Is Dimension the best tool for creating cityscapes in 3D?

[Chris P. Bacon]

After I created the cityscapes, I would like to be able to navigate them in a Google Street View fashion.

Which software is best for the creation of the cityscapes and for navigating them in 3D?

I am looking for the tool that can do both, if possible.

[Chris P. Bacon]

In fact, I want to simulate and navigate a farm. So natural elements are also important.

[Ussnorway]

when you want to navigate [move around inside the area] thats 4D... 3D is static

this 4D type of software is called 'machinima' or just a game engine

best tool = Iclone Windows systems only and $

other good options are Unreal or Unity [Mac user]... these older engines have been modded into learning tools that both have forums and lots of fans + they start out free but you will probably want to buy a few assets for which ever one you decide to go with

Adobe does have Substance which they call Stager... its sort of a Blender modeling tool bolted into Dimension and charges the earth for it and they also an app Aero which is very limited kind of 4D that may be able to do what you want but is a dead end

[Chris P. Bacon]

In Unreal Engine should I choose Simulation or Architecture, if I want to create 3D farms that I can navigate with interactivity enabled?

[Ussnorway]

Architecture will be the simple choice so i'd start there

[Chris P. Bacon]

Thanks, but since I switched to Unity because I realised that my i5 processor cannot handle Unreal Engine, but Unreal Engine seems to be unnecessarily bloated and that's not a good sign, now I know why the majority prefers Unity.

[Ussnorway]

take a look at the stuff Cutscene Artist puts out she did a lot of great tutorials here before Adobe walked away from everything 3D and has forgotten more Unity trips than most people ever learn

be aware Unity is mostly the Mac fan club so it has limits but well worth the effort to start from

[Chris P. Bacon]

I just need s game engine to make my farm simulation, maybe even Godot would be sufficient, I will install Godot too. Were these 3D videos of CutsceneArtist made with Unity? Limitations, even for simulating a farm? What kind of limitations? I am not an a Mac business strategy fan and not a Mac hardware fan (I use ThinkPads) , but I am a Linux fan so hence I am a Mac software fan, and their software is good, but they restrict it from hardware that is better than theirs so it's complicated, but basically for 3D it's the software that matters, so how do you think the Mac limitation would affect me?

I have always been a Linux person, now using it on WSL2 on Windows, I only have Windows for the sake of Adobe and general compatibility, for media production. But running websites servers etc. it's better from Linux.

I would only be interested in animating people if they would actually run my farm and you could talk with them, but thats a too big undertaking for me I think, at the moment.

So now I only want 3D architecture navigation, and data and process simulation (how much it produces, etc...), not graphical simulation.

But I need interactivity like for example in the form of data show offs, like you press a button and it displays data about a certain module on the farm like what does it produce, how much, what is the cost, etc...

But if I succeed then I would like to bring it further and attempt to make it a farm that you can visit anytime, and that would include simulating people and talking with them, etc.

My goal is basically only showoff of data and facilities, but I might hire later someone to do the rest like people.

Nice to see what is possible, thanks for the videos, they are impressive. 

[Ussnorway]

check out https://cutsceneartist.com/ for how things work type examples

and https://juliansolomon.wetcircuit.com/ for this is what she makes in Unity examples

the face capture vids are a type of phone animation where people use their iphone to record in real time then show it on a puppet... it may be an option in your farm senario where you need 'interactivity'

the limits of Mac tend to be hardware yes with Windows systems easy outperform them in rendor times that julian rendor is very much the top of what is possible on Mac but its still a cartoon i.e, not trying to trick the eye into thinking its a real human. what a Mac rendors in 2 hours takes about 20 nins on a Windows system for 1/2 the cost or less and the difference between Unreal and Unity is that julian character needs custom lights and skin [which she basically had to invent herself] in order to look that good... her stuff may not be what you need but its worth looking at and asking her questions just to better understand Unity

[Chris P. Bacon]

Thanks 😉