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Grayworld II [wip]

Combining BSP + Procedural + Modules for city-scale level design blockout

Overview

Grayworld II is an ongoing technical exercise in creating NYC as a game level. My goal is plumbing the intersection of level design and environment creation by deliberately combining and breaking down different pipeline and authoring methods to really examine what do you get out of:

  1. The fully bespoke BSP approach (Scythe)
  2. The procedural approach (Houdini)
  3. The traditional modular mesh approach

Grayworld II expands from the single-building vertical slice scope of Grayworld I to full open city scale.


Grayworld II city overview with highlighted points of interest

Tools
Unreal Engine 5, Houdini, Blender
Year
2025-2026

The objective this time is not scene or asset polish. It is scale, pipeline, level design and spatial intelligence.

Current State

The current pass is about 1/2 scale NYC in real units. There’s several district-level POIs. Many blocks are still literally blocks. I’m working on tools for handling the complexity and irregularity of NYC streets and blocks while avoiding a Houdini megatool.

We’ve all seen the SideFX x Epic UE5 Matrix city; this is not that. My mental model for this NYC is closer to GTA4 or Deadlock, heavy on level design and the bespoke and organic nature of a semi-planned, semi-grown world.

Grayworld II Hopper point-of-interest blockout Grayworld II pier point-of-interest blockout
Grayworld II Harlem daytime lighting study Grayworld II city blockout view
Grayworld II FiDi ground-level blockout Grayworld II Washington Square Park and West Village view

Iteration Log

The project is documented through incremental development posts. Each entry records the technical state at that point: module set expansions, pipeline additions, lighting tests, and validation milestones moving from isolated module tests into the current city build.

Grayworld II 01 thumbnail Grayworld II - 01 Initial scale calibration and lighting baseline for isolated module tests. Grayworld II 02 thumbnail Grayworld II - 02 Geometry pass and lighting parameter sweep. Grayworld II 03 thumbnail Grayworld II - 03 Volumetric relationships and camera frustum validation. Grayworld II 04 thumbnail Grayworld II - 04 Test-level scaffolding and module set expansion. Grayworld II 05 thumbnail Grayworld II - 05 Base platform geometry and reduced layout for module isolation. Grayworld II 06 thumbnail Grayworld II - 06 Continued test-level iteration against the module set. Grayworld II 07 thumbnail Grayworld II - 07 First aggregation of modules into a contiguous city layout. Grayworld II 08 thumbnail Grayworld II - 08 Ground-level traversal framing and atmospheric pass. Grayworld II 09 thumbnail Grayworld II - 09 Orthographic refinement of the Manhattan footprint and block grid. Grayworld II 10 thumbnail Grayworld II - 10 Initial anchor placement for district-level points of interest. Grayworld II 11 thumbnail Grayworld II - 11 Harlem district lighting tests and time-of-day sweep. Grayworld II 11.5 thumbnail Grayworld II - 11.5 Supplementary district variation pass. Grayworld II 12 thumbnail Grayworld II - 12 Cross-district traversal validating coherence at neighborhood scale. Grayworld II 13 thumbnail Grayworld II - 13 Current point-of-interest map and integrated city-scale overview.