Procedural Announces New CityEngine Version With Space City

Tools developer Procedural Inc. has released the newest version of CityEngine, its creation and visualization software for rendering large-scale city environments. It now includes a space city. CityEngine version 2009.3 features improved interface elements, new texturing operations, new construction types, a procedural City Wizard tool, and various example cities set on Earth and in space. Among the example cities are a reconstruction of the ancient city of Pompeii and, "inspired by Richard Branson's recent SpaceShipTwo unveiling," a "sci-fi city in space." Both example projects are available to CityEngine licensees. "We'll see if Mr. Branson will need such a hotel resort in space," said CEO Pascal Mueller in a statement about the space city, released out of Procedural's headquarters at Technoparkstrasse 1 in Zurich. "We made huge steps forward in user experience. Several interface enhancements allow for a more intuitive modification of procedural models, and the new CityWizard enables to quickly layout large 3D cities with a few mouse clicks only," he also explained. Procedural says its CityEngine software is used by game developers Blizzard and Rockstar North, as well as numerous architectural and design firms. Licenses are available on a 30-day trial basis, with a current "starting promotional price" of $2,950 for a monthly license. The virtual space city is titled Instance City, and is located in space.