Houdini Building Generator: Work in Progress - Part 1

This Houdini Building Generator was created as a part of the capstone project for my study at Seneca College - Game Art and Animation Program. The goal of the project is to create an urban environment that replicate the streets of Hong Kong. Houdini would come into play as a building generator in collaboration with the modular kit that is currently in progress from modelling and surfacing class.The end project should present a realistic urban scene with a good amount of details and complexity. This article dives deep into my working progress, such as the problems I encountered and the logic behind the generator. If you are interested in seeing an overview of the project, please click here to my Artstaion post.

I created a basic wall generator with variations of window which are responsive to the wall length and width. I generated a few variants of wall modules, ready for scattering in the building generator.

I then established sequences for the floor layout.

Experimented with randomizing wall pattern. But found that the different wall width will leave gaps in between them.

Revisited the wall models and readjusted the wall width to match each other. This way the randomized Wall patterns perfectly laid out without any gaps in between.

Below are some of the troubles I encountered at this stage of the process.

Corner pieces that don't align and over lapping each other.

As seen in the screenshots, the corner of the building is offset and recessed into the size of the trim. I had to fix the pivot point of the model with wall trim feature to align with the wall.

Another problem was finding ways to scatter props such as air conditioners and awnings in the exterior of the building.

And creating paths for assigning materials in the HDA.