I know a few people have attempted this - is Unity a good platform for this kind of thing?
Well, architectural designers ( or artists ) are looking most of the time for an one click solution program, were everything is handled on the background.
Unity right now is missing few things regarding architectural visualization:
More rendering speed ( eg:deferred rendering, better culling )
More lens shaders ( eg:post effects like HDR, SSAO for example).
Theirs some parts to improve before Unity become a 100%
architectural viz friendly.
It probably wouldn’t take too much to streamline the process so that it would be easier for an architect / designer to use Unity.
Perhaps a couple “template” scenes with an editor script that automagically assigns prefabbed materials based on object names. A library of prefabbed materials (interior and exterior). Some of the more commonly wanted camera movements (fly through path follow, orbit scene, etc.). A small collection of skyboxes. etc. etc.
Might make a good add on if there were sufficient demand to warrant the effort to produce it.
Definitely Unity is a good tool for architectural visualization, although not the easiest to use.
I’m an architect myself. I’ve done a lot of realtime presentations with other software (Quest3D) and I recently switched to Unity, mainly because the web player is way better and has Mac support.
Unity is great! But the problem is, for users who don’t have any coding experience, it’s too hard to learn how to configure a visualization.
I have some work in progress example here: www.tetravol.com/citilab
The link that Hector posted is a perfect example of what could be a “template” scene. That plus some prefabbed assets (exterior and interior items) and some drag and drop materials and you’d be almost there.
As it turns out, the first engine I tried was Quest and I found it many times more difficult to get my head around than Unity. I also tried DXStudio, which is about as easy to use as Unity for this sort of thing but, at least when I tried it, was very buggy.
I’ve spent a few years working in game development as well as architectural visualization, so I’ve got some perspective on both ends. In the big view, Unity is fine the way it is. I don’t think there’s going to be a one-click solution that anyone is particularly happy with. The viz company that I worked for existed because architects either didn’t have the time, skill, or interest to do high quality renderings and animations. They contracted it out to people(us) who knew what we were doing. I don’t see how this would be much different for an interactive solution. Aside from maybe an integrated lightmapping solution and internal material editing(something ultra simple like the old BSP editors), Unity is about as simple as you can get.
Just go through the “showcase” and you’ll see quite a few very nice architectural demos. See for yourself.
Jovia http://forum.unity3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=33210&highlight=house+architecture
Superflat http://forum.unity3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=33041&highlight=house+architecture
Piazza http://forum.unity3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=28481&highlight=house+architecture
Residential Walkaround http://forum.unity3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=25324&highlight=house+architecture
Architectural Flat http://forum.unity3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=22762&highlight=house+architecture
Pool http://forum.unity3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=17480&highlight=house+architecture
Penthouse Suite http://forum.unity3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=6132&highlight=house+architecture
Apartment http://forum.unity3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=13979&highlight=house+architecture
Architecture http://forum.unity3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=3479&highlight=house+architecture
I thought I would link you to the forum posts so you could read the designer’s comments.
These are certainly not all there is. There’s quite a few good ones using other searches or just going through the showcase. An outdoor mall also comes to mind.
I think there is a conflation of Architect with Arch Viz going on here. Unity is not a good tool for a practicing architect. It is good however for a specialist who specializes in presentations (who may have had architectural training). Typically these folks sell their services to real architects. It is possible that firms of large enough size can keep these kinds of services in house, but nevertheless Unity will not be used by the project manager or any real designer, but be something used by a specialist that puts together presentations. I think thats an important distinction to be made if you are trying to get into this market.
I am basing this on my own experience working in a small landscape architecture/contracting firm in san francisco ( http://millercomp.com ) and paying attention to how architects put together their presentations as well.
I evaluated Unity for our office, gained the skillset needed etc…, and quickly realized that the investment was too big for us to handle in house. We’d have to hire out for this kind of work, and I’d coordinate with whoever we hired. That said this has not happened yet because we haven’t had the right kind of project/client to justify it.
I would think that we are not unusual because our business model and size has allowed us to do well even in the current slump in construction. However I’ve watched many large firms cut their employees as their revenue has dramatically fallen. While they may have had projects in the past ten years that justified the level of expense for real time graphics, I don’t think it makes sense right now.
Nevertheless perhaps there is a niche for this that I am unaware of. It’ll be interesting to follow this thread to see other’s experience.
My example is : http://forum.unity3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=31387
I use it for Events set visualisation. It’s really quick to import your model, shove in a FPC and make a webplayer demo. I did a little demo in five days and four of those were modelling.
If you want doors to open or lighting effects that move it takes a bit longer but once you have a few scripts you are comfortable using it’s really very straightforward.
This is from a pitch I did in Unity for an exhibition for Guess Jeans: http://web.mac.com/hayesdavies/Portfolio/GuessBuild1.html
Hi there,
I think you could be interested in this project:
http://www.ihome.pl/oferty/wizualizacja/162
Forum topic with discussion:
Here’s mine…
As a company who did realtime previs in both Source and Unreal, I would actually rate Unity as probably more suited to the task… However…
Archviz artists normally don’t know how to bake, don’t know how to UV Unwrap, etc etc. In order to get some stunning scenes without rendering, you need some quality baking skills.
The amount of scriping knowledge required is minimal, but I think the biggest issue would be that archviz companies won’t normally have people who can model efficiently.
Hit the nail on the head there. In my experience Unity is perfectly suited for realtime archviz… once you have a nice optimised model and bake sets. In the last large archviz job I did in Unity I reckon I spent 90% my time on preparing the models, poly stripping, UVing and baking. 10% actual coding. The application had a massive database driven object placement system in it, so it wasn’t simple coding!
Cheers.
Or you can use SketchUp Pro which imports AutoCad files to build low poly models in, and LightUp to create lightmaps and export to Unity.
May not be perfect but way cheaper, and way, way faster.
I find it to be solid for architectural work, I’m still in the process of finding what my limits are in terms of what is needed to get the best visuals out of it in terms of performance/look/turnaround time.
Here’s one of the better looking tests that I’ve put together in learning:
Project Descriptive Blurb: Sunday Sketching, 11-2 and DirectLink
I’m working out quite a few of the “workflow” issues that is preventing it from being tatoforever’s “1 click solution”, Or more accurately an artist friendly solution, but its definitely on its way !
That’s very nice, Dave. Wondering if you’re doing the Palestra next
Casa do Mestre Vitalino - Master Vitalino’s house
http://www.casadomestrevitalino.com.br/casa/
by www.caju.nu
I am currently looking at developing a prototype to test the design of a Healthcare Facility. Basically the end-user would virtually run through different day to day processes within Unity to test the design.
I am having trouble trying to get my Revit model into Unity. The current workflow that I am using is Revit export of a DWG file → import it into 3ds Max Design and saved as a .max file → import the .max file into Unity 3D. The problem that I am having is that I am having trouble getting the textures to transfer through the entire workflow. (I have also tried the export an fbx file from revit directly to Unity and I have had similar problems.)
I see articles like this one; Welcome to my home: first attempts at using Unity3D for architectural visualization | Arch Virtual VR Training and Simulation for Education and Enterprise, that make it sound very easy.
Has anyone experimented with a similar workflow? Any feedback would be much appreciated.
You should try export to FBX from revit directly, unity get FBXs, so save one middle step, and every time you do changes in revit, just export and re-write the FBX, it will get updated automatily