realtime interactive walkthrough

[phildlight]

YOu can dristribute your model all you want and if your client has the game they can open it. That cost like what $35?

Yes, but can you imagine that explanation?

client: Hi, I got your cd. What do I need to open this again?

me: Oh, the game unreal tournement.

client: Oh, Ok, I'll go get it

2 hours later

client: Hi, I got this unreal tournement thing, there is a lot of violence in the introduction, is this correct?

me: oh, yes, that's right. It's a bit gorey. Just load that cd I sent you as the level in the game.

client: Don't ever call me again!

[Da_elf]

exactly

[jhiler]

Currently HKS writes all of their own plug-ins for exporting of the model from MAX/Sketch-Up/Revit and importing into Unreal.

They also write all of the interface so that the gore and guns do not pop in automatically. Also contained within this interface is the ability to toggle between 'ghost' mode and actually walking around. And depending on the project there are other triggers programmed in for doors opening, etc...

Also at this time Vray textures can not be baked for use with Unreal because you lose the light maps. Once they figure out how to bake those light maps for use in Unreal the quality will jump tremendously. They bake standard textures and add lights in through Unreal.

As for the architects and clients disliking the product, that is not entirely true. True there are some limitations like mikeeee2 said in that you fake your reflections or just drop them completely, but a lot of the architects and clients will take a not so high quality render/model to be able to run anywhere and see what conflicts are occuring and what that view from the seat in the corner will be. Currently they do not hand out models to clients, it is mostly used as a design tool and for presentation purposes.

Mikeeee2, Owen says hello.

[phildlight]

if memory serves (which it seems to be failing more and more lately ) the unreal engine is somewhere in the realm of $250,000.00 USD? Or was it $25,000.00 USD? One of those, but at any rate, if you look at engine plus development plus each project's time? I find it hard to believe that you could turn a buck with it for quite some time. IT would take quite a lot of walkarounds to make money. I gave up for those reasons.


EDIT> just found it. $350,000.00 plus 3% royalties on all revenues. Like I said. If they are using Unreal, then they have to be really in the hole.

[mikeeee2]

Hey Jerry!

I didn't give out any "trade secrets" Did I? I only tried the one project like 16 months ago and decided to leave it to the big boys.

It is a hell of a tool if you have the time to learn it or the deep pockets to develop the workflow so it is near automatic. ANd once the texture baking of the v-ray materials it will be sweet!

As for happy clients.... Are they ever truly happy? THey do enjoy a good FRAG at the end of the presentation.

Owen meet at the sanches for a beer!

[jhiler]

Hey Michael. I'll send Owen your message, he is trying to get on a plane at the moment. And no, you didn't give out any trade secrets. I'm sure you would have heard from the powers that be if you did. They're watching.... they're always watching....

I'm honestly not sure what has been worked out and I'm not qualified to speak on it any more than what I've said. I've only worked with it for a project or 2 on model creation/conversion and such not the paper work side.

A good frag is always a nice way to end a presentation.

[phildlight]

jhiler, did you look at project offset? Their engine is doing some really really nice stuff. Of course, you need a very spiffy machine to run it, but it is running on current gen hardware, and looks really nice. I doubt their licensing it, though, as they haven't even released their title yet.

[jhiler]

No, I'll look into that. Finding free time to try and learn everything I want to learn just doesn't happen. Plus my fiancee would kill me if I spent any more time on the computer than I already do.

I looked at Quake a few years back, but never got a chance to really try and figure anything out because I'm not a programmer and a lot of it is well above me. I know one of my old professors was using Quake for their attempt at real-time environments.

I believe Spine3D used the quest3d stuff, but I could be mistaken. I saw a presentation that they did and one of their walk throughs I thought used it.

[dbuchhofer]

the unreal engine for non-games use isn't so bad actually, they dont have a set price, but its CONSIDERABLY lower than the for-cd-distribution price. especially without a full source licence.

you can also work in the form of Mods for totally free, with the only caveat that the client computer system trying to run the app needs to have a copy of Unreal

Quest3d is a good/easier alternative, and comes with various *defined* pricing points. (you wouldn't believe how much of an issue that is with this interactive space. heh!)

I personally use virtools, but in the past few years they've revised their publishing models so to not be feasable for architectual work sadly. as its a nice engine interface to build around.

[posterus]

just found it. $350,000.00 plus 3% royalties on all revenues. Like I said. If they are using Unreal, then they have to be really in the hole.

yep sounds about right.
as far as being in the hole....the hks viz lab is extremely well funded. when i toured their offices they made sure to show me all their expensive toys. hmmm maybe thats why ILM wanted a piece of them
anyone know what archengine costs? i was told that they did such a nice job re-working the engine that the unreal ppl wanted to buy it back. i think they significantly increased the number polys you can bring in or something along those lines.
-joe

[percydaman]

The makers of the Nicklodeon show "Lazy Town" are using the unreal engine for their latest season. Apparently it works pretty good. They have the backgrounds all using the engine and pipe it into their film box (DVS I believe) and shoot their footage in front of it. Major fun stuff.

[phildlight]

I love that show! Well, my daughter loves that show, and so I've come to actually sort of like it too.

That's an interesting workflow!

[percydaman]

I haven't been on location (its shot in iceland) but I know the director of photography. They have one of the coolest setups in the biz. Shot in full HD, and they get realtime keying in front of those realtime backgrounds.

[phildlight]

I think one of the reasons I like that show is the background art. It's great stuff, and I always thought that "airship" was a vray animation! Very nice quality in their production. It shows. It's a great show for a lot of reasons. Magnús Scheving seems like he has great intention for the show. He seems like he really cares!

THanks for the info. That's neat.

[percydaman]

Magnus is a very interesting character. I have a very long winded story about him, that sums up his entire personality. And the previous season was done totally in Maya.