ICity is a recently released Blender add-on that enables users to effortlessly create detailed 3D cityscapes. Developed by technical artist Hothifa Smair, the add-on features procedural generation and includes a vast asset library, streamlining city creation workflows by facilitating quick prototyping and final delivery. It can be particularly useful for architects, game developers, and city-building enthusiasts.
Version 1.0.0, released in beta back in May, includes over 300 assets, including more than 60 roads, a dozen building presets, and over 20 procedural buildings, allowing users to create unique cityscapes that reflect their artistic vision.
ICity has now been updated to version 1.1.0, delivering ten times faster performance, support for GLB and USD exports, optimized rendering, and more.
Here's a list of the add-on's features:
- Effortless City Shaping: Define your city layout with edges and faces. ICity's procedural systems instantly transform them into detailed buildings and streets.
- Dynamic Generation and Diversity: Block-based generation seamlessly creates diverse cities. Every build is unique thanks to the dynamic system.
- Procedural Road: Procedural Road tool for Blender lets you adjust width, lanes, and assets – all seamlessly integrated.
- Procedural Buildings: ICity's procedural building system empowers you to sculpt unique cityscapes on the fly.
- Building Presets: ICity offers pre-made customizable building presets for skyscrapers, apartments, courthouses, and more.
- Imperfection: ICity's imperfection system goes beyond cracks and faded paint. Scatter garbage, leaves, puddles, and even add water drainage for a truly lived-in feel.
- Unique Variations: A diverse range of unique variations and customizable assets, designed to suit every creative vision.
New in version 1.1.0:
- New Export & Mesh Conversion: Added support for GLB/USD export, enabling seamless integration with other software. The new "Convert to Mesh Copy" feature allows users to create a mesh copy of the city while retaining the procedural system, offering greater control and flexibility for modifications.
- Significant Performance Boost: The tool now operates 10 times faster, thanks to a complete system rewrite, greatly improving overall speed.
- Rendering Optimization: Optimized rendering processes and removed duplicated materials and textures, enhancing project performance.
- Element Scaling Fix: Addressed scaling issues to ensure accurate proportions for staircases, doors, and other elements, improving overall realism and consistency.
- New Empty Block Feature: Introduced an "Empty Block" option, giving users greater control over city layouts and customization.
- Building Seed & Light Control: Added a building seed feature and a controller for adjusting building light strength, offering more customization options.
The latest update also includes improvements to intersections between roads with different lane counts and fixes bugs related to staircases and intersections at acute angles.
For additional information about ICity, make sure to visit its product page on Blender Market.
