Excerpt: Road networks are a key aspect of city character and identity. Road networks are difficult to generalize since they are an interwoven component of a complex system. When viewing road networks from a map or city plan a number of patterns can be observed. It is these patterns that are key for procedural generation as they encode the structure of the road network.
Roads and rivers are the hard part, placing buildings next to it based on templates is easier.
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Relatedly, I found this survey of different methods for procedural city generation (template-based, agent-simulation-based, etc.) to be informative: http://www.citygen.net/files/images/Procedural_City_Generati...
Excerpt: Road networks are a key aspect of city character and identity. Road networks are difficult to generalize since they are an interwoven component of a complex system. When viewing road networks from a map or city plan a number of patterns can be observed. It is these patterns that are key for procedural generation as they encode the structure of the road network.
Roads and rivers are the hard part, placing buildings next to it based on templates is easier.