Esri ships CityEngine 2015.0
Esri has released CityEngine 2015.0, the latest version of its 3D city-generation software.
CityEngine generates detailed city models from simple procedural rules, importing and exporting data in standard file formats, including OBJ, 3DS and DXF.
Although increasingly focused on architects and urban planners, the software was originally also designed with entertainment use in mind, and comes with free Maya and Unity plugins.
New procedural handles and real-time shadows
The main feature in the 2015.0 update is support for ‘procedural handles’: scriptable controls for adjusting the proportions of 3D models interactively within the CityEngine viewport.
The software can also now generate real-time shadows based on time of day and real-world location; and the Scene Editor has been revamped, including the option to group, colour-code and lock layers.
Other than that, it’s mainly bugfixes and under-the-hood changes, notably improved performance when exporting files in OBJ, FBX, Collada/KML, VUE, RIB and CityEngine’s own 3WS format.
Pricing and availability
CityEngine 2015.0 is available for 64-bit Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. The Basic version costs $500, and the Advanced edition, which adds support for Python scripting and FBX, Collada and RIB export, costs $4,000.