PixelActive's CityScape 1.8 City Modeling Software released

PixelActive has announced the release of CityScape version 1.8, the latest version of its rapid urban modeling and simulation software for game developers, GIS professionals, simulation makers, and urban planners.

CityScape 1.8 includes: Enhanced road editing capabilities, improved GIS importing, a flexible meta data system, new import and export formats, a redesigned user interface with icons and hotkeys, and performance improvements. The road editing tools add a tangent editor, tunnels, and complex intersections. GIS importing supports NAVTEQ, Tele Atlas, OpenStreetMap, custom shapefiles, aerial imagery, geolocated geometry, elevation data and GIS data preprocessing. The meta data system uses custom and default templates to add data to objects, exports meta data to COLLADA, Filmbox, or CSV, and calculates meta data on the fly given basic building data.

CityScape "allows researchers to really think about all these different ways they want to test their devices. They can easily make city environments with [CityScape]. They can easily make rural environments. They can easily make expressway environments. So they can get that all out of the way, and then concentrate on their work." says Larry Cathey, Sr. Project Manager at Realtime Technologies, Inc.

"In 1.8, we wanted to create an application that was as easy to pick up for users of Photoshop or Maya, but still have the control and detail artists require to visualize their ideas. We're very happy with the result and look forward to our users' feedback." says Steve Rotenberg, PixelActive CEO.

"We made significant improvements to our GIS importing functionality. Simulation companies, video game developers, and urban planners all see the market demand for larger environments. These environments are used for training simulations, racing games in destination locations, and the visualization of master planned communities. CityScape allows teams to scale their environments without losing control of design or art style."

The CityScape team paid close attention to user feedback in developing the new version. "All the new features came out of conversations with our customers. We're really trying to make CityScape a program that helps people build better environments faster and more efficiently."

CityScape is available for $19,000 and can be purchased by contacting a PixelActive sales representative