VR Plunge

[glorybound]

I have had several requests this month for VR. What is VR to us? I mean, I know what it is, but how does it apply to architectural visualizations? Is a pano file seen through goggles VR. Do you have to freely be able to move through the scene for it to be VR? What equipment do I need? Can I do everything in V-Ray, or is this were Unity come in? I have created pano files for Google cardboard, is that VR?

[JezUK]

Short answer for me Bobby, is both.

Pano VR, and VR via something like Unreal, headset (like Oculus etc).

[glorybound]

So V-Ray for Unreal is the workflow? How the learning curve?

[francomanko]

If you have never used a game engine before, it can be a bit frustrating getting used to the nuances of unreal. Obviously depends on how interactive you want it to be. Getting models into unreal and being able to walk around is straightforward enough, most of time i found was in material conversion and setting up the models to get a decent light bake solution. I dont know how vrays integration is these days though....i dont know its expensive (sorry couldnt help myself) There are plenty of resources out there though.

Also bear in mind the size of the executable file isn't small, and they have to have the machine specs to run it on.

[JezUK]

Bobby, I totally agree with franco, my experience has been the same, i.e. bit frustrating.

I'd say there is a fair learning curve as it's quite a bit different, especially if you're like me and don't play computer games and aren't used to 1st person type keyboard controls

Getting models in is fairly easy, the materials as well are not too difficult also.

I simply found the lighting the biggest issue and for most of my interiors (commercial), reflections off glass partitions has always been the major issue, basically reflections everywhere (is not good for Unreal).

For residential it'd be less of an issue.

Back when I tried it, there was a new Unreal converter, called something like Datasmith which I eventually got to work (it didn't like Kaspersky....) and was supposed to make importing of v-ray scenes easier, but from what I've seen of V-Ray for Unreal, things could now be even easier than that.

But I still believe where you have lots of glass partitions that is where I'll keep hitting the wall....

I'll certainly revisit it again though because I too get asked for this.

[glorybound]

I think clients are hearing about it, so they are interested. I think them having to invest in hardware and software might be a deterrent. I installed Unity, but I got many errors, so I uninstalled it. I think if I do go this route, it might be teaming up with someone who has figured everything out. Why the interoperability isn't there yet, I don't know.

[francomanko]

Unity should work fine, although recently in my experience they have gone down the route of trying to add new features to encourage the user base at the expense of stable code and adequate testing, had lots of issues on a game i was working on recently, always having to update unity for a fix only to find something else broken. Currently their baking system is awful. Teaming up is probably the way to go, I just dont know if the mainstream client would be willing to pay for the effort.

Im happy to help in anyway i can, although will need to dust the cobwebs off unreal