The Urbanator project is a collaborative proposal between Newcastle University KTH (Sweden), Avalanche Studio (computer games company based in Sweden), UCL (University College London and ETH (Zurich). The official abstract submitted to the EUs 7th framework programme is as follows:
"The Urbanator project will develop a unified approach to the modelling and procedural generation of convincing, computationally efficient, and effective virtual urban environments. This approach will allow the project to construct a pre-product authoring environment that takes a number of semantically rich, user-configurable rule objects as input and produces procedurally generated, real-time ready, dynamic 3D virtual urban environments in open, public formats as output. Our focus is on the computer- and video games industries and, specifically, on the creation of large scale urban environments for 3D computer games.
The output from the authoring environment will be adaptable for different game play dynamics and games engines and, rather than developing a ‘one size fits all’ solution, the project will focus on the definition of parametrisable rule objects that can be used together (or independently) to generate and populate game environments with immense variational richness. Our semantic approach to virtual environment creation will also allow end-users to rapid-prototype and experiment with their environments at very low costs.
With a consortium consisting of the leading researchers in urban morphology and the modelling of dynamic behaviour, together with a games company with a track record for producing AAA titles as the founding components, we have a unique opportunity to develop a highly competitive, open standards pre-product, as well as generating substantial new knowledge with immense commercial and creative potential.
07/01/09: Unfortunately the project was unsuccessful in attracting EU funding. The project is now in stasis until another form of funding can be found or parts can be integrated into another project.
