Semi-Automatic Building Layout Generation for Virtual Environments

Creating floor plan layouts for houses, offices, hotels, or videogame levels is time-consuming. In several applications, the process starts with a bubble diagram or graph derived from a client’s requirements, which is then used as a basis for drawing a blueprint to continue the design process. That process requires a tool to preserve consistency between design models and diminish the design time. Hence, we have developed a Unity plugin to graphically represent a building layout using nodes and edges for rooms and doors that also allow defining the size and aspect ratio of spaces. This abstract representation is then automatically converted into a blueprint and optimized for explicit constraints (doors, size, and ratio) and implicit ones (tightness, convexity) by applying stochastic hill-climbing or steepest ascent hill-climbing algorithms. Then, the user can edit that blueprint further. As a final result, the tool generates a navigable 3D representation of the floor plan for the user to explore and go back to edit it if necessary. Results show that both algorithms are computing efficient enough to apply them interactively in the tool while providing functional building layouts. This work can assist established designers or enable building layout tools to be used by non-experts, such as potential homebuyers wishing to communicate a desired layout to an architect or hobbyist game designers working on their first videogame.