I would like to see more community around this product so that we can all learn more and share our skills to wider audience. Maybe ESRI CityEngine could foster a Community Code Challenge similar to other popular software products that I follow, which have communities that have grown exponentially due to their quarterly competitions? The rewards wouldn't have to be much, maybe a gift card to major coffee chain or wholesaler for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd and a shoutout on ESRI's social media platforms.
The competition format should probably focus (in my opinion) on things that vast majority of users would not have a core business service built around (buildings, streets, sidewalks, bike trails, major infrastructure like sewers and electric, zoning). I think that most people will not share their code in regards to those, including me. Use of textures or models should be somewhat limited, especially if the CGA model cannot show merit on its own as I would hope to see the winners CGA after the competition. And sharing textures and models would likely be more limited by ownership issues.
So maybe the competition could be best CGA moonbase, spaceship, maybe a regular bridge, or most creative geometric shape built from a single sphere. Or maybe a competition based on the use of a new code feature, for example, the most interesting/best use of array functions in version 2020.0. Participation would require sharing CGA code to count.
Gathering the code from the competition would create a new database of knowledge from which to draw future inspiration and learn. It would also help the CityEngine product engineers understand where the userbase is most interested and hindered in code comprehension. It would also help market the product to wider audience, which I hope in the long run should bring subscription costs down.
Thanks!
Brian
