ProGen

ProGen was a 3+ year (2009-12) R&D project supported by the TSB (UK) with 3 partners:

1. Rebellion, a UK (Oxford) based computer games studio
2. UCL/CS/Virtual environment group, lead by Prof. Anthony Steed
3. Goldsmiths/Computing/Mutators research group, lead by Prof. William Latham and Prof. Frederic Fol Leymarie

Its main goals were to:

• target the generation of large cities;
• develop methods to allow artists and designers to shape the generative process interactively;
• amplify the ability of artists to populate worlds with rich, interesting content that has variety, detail and scale;
• develop fundamental algorithmic innovations required to turn procedural generation techniques into useful and valuable design technology and tools;
• develop a basic procedural layout constrain-based generator (to work with partially-defined layers);
• develop tools fitting well with Rebellion’s production pipeline.

Main achievements (as of the end of January 2012):

• MapCreator (UCL) and LevelSketcher (Goldsmiths) tools: Procedural interactive tools that can create and edit 2D plans and level layouts using a “synthesis by example” paradigm together with user-controlled operations, and then use these 2D plans to generate initial 3D geometry with editable buildings.
• ProGen Editor and Asset browser (Rebellion): refinement tools that allow direct editing of 3D geometry and which are integrated in Rebellion’s game engine.
• Final demonstrator providing a complete chain : MapCreator –> LevelSketcher <—> Progen Editor/Asset browser

 

 

 

Contact: progen.team@gmail.com