Trick

Have a look at World Creator 2. It exports the terrain and all kind of maps/masks that you can use to scatter things around and refine in your favorite modeling/rendering app.

If you read the instructions with acc. images exactly, except for the fridge, they really did a good job for first concept! Now just ask the scene and do the rest yourself... Knowing they are from another country with another language, the next time you could be more specific (e.g. saying plan is final and contains exact material definitions and cabinet/appliances locations), and get a more exact concept the first time. Anyway, even without being a difficult client turning around some wishes, there is still a lot more to adjust, reading into the initial instructions. Keep in mind: working with foreign parties is a learning process for BOTH parties, and when done right, you both can benefit equally. So be realistic in your expectations.

Contact Chaos with this issue an you will have a solution within seconds ... A lot faster then reinstalling Windows, Max and VRay!!

Didn't know Pano2VR supports animations between panos. Thought it only does a zoom in on the next pano. The VR movies in the previous post can be rendered with PromenAdd too. You can even do VR movies straight from VRay 3 with stereoscopic support for Oculus. Like riding in a touring car while looking around. Render times are about the same as rendering in 4K.

I guess PromenAdd (http://www.promenadd.com) does exactly what you want with 3D renderings from 3dsMax, just like Matterport does with photos. It also includes the "animation" in between as rendered panos in configurable extra steps and even a lower resolution.

Really excellent work!! May I ask what software/hardware was used and how many people worked on the virtual part? From the looks of it you didn't use any RT software (Unity,Unreal,etc) Have you ever considered it? Do you think it could be a viable solution to get RT rotoscoping as feedback for actors and directors and the required pre-post output?

Given the facts that a lot of work went into this plugin and the pricing was not exactly to attract a lot of customers (that could eventually be disappointed), I guess their only intention was to sell this to Autodesk .... and that probably has happened now

Jan, I played with some 1M+ poly/100's of images scenes (imported from MAX over FBX) and TM didn't crash on me once and import was almost instantly. Nice touch is that you can chose all necessary FBX-files at once for import. Also it seems - although I did not investigate thoroughly - that more material values from MAX (glossiness, reflection, etc) are imported, which proves very useful with huge scenes and makes it a simple step from MAX to TM. I think TM is a good choice if you want to send your clients virtual scenes: there is a walk mode with collision detection, choice for time of day, a popup for chosing camera views and the same for chosing project phase. These things are lacking in the Lumion Viewer. After this short test period I also think TM handles large scenes with lots of lights and textures better; I never had a program stress my GPU fans more than TM

Some observations after trying the trial. Generally I love the standalone player. It's far more user friendly than Lumion's implementation. Also the material and layering system and the way you can add assets (people, cars, trees, etc) to the scene is better for handling large scenes. BUT: when it comes to quality there is still some miles to go: - Trees are ugly...too small leaves in particular and no realistic reaction to wind - Sky is ugly.... no volumetric clouds and almost no interaction with the sun/light - People are too dull: dark and dull colors, no customization - There is no possibility to add a luminous value to materials (very important!!): you can add a glow value (with or without texture value) but this will make the material tend to white (and glowing) while you just want to enhance ALL colors. I do a lot of shopping centers with textured shopping windows and it is almost impossible to make the textured geometry stand out - Reflection is additive which is unnatural: trying to make realistic water is nearly impossible. With additive reflection it is also impossible to make a white reflecting floor. If these issues can be solved I would use TM on my current project, but as it is now Lumion just has a better visual feel...also in the interactive standalone!!

How much of this time is spent on laying out UV's ? Or in other words: what would be the time difference setting up such a scene in Max/VRay or Max/UE (or any other modeler/renderer) for YOU ?

Hi Tianxiao, Wouldn't it be an idea to (also) save the iView-HTML structure locally so users can put them on their own servers ? That way you can prevent problems on busy servers and I can also leave the technicalities to my clients (if they wish). Thanks

Hi Tianxiao, Thanks for the info. Since I am mostly interested in the standalone features, can this be tested with the trial ? Another question about iView: I heard there is a 100MB free account for storing the views? What if I need more space and or more projects? Is there any information about cost and possibilities ? Thanks

Hi Tianxiao, Some questions: - Will phasing and/or layer switching on/off be available in the standalone ? - If layer switching in the standalone is available, will this include lights ? - When will v 2016 be available ? - Once for v3 some form of GI was planned. Is this available in v 2016 ? If not, is it still being developed ? Thanks

Showed this collection to some clients, and generally they like them. They all had the same issue with some of the sitting females: why would anyone would like to see bra straps on one shoulder ???

Yes, interesting indeed. However, the examples on your website do not show real interactivity. It is not possible to walk/stand where I want. It seems it's some sort of way to connect premade panorama's/animations/stills. Is it also possible to do real 3D virtual walking ? Any examples ?