation.
6. Terrain – List of terrain areas. To start adding terrain areas, click “Add” button and pick a closed spline from a scene, then use the Generate button from the main toolbar. Up to 3 terrain areas can be added.
7. Template – Berm, hole and Terrain Depression templates.
8. Height – Specify height of a berm / Depth of a terrain depression.
9. Slope angle  – Specify slope angle of a berm / terrain depression.

Note: All input splines must be closed and should NOT be self-intersecting. It is recommended to name input splines to make the workflow more intuitive. (See the Knowledge Base section)

Direct Link: https://www.simpolium.com/documentation/?tab=modify-surface

Cityscape Surface modifier

Cityscape Surface modifier gets applied to the original surface object. The modifier stores a new, generated surface model, but also lets you edit the original surface object under the Cityscape Surface modifier.

Overview:

1. Cityscape Surface Modifier – Stores a new modified surface model and mapping information.
2. Original Mesh – To make changes, edit the original mesh and then regenerate the Cityscape Pro. Don’t collapse the Cityscape Surface modifier.

Direct Link: https://www.simpolium.com/documentation/?tab=cityscape-surface

Cityscape Spline modifier

Cityscape Spline modifier can be applied to a problematic spline area that is used in Cityscape Pro. The modifier can force Cityscape Pro to perform an alternative calculation process for the spline area which can solve problems related to freezing during calculations or improperly generated mesh.

Overview:

1. Cityscape Spline Modifier – Forces Cityscape Pro to perform an alternative calculation on a problematic spline area to attempt fixing an issue.
2. Enable Alternative Calculation – Enable or disable an alternative calculation algorithm.
3. Random Seed – The calculations are based on some level of randomness. Modifying the random seed number could improve a problematic calculation result.

Direct Link: https://www.simpolium.com/documentation/?tab=cityscape-spline

Road Texture

The road texture tool is used to create a procedural pavement texture or a complete road material for surface object (The remaining exposed part of the surface object that is not covered with curbed areas acts as a road model). The road texture tool uses 3ds max composite map and automatically configures it with spline masks.

Notes:

• Use the “Generate” button in Cityscape Pro helper > Main toolbar to generate result.
• To use this feature, surface geometry should be picked in the main toolbar.

• When Road Texture is enabled, Surface object and Curbed area will automatically receive a new mapping information in uvw channel 2.

Overview

1. Enabled – The checkbox enables uvw mapping on map channel 2 on the surface object (roads).
2. Composite Map – 3ds max composite map, Road Texture tool configures it and automates spline mask creation.
3. Refresh – List refresh button.
4. List – List of Composite Map layers. Click the “Add”  button to add a new layer, to remove layer, to move layers up and down,  to rename a layer. When you click the “Add” layer button, a texture library window appears. To load a preset, double click on a thumbnail.
5. Texture Library – Contains Texture presets for creating roads and pavements. To load a texture preset, first select a composite layer from the list, then click the texture library and load a desired texture to the layer.
6. Texture checkbox – Enables or disables a texture for the selected layer.
7. Blending Mode – Texture Blending mode. (Normal blending mode is recommended for most cases)
8. Opacity – Texture Opacity value 0-100.
9. Mask checkbox – The checkbox enables or disables a mask.
10. Spline Mask Templates – To apply a spline mask to the layer, choose a template and pick spline. Custom Map – Use when custom mask (or no mask) is needed. Calculations won’t affect the custom map. Single Line – A single continuous line for pavement markings, parking lines or pavement patterns. Dashed Line –  3m(with 6m gap)    2m(with 2m gap) Dashed Custom – Custom dashed line with custom line length and gap length. Curved line checkbox creates additional segments for sharp turns. Crosswalk – Typical crosswalk with 0.6 length and  0.6m Gap, Default width – 3m. Distance – useful for creating dust lines, dirt, snow and etc. Use the width rollout to control the0 spread (Works only with Vray and Corona).  Autodust – automatically creates dust masks from existing pavement markings in a list. It also uses existing curbed area splines for creating a dust mask. (Only Works with Vray and Corona).
11. Spline – Input spline for creating spline masks.
12. Select – Select the picked spline.
13. Outline Width – Controls a width of a line. default – 0.1m.
14. Line Length – The parameter becomes active on “Dashed Custom” spline mask template. It defines a length of a line.
15. Gap Length – The parameter becomes active on “Dashed Custom” spline mask template. It defines a length of a gap.
16. Curved Line – The parameter becomes active on “Dashed Custom” spline mask template. When enabled, the dashed lines get additional segments to follow curved lines on sharp corners.

Direct Link: https://www.simpolium.com/documentation/?tab=road-texture

Snow Geometry

Snow Geometry tool allows user to easily create snow piles and compacted snow geometry for winter scenes.

Notes:

• Use the “Generate” button in Cityscape Pro helper > Main toolbar to generate result.
• To use this feature, the Surface geometry should be picked in the Main toolbar.
• All input splines must be closed and should NOT be self-intersecting. It is recommended to name input splines to make the workflow more intuitive (See the Knowledge Base section).

Overview

1. Snow Geometry – List of snow areas defined by splines. Up to 4 snow areas can be added. It is recommended to keep the snow ares relatively small, bigger areas will have less detail because of fixed polycount. Note: Click to remove list item, to move list items up and down,  To select input spline, to select snow geometry.
2. Template – Choose between snow piles and compacted snow templates.
3. Height – Defines height of a snow area.
4. Follow Surface – When checked, a snow geometry will follow the main surface object, if unchecked, it will follow the snow spline.

Direct Link: https://www.simpolium.com/documentation/?tab=snow-geometry

Overview:

1. Mapping type of the base texture (4).
2. Map channel of the base texture (4).
3. Offset, Size and Angle parameters of the base texture (4).
4. Base Texture.
5. Distortion Checkbox – When Checked, Distortion Map (6) gets activated.
6. Distortion Map – A grayscale map that distorts the base texture (4).
7. Strength value of the Distortion Map (6).
8. Strength Map of the Distortion Map (6).

Splines Presets

Cityscape Splines Presets can be used for road markings in Road Texture tool. Arrows, Cyclist, Preferential and Handicapped shapes are located in Create panel, Shapes tab, under Cityscape category.  All Cityscape shapes are closed, it is recommended to scatter them around a scene as per site plan, attach all of them together to a single spline and use it in the Road texture tool with “Fill Closed Spline” template.

Overview

1. The splines are located under Create panel, Shapes tab, under Cityscape category.
2. Cityscape Splines – Can be used in Road Texture tool, with “Fill closed spline” mask template.

Direct Link: https://www.simpolium.com/documentation/?tab=spline-presets

Warning Messages

Cityscape Pro comes with diagnostic tools to help user troubleshoot a scene. When a potential problem is detected, the generate button turns red and a warning message appears.

Overview

1. Red generate button – When a problem is detected, the generate button turns red.
2. Hide Warinings – You can disable warning messages, but when the problem is detected, the generate button will still turn red.

Collapse Cityscape

Starting from v1.5.0, Cityscape Pro comes with a utility that allows users to collapse Cityscape objects and maps to render the scene on machines that don’t have the plugin installed.

The “Collapse Cityscape objects” command is located under Main Menu>>Cityscape Pro dropdown menu. It is recommended to back up the scene before collapsing to maintain a parametric workflow.