Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Egregoria: 3D City Builder without a grid

github.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 113 posts

Re: Egregoria: 3D City Builder without a grid

#71

Post by frogulis »

Aperocky wrote: post #61

Out of curiosity, are there any simcity 4 refresh out there? That game was way ahead of its time. I just want a 2023 version, but just couldn't seem to find it. Every successor game and other games seem to either focus on details/individuals or 3D effects with far less scale. We have far more capable hardware to run large cities and more growable lots and better traffic pattern. But a better Simcity 4 is never made b…

These new games have made leaps and bounds in running a better simulation and getting away from being grid-based.

However I do think that Simcity 4 being grid-based, and the pre-rendered graphics it allows add to how beautiful the game still is, 20 years later. Cities: Skylines looks good, but I suspect it will age much faster.

Re: Egregoria: 3D City Builder without a grid

#72

Post by Uriopass »

culopatin wrote: post #54
Uriopass wrote: post #34

Hi, I'm the main developer of Egregoria. I did not expect to end up on hackernews that early. While I've been working on this project on and off for 3 years it is still in its infancy. I have so many things I want to rewrite, so many features missing even for the most basic game loop. So many 3D models I have to make. And so little time! Working on this as a side project with a full time job has been hard at times. I…

What knowledge would you want your partners to have to help you accelerate the project?

All aspects of the game need more work, I think anyone that ever worked near the video-game space could help.

- 3D assets

- Audio assets

- UI/UX design

- Low-level graphics shenanigans (platform support, debugging tools, dos-and-donts, optimizations)

- Simulation depth (logistic chain, economics, city services..)

- Mod support

Any help with these would be greatly appreciated

Re: Egregoria: 3D City Builder without a grid

#73

Post by stevenhuang »

Uriopass wrote: post #66
stevenhuang wrote: post #65

> Egregoria is focused on the socio-economical aspect of a city, with a logistics element. Oo this is cool. What simulated elements are present/planned so far? Is there like a mini economy and things like actor preferences implemented? I checked out the devblog and although aspects like 3D rendering are interesting, I'm more interested in the simulation details and mechanics.

There's not much at the moment really, the idea is that all citizens have their own state and decide what they want to do themselves. For example, all of them have hunger state, have jobs assigned to them, a house etc. So a single citizen will always go back where it lives everyday instead of a random house, it will try to go near its home to buy groceries. I've decided that they don't have money as I found it too ha…

Nice! That level of simulation detail is the sort I've always wanted to see in city sim games, with people modeled as rational agents with internal state.

It would be fun to see the kinds of emergent behavior that arises. Maybe even hook an LLM up and let it drive some narratives.

I like to think too that with sufficient fidelity a simulation of this sort may be useful in real world city planning/economic modeling/geopolitics.

Will be keeping a close eye on this :)

Re: Egregoria: 3D City Builder without a grid

#74

Post by Uriopass »

stevenhuang wrote: post #73
Uriopass wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's not much at the moment really, the idea is that all citizens have their own state and decide what they want to do themselves. For example, all of them have hunger state, have jobs assigned to them, a house etc. So a single citizen will always go back where it lives everyday instead of a random house, it will try to go near its home to buy groceries. I've decided that they don't have money as I found it too ha…

Nice! That level of simulation detail is the sort I've always wanted to see in city sim games, with people modeled as rational agents with internal state. It would be fun to see the kinds of emergent behavior that arises. Maybe even hook an LLM up and let it drive some narratives. I like to think too that with sufficient fidelity a simulation of this sort may be useful in real world city planning/economic modeling/ge…

I've always thought about plugging LLMs into the simulation, even pre-generated naratives could be interesting. But I'd have to give it more thought as it seems pretty hard for such big scale interactions (50k citizens?)

>I like to think too that with sufficient fidelity a simulation of this sort may be useful in real world city planning/economic modeling/geopolitics.

This was one of the early vision I had for this project: Simulating different economies to see which ones fared better. However I have kind of abandoned this as the realy world is just far too complex! Making a "normal" but different city builder seems a bit more achievable.

Re: Egregoria: 3D City Builder without a grid

#75

Post by Uriopass »

fendy3002 wrote: post #57
Uriopass wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish I could work on it full-time. However, after reading a lot about indie game developers, and judging from my situation, it seems like keeping it as a side project is a better decision for me from a financial and mental health standpoint. Keep up the good work on Metropolis 1998! I have followed your work and the dev community you built around it and it is very inspiring.

Correct, though alternatively indie can resort to kickstarter (factorio) or patreon. Then do early access on steam. However yes the pressure is different than full time job

TIL Factorio was funded on Indiegogo!

But yes, I'm really not ready for that kind of pressure and marketing efforts. I feel - and even more so since Cities:Skylines 2 announcement - that there isn't enough I can do alone to turn this into a full-time job.

Re: Egregoria: 3D City Builder without a grid

#76

Post by Uriopass »

jimmySixDOF wrote: post #60
Uriopass wrote: post #34

Hi, I'm the main developer of Egregoria. I did not expect to end up on hackernews that early. While I've been working on this project on and off for 3 years it is still in its infancy. I have so many things I want to rewrite, so many features missing even for the most basic game loop. So many 3D models I have to make. And so little time! Working on this as a side project with a full time job has been hard at times. I…

Nice !! Please check out Spectra City if you are not alread aware they are a fully CC0 project built for WebGL (WebXR), although I think for now they started on a platform called Spatial.io & my impression is they are closely tied to the real built environment or proposed so as in a way for the local community to active participate on a new city block restoration project as an example. https://www.spectracities.com/

I have to say I'm confused by this. After looking through their website I do not really understand what Spectra City is about or how I can get involved.

Re: Egregoria: 3D City Builder without a grid

#77

Post by justanotherunit »

Uriopass wrote: post #66
stevenhuang wrote: post #65

> Egregoria is focused on the socio-economical aspect of a city, with a logistics element. Oo this is cool. What simulated elements are present/planned so far? Is there like a mini economy and things like actor preferences implemented? I checked out the devblog and although aspects like 3D rendering are interesting, I'm more interested in the simulation details and mechanics.

There's not much at the moment really, the idea is that all citizens have their own state and decide what they want to do themselves. For example, all of them have hunger state, have jobs assigned to them, a house etc. So a single citizen will always go back where it lives everyday instead of a random house, it will try to go near its home to buy groceries. I've decided that they don't have money as I found it too ha…

That’s really interesting, what kind of AI implementation have you decided to work with? I am making a similar project but more of an medieval approach. I went with behavior trees since it felt more appropriate and scalable for such a task

Re: Egregoria: 3D City Builder without a grid

#78

Post by Uriopass »

dmvdoug wrote: post #52
Uriopass wrote: post #34

Hi, I'm the main developer of Egregoria. I did not expect to end up on hackernews that early. While I've been working on this project on and off for 3 years it is still in its infancy. I have so many things I want to rewrite, so many features missing even for the most basic game loop. So many 3D models I have to make. And so little time! Working on this as a side project with a full time job has been hard at times. I…

Honestly, you’re doing great. I think the best things I see here are precisely the ones that aren’t “ready for HN yet.”

Thank you! Could you elaborate on what things you found best? As to me, almost none of the project is ready for HN yet :D

Re: Egregoria: 3D City Builder without a grid

#79

Post by dosshell »

Uriopass wrote: post #72
culopatin wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What knowledge would you want your partners to have to help you accelerate the project?

All aspects of the game need more work, I think anyone that ever worked near the video-game space could help. - 3D assets - Audio assets - UI/UX design - Low-level graphics shenanigans (platform support, debugging tools, dos-and-donts, optimizations) - Simulation depth (logistic chain, economics, city services..) - Mod support Any help with these would be greatly appreciated

What are your thoughts about AI generated 3D assets that many, now startups, promise to sell to indie developers?

For me, it sounds like city models such as cars and buildings will be one of the easiest models to generate (from what I have seen in papers).

As an indie dev myself I'm counting on that I will be able to buy most 3D content for a fraction of time/cost in a couple of years. And I plan my development around this and ignore art assets for now.

Re: Egregoria: 3D City Builder without a grid

#80

Post by AlecSchueler »

GenerocUsername wrote: post #33
AlecSchueler wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We need City Builder Netherlands.

Try Banished. It's like 10 years old, but kind of scratches that simple old lifestyle itch without any war or fighting elements

I'm looking for something post-auto, not pre-auto. I'll definitely give it a look though.
Post reply on HN