Real time visualisation solutions

[Neilg]

The main reason I didnt go with crysis at the time was the export plugins were a bit shoddy and it was a bit messy getting anything done.


The official max/photoshop export plugins have been released now though... And this has been written up - http://doc.crymod.com/AssetCreation/...ile=index.html

Apparently it's also possible to mod the menu's in-game now, so I think i'm moving back to this.


I did try quite a few of these listed - but they just dont look good enough. And the ones that are getting there have a horrible interface and take ages to learn.

[duke2]

The main reason I didnt go with crysis at the time was the export plugins were a bit shoddy and it was a bit messy getting anything done.


The official max/photoshop export plugins have been released now though... And this has been written up - http://doc.crymod.com/AssetCreation/...ile=index.html

Apparently it's also possible to mod the menu's in-game now, so I think i'm moving back to this.


I did try quite a few of these listed - but they just dont look good enough. And the ones that are getting there have a horrible interface and take ages to learn.

Note that it doesn't have export plugins for Max 2009, only up to 2008.

[Subburb]

I'm an "old" Quest3D user...
but upgrade to 4.0 is far too expensive to me...

Another thing : virtools and Quest3D uses latest versions of directx, and needs a solid graphic card

As i'm making reatime archviz and wants it to work on every browser and both PC and Mac (and Iphone !), virtools, Quest and vertice and bad for me as they have limitations for massive web diffusion.

I've changed for Stonetrip Shiva, and don't regret my invest !
Works well, everywhere, and even on basic platforms..

Some demos from my own :
http://www.subburb.com/techdemos/techdemo2.htm
http://www.subburb.com/techdemos/techdemo1.htm

Shiva is a young product, but is promising...
Link to stonetrip : http://www.stonetrip.com

[Da_elf]

how good are the 3d game engines? with the appropriately baked objects could you use like a quake engine?

[andrewjohn81]

I'm surprised no one mentioned Autodesk showcase. It's not incredibly flexible, but the quality is good at least. It can handle data much better than others I've seen, but it's quite expensive.

[duke2]

I'm surprised no one mentioned Autodesk showcase. It's not incredibly flexible, but the quality is good at least. It can handle data much better than others I've seen, but it's quite expensive.

I just took a look at that and there doesn't seem to be much more than computer cases and 3d cars shown - do you know of anything more architectural done in it?

[andrewjohn81]

probably not. It was designed for cars. We do appliances mostly, so it works well for us. You can save camera paths and do walkthroughs though so i don't see why you Couldn't do arch viz stuff too. They might want to give someone a long demo of it to try and break into the architectural venue. Maybe try contacting them about it.
The only thing is it really doesn't work on anything less than the Quadro FX 4600. I could run it on my 3450, but couldn't do much. and I'd actually recommend the 5600. Our computers just didn't have a large enough power supply for that one.
I found it handled large data sets better than the other programs though. We had Dassault demo their software with a model we were extremely familiar with. It's engineering data, but Rhino handles it Fine in real time. Virtools choked on it though. Showcase runs it smooth.
I'm also not sure how shadowing would work in Showcase for architectural stuff. Maybe not well. you might have to bake textures from max....and then it kind of defeats the purpose of having such an expensive program. Showcase is probably better for product.

[beestee]

The official max/photoshop export plugins have been released now though... And this has been written up - http://doc.crymod.com/AssetCreation/...ile=index.html

Apparently it's also possible to mod the menu's in-game now, so I think i'm moving back to this.


I did try quite a few of these listed - but they just dont look good enough. And the ones that are getting there have a horrible interface and take ages to learn.

Any success with Crysis?

Unity3D seems to be coming up a lot in these discussions recently, but I wonder how complex it is to work with.

We are currently exploring the possibility of using realtime for some of our interior work. I feel that I have enough experience with realtime to make it a success, but I feel a little overwhelmed by the options available. I will probably be getting some trial versions to form a decision on, but I would like to refine my explorations a bit. There are a lot of choices listed here, but right now my short list is as follows:

ClickVR
TurnTool
Unity3D
Crysis

Cost will be a major factor. Simplicity and a decent base of peer support would be preferred. VRay interoperability is a plus. If you think I should add or remove one or two from this list I am open to suggestions and experiences.

[rmejia]

There's this upcoming one:
http://labs.autodesk.com/technologies/newport/

[Subburb]

I haven't tested unity yet, but i would like to add my actual realtime tool :
StoneTrip Shiva : http://www.stonetrip.com/

price is cheap for this powerful tool.

To my eyes, the best thing is its versatility : The same project can be viewed on mac, pc, linux, smartphone, iphone...
It works on major browsers, firefox, IE, chrome, opera, etc...

this point is really important to my eyes, if you need to show web3D content.
Was working on Quest3D before, but the directx only engine is limited to Pc+IE.. so it's better for executable content.

here are some demo (made fast) from my own using shiva :
Appartment demo :http://www.subburb.com/techdemos/techdemo1.html
exterior demo : http://www.subburb.com/techdemos/techdemo2.html

Last point : the team is very active on the technical forum, it's a real plus.

[skogskalle]

How much is it to get a license for the crysis engine? I imagine it wont be cheap...

The only one Ive tried on your list is Turntool, and this was a couple of years ago. On the plus side it was really easy to export a scene to it, and if you bake your lights and materials etc into textures you can light the scene with vray and get great results.

If you need dynamic lights/shadows etc in your VR-model i dont think TT is the best choice though. But maybe they have developed it some more since I used it...
/k

[beestee]

I wonder how close Newport really is. It seems like the perfect solution for an integrated workflow...but most of us are probably familiar with how loose that term can be when considering the integrated workflow between Revit and Max. Originating from Autodesk, it will probably need a commercial release or two to get the major bugs worked out.

I actually had a look at Shiva and at first glance it appears to be on the same level as unity but with a head start on the windows platform. Both seem to be pretty deep though. Since Unity is probably a little ways out yet, I may try out Shiva in it's place to see if that type of tool fits my needs, then compare it with Unity once the windows version is available.

Regarding Crysis, I just assumed that if one is able to buy a game that comes with an editor, dev tools, and the ability to share and load custom "maps" or "levels" then that would be that. I always viewed the licensing of a game engine to encompass only the situations when it would be re-packaged as a seperate stand-alone product. I really don't know where the line is drawn for this situation, but it would be good to know.

It is nice to hear that turntool is very simple and straightforward. My biggest hurdle in approaching this is going to be learning the new interface, and if the interface is directly in Max then I imagine it makes the process a little more comfortable.

EDIT: Got a chance to view your demos Jerome. Great work! Can't wait to try out Shiva now!

[skogskalle]

Not sure, but my guess is that you can only use gameengines and mod-tools for non-commersial work.

[RemcoNL]

I was wondering Chaos Group could be helping us to make a nice engine to us all users who are familiair with the exellent possibilities of VRay.

I do have a couple of years experience with Vray already and have tried before: Turntool, Quest, Wirefusion, VR4max, Autodesk Navisworks, Autodesk Design Review..... but nothing is nearby the quality of our VRay output.
I have a problem to give away/sell my beautifull VRay still's and also at the same time a low/other quality of a realtime interactive model who has not the suburb quality of the still's.

What do you think about that?

[Neilg]

What do you think about that?

If it's lighting quality, bake your textures with the vray lighting. You can get close to vray quality in any engine in some way, it just takes a lot of work.

If it's a straight up realtime vray you want, it's being made but wont run nearly as well as you hope (ie: give you something you can hand to a client) - it's more of a dev/artists tool.