best way to have a 3d realtime viewable model?

V-Ray V-Ray for 3ds Max General
1

I have had a request from a client to have a model that they can rotate around and zoom in on, in real time, for a project I did. Does anyone know the easiest way to accomplish this? Does the QVR still exist or are there other, better, programs out there? Please advise.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Regards Peter.

2

QTVR works great for me for interiors, rotating about a point. Pano2QTVR also creates exteriors that you can pan around, but neither option is real-time walkthrough. For real-time walkthroughs you have real crap like RTRE. or nicer engines like Quest3d with templates that reduce learning curve, but you still need to bake lighting into textures. I am currently looking at the Source engine or CryEngine 2 for real time walkthroughs with real-time lighting, but developing a production pipeline for arch viz for these engines is time consuming.

3

Peter,

Autodesk just added FBX support for quicktime…and its pretty cool…works pretty well but still in its infancy so it does have limitations.

You can check it out here:

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=6839916

4

Thanks guys - I will look into that stuff. It’s funny though, now the contractor wants my model in AutoCAD format. I’m not sure what kind of look at the full building model they would really get with that?? Pretty bland, I would imagine.

Thanks again.

Regards Peter.

5

pshupe68, use DWF.

I’ve had great success with this. Like PDF but for 3d…kind of…well, not really, but by the sounds of it this would be best for your client.

Note - this is nothing like a DWG file, so don’t provide this as an option of an AutoCAD file, but it is a great option for sending a 3d file to a client for review…and it’s free for everyone…like pdf!

6

oh yeah, and it’s just a click of basically one button, not like having to setup a QTVR.

7

SV - thanks - So what viewer would they use? Autodesk Design Review? Others? I guess if they have AutoCAD they could open it, right?

Thanks again. That will probably be the way to go.

Cheers Peter.

8

There is a free viewer you can download from the autodesk site, from what I remember last time I did this.