Nilsletter #3 | Exploring Procedural Worlds

Issue #03 | Date: August 16, 2023

Hello 3D enthusiast,

We're back with the third instalment of the 3D Nilsletter! Your enthusiasm for the Paperplane project files and the newly launched standalone application has been incredible. If you haven't had a chance to explore it yet, you can find the application here. And for those of you diving into Unreal Engine, the source files are available here.

As usual, I've rounded up the freshest highlights from the 3D realm over the past week. Whether you're on the lookout for insights to fuel your creativity or looking for a fresh perspective for your projects, hope there's something here to catch your interest.

Keep creating.

And now to this weeks of new stuff in the 3D space.

Unreal Engine: Renan shows the power of PCG

Recently introduced in Unreal Engine 5.2, the procedural content generation framework, or PCG for short, has quickly proven its prowess and adaptability. From its debut in the Electric Dreams demo, where its potential was vividly demonstrated, to the current wave of artists enthusiastically exploring the tool, its capabilities are becoming more apparent. One such artist is Renan Macedo, who has showcased his PCG system in action, generating intricate procedural villages in almost real-time.

Unreal Engine: Building living cities with one click

WorldBLD is one of those tools that looks incredibly promising. I really hope it lives up to the hype. Creating large and vibrant cities, like the one in the Matrix demo, can be a real headache. It usually needs complicated software like Houdini and a lot of setup work. WorldBLD aims to change that with a user-friendly plugin for making complex cities with loads of creative freedom. If you're curious, just like me, you can sign up for the waitlist.

NVIDIA: High fidelity 3D scanning

Neuralangelo is a new AI tool for creating 3D models of real-world scenes from just a simple RGB videos. It was developed by Nvidia Research and can handle object-centric and large-scale scenes, even without depth information. This means you can create detailed models of almost anything without having to use expensive sensors or software.

Neuralangelo is still under development, but it has the potential to revolutionize the way we scan 3D models. You can try it out yourself by following the instructions on the GitHub repository

I hope you enjoyed this week's short news roundup, and I'm looking forward to sharing more exciting developments in the 3D space in the upcoming editions of this 3D Nilsletter.

That’s all for now!

Regards,
Nils Bakker

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