Howdy,
I have an HCT Vive and am using Unity to create immersive 3D experiences.
I’m a new Unity User but an experienced CAD (Solidworks) user.
I need to create a VR environment of a small retail space like a convenience store or a Starbucks.
What are the pros and cons of creating this in a CAD program like Solidworks versus creating it natively in Unity versus buying it from TurboSquid / etc?
I’m pretty quick with Solidworks but don’t know if performance will suffer due to import geometry or if it is more difficult to apply textures/materials to imported stuff.
Any strategic advice would be welcome.
Thank you.
Dave
You have to optimize any models you port from solidworks. I mean, it makes manufacturing models so there’s literally zero concern for polycounts. On the other hand in a realtime environment with sexy GI, textures, vr and post effects you’re going to want models that are as simple as possible.
I’m not certain if you have optimization options built into sworks, but the guys at work never mention anything about it so I always advise people to just push it through Max/Maya and decimate the model until it’s usable. You’ll also need to UV map everything, which stipulates going through Max/Maya anyway, so…
You can use CAD, for sure, it happens all the time, you just have to push the content through the workflow to make it ready for production.
Also, from what I understand, you can add tags that cut things out of the sworks export or replace the model parts automatically with cheaper stuff. If thats the case, you can probably get close enough with sworks only, then just need to UV map the models.