{"id":3377,"date":"2017-03-21T12:37:03","date_gmt":"2017-03-21T12:37:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.geoplanit.co.uk\/?p=3377"},"modified":"2017-05-12T20:34:26","modified_gmt":"2017-05-12T20:34:26","slug":"the-barriers-to-building-3d-synthetic-environments-tsc-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.geoplanit.co.uk\/?p=3377","title":{"rendered":"“The Barriers to Building 3D Synthetic Environments” at the Transport Systems Catapult"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Last week I attended and presented on behalf of Garsdale Design at the Transport Systems Catapult (TSC) 3D cities event in a foggy Milton Keynes.\u00a0\u00a0 This was a \u201cone day opportunity to collaboratively identify challenges and showcase solutions\u201d and \u201cgain insight into virtual\/synthetic testing for transport\u201d.<\/p>\n

TSC have been having a conversation with us about modelling 3D urban environments using procedural \u00a0technologies found in Esri CityEngine and integrating those models in Unity.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I have to be honest though, I was initially concerned about focusing on this negative idea of \u2018barriers\u2019 as all we see is opportunities here at Garsdale Design!\u00a0 However, here was a gathering of people from a variety of industries who understood what it meant to actually make 3D city models and use them in commercial contexts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Presentations<\/h3>\n

The session had some key aims, firstly to understand what a variety of people were doing to create 3D cities, secondly to discuss some the hurdles or barriers of city creation (and publication) and lastly to have \u2018round-table\u2019 discussions to identify some of these barriers and how we might overcome them.\u00a0\u00a0 Have a look at who came and presented and you can see we had some very interesting presentations!<\/p>\n

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  1. Transport Systems Catapult : TSC current projects<\/li>\n
  2. Future Cities Catapult : Use of environments for smart cities<\/li>\n
  3. Satellite Applications Catapult : Satellite<\/li>\n
  4. Mantle: Creation of game ready content from GIS data<\/li>\n
  5. ESRI : 3D GIS<\/li>\n
  6. Leica Geo Systems : Technology behind 3d Lidar Environments<\/li>\n
  7. MK Surveys : Creation of 3d Lidar Environments<\/li>\n
  8. Garsdale Design : The Art & Science of 3d Cities<\/li>\n
  9. UCL : Intelligent positioning within 3d environments<\/li>\n
  10. Rust Ltd : Creation of AAA quality game environments<\/li>\n
  11. Imsim : Autonomous vehicle fleet management<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

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    The event started with an overview of who they were and what Transport Systems Catapult<\/strong><\/a> were working on and with.\u00a0\u00a0 Catapults as I see them are there to fill the void where companies like ourselves can\u2019t explore or experiment with technologies.\u00a0 With the best will in the world Garsdale Design hasn\u2019t got unlimited resources to \u2018play\u2019 with all the exciting new technologies coming through!\u00a0<\/p>\n

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    Following TSC was Future Cities Catapult<\/strong><\/a> who have a different focus to TSC, and you\u2019re not the only one wondering why FCC weren\u2019t hosting this event!\u00a0\u00a0 They covered what they do and their current focus on fixing what they perceive as the \u2018broken\u2019 planning system here in the UK.\u00a0 Now as a planner I can see some of their points but I can\u2019t help feeling their inclination to focus on technology rather than the legislative and planning process itself may through them some issues!<\/p>\n

    The Satellite Applications Catapult<\/strong><\/a>, talked through some the areas they are exploring to do with remote sensing, but I\u2019m afraid that as can happen to all of us technical issues with their presentation ensured I didn\u2019t totally follow them.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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    MantleTech<\/strong> <\/a>who produce a Unity a \u2018push button\u2019 plugin for generating city models from 2D GIS data was next and via a Skype session from Australia!\u00a0 It shows you what you can do with reliable internet connections and speeds!\u00a0 Their solution is interesting as lots of people and professions use Unity as a way to create virtual worlds (real or imagined).\u00a0 In fact TSC is using it for their own simulation environment.\u00a0 I can see why as well Unity has a low entry cost point, has lots of support and plugins too!.\u00a0\u00a0 MantleTech\u2019s technology is about bringing in data from places like Mapzen, Mapbox, OSM and OS, with that data a procedural model based on the underlying data is produced.\u00a0 This means can you create \u2018templates\u2019 or \u2018themes\u2019.\u00a0 Because it is in Unity you can then model vehicles to move around the environment.\u00a0 It\u2019s all very slick and feels a little bit like CityEngine in places!<\/p>\n

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    EsriUK <\/a>presented on their location platform and kindly mentioned our work and services!\u00a0\u00a0 They gave an overview of the new 3D capabilities and showed a video of the amazing stuff you can do in ArcGISPro.<\/p>\n