Mapping Imaginary Cities
summary
A procedural city generator is implemented in JavaScript, rendered with p5.js, and uses simplex noise for terrain, midpoint displacement to carve coastlines, a custom river-walker, Voronoi cells from local maxima for neighborhoods, and a growth‑and‑snap road algorithm that produces bridges and connected grids. The pipeline also generates a conlang for labels, places POIs into a tourist brochure with an actual seven‑day forecast, and exports interactive maps. The system is tunable and reliably produces readable, believable fictional cities.
AI-written summary · about
chapters (17)
- 0:00Start
- 3:451854 Cholera Epidemic
- 9:57Perspectives
- 12:38Layers
- 14:06Prettier Colors
- 14:33Amplitude
- 15:16Frequency
- 15:57Octaves
- 17:23Midpoint Displacement
- 18:51Excavate the Ocean
- 22:25Simplex Noise (Reprise)
- 22:53Local Maxima
- 25:47Propose a Continuation
- 26:57Fork off on Either Side
- 28:42Try to create bridges
- 29:21Adjusting Perturbation
- 29:45Adjusting Segment Length
related talks
33mProcedural Content in JS
05mMaking it up: map making bots, generative mapping and TTRPG tools
38mProcedural Generation at Runtime: From Basic to Complex by Example
09mGenerated Cities and Architecture
30m“Building Better Worlds: Developing a Procedural City Tool for Alien..."
22mGenerative Art Speedrun
55mCreating Decimated with Houdini and Unreal Engine
28mCreating generative art with Javascript