A Survey of Procedural Techniques for City Generation

The computer game industry requires a skilled workforce and this combined with the complexity of modern games, means that production costs are extremely high. One of the most time consuming aspects is the creation of game geometry, the virtual world which the players inhabit. Procedural techniques have been used within computer graphics to create natural textures, simulate special effects and generate complex natural models including trees and waterfalls. It is these procedural techniques that we intend to harness to generate geometry and textures suitable for a game situated in an urban environment. Procedural techniques can provide many benefits for computer graphics applications when the correct algorithm is used. An overview of several commonly used procedural techniques including fractals, L-systems, Perlin noise, tiling systems and cellular basis is provided. The function of each technique and the resulting output they create are discussed to better understand their characteristics, benefits and relevance to the city generation problem. City generation is the creation of an urban area which necessitates the creation of buildings, situated along streets and arranged in appropriate patterns. Some research has already taken place into recreating road network patterns and generating buildings that can vary in function and architectural style. We will study the main body of existing research into procedural city generation and provide an overview of their implementations and a critique of their functionality and results. Finally we present areas in which further research into the generation of cities is required and outline our research goals for city generation.