This is a post that I did for LinkedIn that I have copied here for others to view….
Well, I am not finished yet but you can see I’ve coded in details to the porch and added a stone platform/plinth to the #CityEngine generated Wareham/Modern Home 203 Sears catalogue home. When you’ve got into CityEngine you will want to do more details (in geometric terms) and adding textures. This does rely on an understanding of all your textured geometries ‘scope’ and how texturing/materials work (see my previous posts for reference to ‘scope’).
Some issues here is that placing realistic textures (images of bricks you can repeat/tile for example) on buildings can take more work than anticipated. You have to source textures or create your own. But to really make high quality stuff you need an understanding of more than just the texture (image of bricks) but also things like normalmaps, bumpmaps, opacitymaps, dirtmaps as well as texture coordinates (UVs) which in part tell the graphics card and software how to render the light as it hits your textured surfaces and more.
It can be tricky to understand because different #3D modelling programs can use differing terminology here! Also when creating code in CityEngine for texturing you also need to understand each supported export file formats capabilities. Good job there is a help file! I think tomorrow will be my last post where I hope to show you the final (sort of) model plus associated inspector attributes and visual handles.
Okay now the shameless plug: Did you know I am a CityEngine instructor trainer? I can do project work or knowledge transfer and I can train you or your organisation in the use of ArcGIS CityEngine, contact me for more details!