Hi,
I’ve recently been given a proposal about doing some architechtural builds inside unity for an architechtural company (obviously). I have alot of experience with unity, but only on the coding side and not the ‘building’. Furthermore, I also looked at some UE4 projects and compared them with some Unity projects and the UE were alot more pretty.
I do prefer using Unity to UE since I’m much more confortable here, but I’m more and more inclined to UE.
Can anyone help me with some pros and cons (in this specific architechtural scenario)?
Also, if anyone could point me to some guides on this area, I’d greatly apreciate it (remember, I’m a programmer, this is sort of new to me).
Thanks in advance.
EDIT:
This is somewhat the process. I’m provided with a house blueprint in AutoCAD and I must build a house from it (in Max or SketchUp), apply textures, lighting etc, import it to unity and make an .exe (or as sugested, a web build) to the architech and get paid.
I have a degree on multimedia (although I excel at coding more then the other areas), wich gives me basic knowledge on all these areas, so after the third project or so, I should be pretty at ease making these things hopefully.
The quality of the visuals is the direct result of the artists talent not the engine.
Just thought I’d correct that wrong line of thinking.
I have no suggestions towards architectural development. Might consider partnering with a artist who knows how to develop for Unity.
I’m not in architecture. However WebGL would be a big pull for Unity for me. As far as I am aware Unreal doesn’t have a web platform. Allowing your client to share the visualisation on any computer with a web browser would be a big plus.
I would second this in the case of architecture. If we were talking about a game where efficiency was really important I’d be inclined that currently UE4 can probably get you the visual quality and framerate easier than Unity for PC. However, in an architecture walkthrough the “game” is non existent and it shouldn’t be difficult to achieve 60 FPS for walking around the architecture project. Either engine should give you the visual fidelity easily and that visual quality will be directly related to the quality of the artist.
What would you be actually doing for them? Does not sound a good idea for a programmer to switch to do an artist job unless you know you could handle it? I mean artists can pretty easily setup the visuals themselves.
When you say “builds”, does that mean they will give you the plans and you are suppose to make the 3D model yourself?
Also, whats their target platform? How powerful are the machines they would run this on?
Unreal does seem to find itself a little prettier than Unity out of the box, but here is a recent work for an interior done in Unity, it does have some asset store items used. [ArchViz] The Loft by JeyDia - Community Showcases - Unity Discussions , you can even download a build to walk around in.
Unity is very capable, and the artist will make the biggest difference on the final product, but lets face it if for example shadows from software X look better than shadows from software Y, the same artists work would look better in software X.
Taking part in similar work sometime, my advice to you would be this…
Make a basic model, play with lighting, get those simple scenes looking clean and beautiful. If you can do that to a good enough standard that you are happy with, then you should be able to repeat that with the final Architecture model.
Some things to look out for:
Linear Lighting (Deferred rendering, HDR Camera, comes at the cost of good AA though)
Post Effects (bloom, color adjustments, Ambient Occlusion etc), you can use Unitys default ones, but the store has some better alternatives.
Consider good modelling practices to avoid possible enlighten artifacts (light leaking)
Attached is a quick screenshot of a quick basic scene I made just to play with lighting, I have Scion Post effects, SSAO pro, enlighten realtime at the lowest quality settings.
Got ya. So its an artist job, not a coding one. You can learn art fast, or find an artist to work with, or turn down the job. Take your pick.
Engine choice is going to be less of an issue then learning all of the things a competent artist knows about modelling and textures and lighting and stuff.
Alright. I apreciate the input.
If anyone could point me in the right direction to learn techniques specifically designed to ArchViz, (to be used preferably inside Unity), I’d greatly apreciate it.
Will check that out later then to see how it is going. But Unity’s 2D engine is prety solid, its going to be hard to beat.
And you’re getting us a litle off topic lol
