I’m working in a walk-through of an interior space, I find that using the typical camera configuration (FOV) and playing with the out of the box options in Unity the feeling when you move in the space is of a really small and claustrophobic space. A typical feeling in a third person view but not ideal for ArchViz.
I was wondering if anyone has experimented with scripting options, scaling the scenes, cheats or camera options to create the sensation that the space is not as small as its looks.
There are several things that come to mind:
Original scene scale (in your 3D app) is very important to nail down right at the start else it will look and feel wrong no matter what camera tricks you use when working on the real-time version.
Make sure your textures and tiles are scaled correctly and proportionately.
Good shadow detail in your baked textures will help to “ground” objects so they look like they belong, it all adds to the illusion.
Set the correct Field of view on your camera. Try different settings, run around your level and see what it feels like.
Don’t allow the user to sprint around the area, slow it down, smooth it out.
Hope that helps a bit
Anim
A broad field of view will tend to give the impression of large objects at a distance, especially in combination with slow movement, as Anim suggested. A lot of distance perception comes from the changes in perspective as the view position moves sideways (people will often move their heads side-to-side to get a better impression of distance). A typical camera set up doesn’t take advantage of this, so it’s a good idea if you can work it in somehow. A physically controlled camera with momentum will drift sideways slightly after a turn, for example. Another good technique is to avoid rotating the camera object directly, but instead put it inside a parent object at a slight forward or backward offset. This will give some sideways motion of the view point whenever the camera turns.
If the movement mostly takes place across the floor (as if a person was walking around), then an impression of height can be given by using a slightly flat-bottomed view frustum. There is an explanation of how to make a camera projection oblique in this thread.
If an interior space is very large (like a cathedral, say) then a small amount of fog will actually look quite appropriate, since distance tends to desaturate colours slightly. You can imagine the result you will get if you overdo this, though 
Thank you for the feedback; definitely I will put to use the slow down on the user experience.
What will be the scale factor coming from SketchUp into Unity? I think my scale is right but I’m wondering if there is a table/chart or info with the conversion numbers based on the apps that you import your models from.
What FOV have you use on interiors? 50mm or 75 or 35?
55m FOV is about equal to human eye viewing…at least in C4D. And Unity seems to be the same. I usually drop the FPS CharacterController on the stage and then import my mesh and check the size by pressing play and seeing the model through the main camera which is set virtually at eye level…or so I think… I then use the fbx importer settings to scale the model to match the CC height of Main Camera. If I am going to import alot of objects to one scene I scale them in the app I use so that they import at the size to match the camera viewing height as equivalent to a six foot human. If you are baking textures it is best to scale properly in the app so ambient occlusion passes and the like are scaled properly an do not extend halfway down the wall from the ceiling for example. Also turn your move speed down as well as mouseX sensitivity. I usually set it so one mouse swipe across the viewport rotates me just a little beyond 360. The default sees to be about one swipe across viewport rotates the scene about 3 times.
HTH
Bluster T
I’ve been having a similar problem. A 3x3 meter room looks too small at the normal camera settings. Did you ever find a way to solve this?
1 Like