Search the Community

3D Model of the Capitol District TownePlace Suites Created in Unreal Engine to Speed Up Design Process and Give Designers More Freedom CHICO, Calif. – April 6, 2021 – Creating the look and atmosphere of a new hotel is a complex undertaking, with every design decision needing to be weighed and approved. The TownePlace Suites in downtown Nashville was no different, so design and development team The Gettys Group turned to visualization experts Theia Interactive to help give it an advantage. In response, Theia created a fully rendered, high-quality 3D build of the hotel in VR, giving the designers the ability to walk its virtual halls and make design changes on the fly – saving time and money. “Building a high quality 3D model in VR, The Gettys Group was able to save a huge amount of time without sacrificing anything – in fact, it actually gave them more options than ever before,” said Bill Fishkin, president and co-founder of Theia Interactive. “By taking advantage of new technologies like VR and game engines, we can provide designers more flexibility at a fraction of the cost, changing how hospitality design is done.” Using Unreal Engine and its Optim collaborative template, Theia created a scale model of the Marriott International’s TownePlace Suites, focusing on the lobby, guest rooms and common area, along with a rooftop bar. The hotel – which opened in Nashville’s Capitol District in October 2020 – includes 204 suites and studios, a 50-person meeting space, an outdoor courtyard and several other amenities, including a rooftop bar. The virtual model allowed the designers to change every aspect of the look, including the furniture, the floor, the color of the paint and more. The model also featured dynamic lighting to show how things would look in daylight and at night. As the design came together, stakeholders had the ability to tour the 3D model remotely, either on their desktop or by putting on a headset and wandering around the model in VR. They could then leave notes for the designers, or even have full voice conversations with them in real-time, all without having to leave their own home or office. The designers also had access to a fully-equipped virtual planning space where they could collaborate remotely as needed (in or out of VR). The TownePlace Suites marks the latest in a series of collaborations between Theia and The Gettys Group dating back to 2017. Once the TownePlace Suites visualization model was complete, The Gettys Group reached out to hospitality management firm Big Little Fish and offered a virtual tour of the 4,500-square-foot rooftop bar. The group immediately saw the potential, and leased both a coffee shop in the lobby and the rooftop bar. They brought in chef Aaron Thebault, a rising star in the culinary world, and opened the fine dining establishment Zeppelin on November 6, 2020. "We had a strong vision for TownePlace Suites, and we knew from experience that Theia could relay our vision via real-time rendering,” said Ron Swidler, chief innovation officer at The Gettys Group. “The combination of Theia, CloudXR and AWS helped make our vision a reality, and it helped others, including our stakeholders and tenants like Zeppelin and Moonshot Coffee Bar, buy into the vision as well. We are thrilled with the outcome!" Theia will appear at GTC 2021 to discuss this and other recent projects. Fishkin, Swidler and NVIDIA senior manager of global business development XR Greg Jones, will deliver the session “Faster Approvals, Fewer Redesigns: Learn How NVIDIA’s Cloud XR and AWS Supercharge The Gettys Group’s Iterative Design Process.” The session will be released on April 12 at 4:00 p.m. PDT. About Theia Interactive Based in Chico, California, Theia Interactive is an immersive solutions studio and software developer, with a passion for building beautiful virtual environments for Enterprise businesses. Whether it’s virtual reality experiences, augmented reality demos or mobile apps, Theia tells engaging stories through virtualization. Theia has created award-winning projects for companies such as Epic Games, HP, Mohawk Group, NVIDIA, Suffolk Construction and Toll Brothers. For more information visit https://theia.io/.

Chaos Cosmos Offers Fast Path to Photorealism with Over 650 Drag-and-Drop Assets; Quickly Stage Visuals with High-Quality Content LOS ANGELES, Calif. – February 23, 2021 – Today, Chaos (formerly Chaos Group) launches Chaos Cosmos, a new 3D content system that reduces the process of staging interiors and environments to a few clicks. Highly curated, the library launches with over 650 free models and HDRIs that will address the most common use cases found in architecture and design, including furniture, trees, cars and people. Architects and designers can now test ideas more freely as they cycle between real-time visualization and photorealistic rendering. “Unlike other content, Cosmos assets are designed to work across the Chaos ecosystem, giving users a central way to add context and realism to any 3D visualization,” said Phillip Miller, VP of product management at Chaos. “For years, we’ve been working to connect our tools so visualization feels accessible at every stage of the design process. Now, that same interconnected system has render-ready assets on tap, making it even easier to bring rich details to a project, whether you’re working through initial concepts or finalizing the big reveal.” Cosmos assets can be found online or via a new button within V-Ray 5 for Revit, 3ds Max, SketchUp and Rhino. They are also optimized for Chaos’ real-time tools including Chaos Vantage and V-Ray Vision, so users can quickly assess scenes with high-quality entourage. Because of these optimizations, the assets naturally adapt to any tool they are in, increasing viewport speed without the need for setup. The initial batch of essential assets will always be free and were created with the help of industry-leading content creators like: ● Design Connected – A leading provider of furniture and accessories for interior design ● Hum3D – An expert vehicle maker ● Maxtree – Famous for their plants, trees, vegetation and foliage ● NoEmotion – Creator of high-quality HDR skies and environments ● Renderpeople – The world’s largest library of scanned 3D people ● VIZPARK – High-quality trees and plants Chaos Cosmos will continue to grow, incorporating a mix of Chaos and partner-driven assets to give architects and designers everything they need to quickly shape a design. Cosmos support is also planned for other V-Ray integrations, to be announced in the coming months. To browse the library, please visit: https://cosmos.chaos.com/. About Chaos Chaos is a world leader in computer graphics technology, empowering artists and designers to create photorealistic imagery and animation across all creative industries. Chaos develops 3D rendering and simulation software that is used daily by top design studios, architectural firms, advertising agencies, and visual effects companies around the globe. In 2017, the firm’s physically based renderer, V-Ray, was honored with an Academy Award for its role in the widespread adoption of ray-traced rendering for motion pictures. Today, the company’s advancements in ray tracing, cloud rendering, and real-time visualization are shaping the future of design communication and storytelling. Founded in 1997, Chaos is privately owned with offices in Sofia, Prague, Seoul, Tokyo, and Los Angeles. For more information visit chaosgroup.com

Full Spectrum of Visualization, from Real-Time to Photoreal Rendering, Now Available in Revit LOS ANGELES, Calif. – February 23, 2021 – Today, Chaos (formerly Chaos Group) released V-Ray 5 for Revit, bringing an intuitive mix of real-time and photorealistic rendering to the BIM workflow. With a real-time view into their daily Revit work, users can design with immediate feedback, before moving on to full photorealism with V-Ray’s final renderer. To help in all cases, V-Ray 5 for Revit also launches with Chaos Cosmos, a powerful new 3D content library tailored to the needs of architecture. “No one wants to start and stop when it comes to visualization; architects need constant access to push ideas to their full potential,” said Phillip Miller, VP of product management at Chaos. “With V-Ray 5 for Revit, that creative process can finally be unbroken. When changes are made, they’ll be reflected right away, giving architects an always-on view into how each idea is shaping up. This is a complete visualization solution from start to finish. And for many, it’s going to feel like a whole new world.” Real-Time Visualization with V-Ray Vision V-Ray Vision is an always-on viewer that updates in real-time, offering a high-quality representation of a Revit model as architects work. Encouraging fast, fluid design visualization throughout a project, V-Ray Vision helps users work through new ideas and client feedback from start to finish. Easy Entourage With over 650 free models and HDRIs to choose from, Chaos Cosmos reduces the process of populating environments to a few simple clicks. The highly curated library addresses the most common use cases found in architecture, including furniture, trees, cars, and people, for easy visualizations. Cosmos assets are automatically organized/categorized into native Revit families and categories. While a lightweight representation is shown in the viewport for faster feedback, the fully detailed object is always available at render time. Now, architects can add context and realism to a project, whether they are exploring designs in real-time or preparing them for the big reveal. Beyond Rendering The redesigned V-Ray Frame Buffer (VFB) now includes some of V-Ray 5’s most user-friendly features, making it easy to bring a personal touch to any rendering. With Light Mix, users can interactively change the color and brightness of any light without rendering again, creating multiple lighting scenarios from a single render. Image adjustments like exposure control, color balance and color corrections can also be added, replacing the need for external image editing tools. For extra control, render layers can be combined using the Layer Compositor to create more nuanced designs, or even saved as presets for later use. Other New Features in V-Ray 5 for Revit Include: ● New Sun and Sky – Improves accuracy across the board, including when the sun is near the horizon, right before sunrise and after sunset. ● Line Renderings – Give renders an illustrative look by adding linework with global contour controls and material overrides. ● Texture Randomization – Now easier to create subtle variations in textures and materials for added realism. ● Stochastic Texture Tiling – An automatic fix for repeating textures. ● Coat Layer – Gain extra reflections on polished or lacquered surfaces without using blend materials. ● Sheen Layer – Easily simulate fabrics like velvet, satin and silk. ● New Displacement Workflow – Displacement can now be applied to both native Revit and V-Ray materials. ● Dirt and Weathering – New controls for aging materials with procedural streaks have been added to the VRayDirtMtl. For a full feature tour, please visit the product page. Pricing and Availability V-Ray 5 for Revit is available now. A perpetual license is priced at $790, with upgrades available for $395. Term licensing is available at $350 (annually) and $60 (monthly). V-Ray 5 for Revit is also included in V-Ray Collection, an annual plan that gives users full access to 15 Chaos products and services for $699/year. About Chaos Chaos is a world leader in computer graphics technology, empowering artists and designers to create photorealistic imagery and animation across all creative industries. Chaos develops 3D rendering and simulation software that is used daily by top design studios, architectural firms, advertising agencies, and visual effects companies around the globe. In 2017, the firm’s physically based renderer, V-Ray, was honored with an Academy Award for its role in the widespread adoption of ray-traced rendering for motion pictures. Today, the company’s advancements in ray tracing, cloud rendering, and real-time visualization are shaping the future of design communication and storytelling. Founded in 1997, Chaos is privately owned with offices in Sofia, Prague, Seoul, Tokyo, and Los Angeles. For more information visit chaosgroup.com.

Hey i've recently created an arcvhiz project using UE4 game engine and i finally finished the video, i would love if you could give me feedback in what things i should improve or any general tips

Hey all, I have been working on a generator that turns a tileable bitmap texture into a PBR material. Initially I created this to convert my current models over to PBR materials for real-time work for unreal engine or export to GLTF. I also wanted a bit of extra control when it came to adjusting normals and other channels which then turned into building this little tool that runs in Substance Player. I was inspired by great applications like crazy bump but then it turned into something a little different - if you pay attention to the metallic settings in the first video. Sorry about the tinny microphone in the following video I have a few new things to buy as it seems lol. You can check it out here: Lots more updates coming soon

Hello guys, this is my first project on unreal engine 4 I hope you like it youtube.com/watch?v=7qF-Nh5-oYk [video=youtube;7qF-Nh5-oYk]

CL3VER, the cloud based platform for interactive 3D presentations, has announced the release of a brand new WebGL GPU-based real-time lightmap technology that will be available for users in the upcoming CL3VER 3.0 version. CL3VER 3.0 will add several game changing features that speed up the production workflow of cross platform interactive 3D presentations. The CL3VER 3.0 will be released March 11 and it will include: A brand new WebGL GPU-based real-time lightmap technology: By leveraging the performance of today’s GPUs within the artists workstations and laptops, CL3VER is able to dramatically improve the real-time lightmap rendering workflow. An improved importing system: to better support all compatible 3D formats, making the process to import models much faster. An improved UI to make the process of creating a scene and including animation and interactivity more intuitive. A new sharing system that enables project owners to quickly invite users to view, edit and collaborate on projects in a secure environment. Here is the link to the original news.

hi, I did a test of the new version of "real-time" engine Twimotion, rather a dedicated architectural viz. He eats lot of natives formats. suddenly importing from C4d model is fairly "easy". I had tried earlier versions but this one (TM3) is really more fluid. For this, I used a scene already rendered with Vray for c4d. >>Vray scene link it's not the same kind of render ​​... but ... I do not really master the craft ... and I think there's something fun there ... raw cut + adding vignetting in Premiere sequences. That results in the video (available in HD) ciao

We are pleased to announce the release of a new version of FluidRay RT real-time global illumination renderer. This is a huge update. New features: - Spectral Rendering. The rendering is done now on a per wavelength basis, producing much more realistic results. - Node library and Drag&Drop: assigning materials to objects, changing environment lighting, etc. is now done thru a super simple drag&drop interface, all in real-time. Nodes can be added to the library using Drag&Drop as well. - IES lights, Spot lights - Blackbody and arbitrary spectrum illumination - Realistic Metals - Participating media - Video Tutorials to get started - Speed Improvements & Bug Fixes You can try FluidRay RT now at http://www.fluidray.com/downloads You can find a series of FluidRay RT introductory videos at http://www.fluidray.com/help Nicola

I didn't see any news items on this, so I thought I would post. Lemme know if I missed an article! https://www.caustic.com/visualizer/index.html Works with standard max and maya shaders, mental ray shaders, and hopefully more. Also in Rhino. If people are interested, lobby for V-Ray support in Max and Maya too!

Studio/Institution: Pure3d Visualizations Germany - digital essences Client: Nord Est Aménagement Promotion Genre: Residential Exterior Software: 3ds max, Lumion3D, Photoshop Website: http://pure3d.de Description: I did this residential area for one of my clients from France. Like most times this one is rendered in real-time with Lumion3D so it was easy to do shots and also a movie which will be released soon on my YouTube channel. For a large construction sign the client also asked for a nice rendering. I didn't find Lumion suiteable for such distance rendering because I'm not very satisfied with the colors at the moment in Lumion (plus some other issues) compared to Leadwerks which rendered nicer lighting but doesn't have such powerfull movie creation tools. In an upcoming Lumion update there will be new tone-mapping so it will get better. But unfortunatly not for the Speedtrees which they use and cause me a lot of trouble and a bad look. [ATTACH=CONFIG]42979[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]42980[/ATTACH] The large overview was rendered with Mentalray at around 7800px resolution. I used the same scene like in Lumion but exchanged cars and trees to make it more CG like. I used a modellish theme for the overview so people driving by on the road can take a quick look on the sign and see how it will look later after the area has been build. [ATTACH=CONFIG]42977[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]42978[/ATTACH] This was around my 10th real-time project now but I'm glad to be able to work still on CG stuff hehe.

Studio/Institution: Pure3d Visualizations | digital essences Genre: Residential Exterior Software: 3ds max, Photoshop, Leadwerks Engine Website: http://www.pure3d.de Description: I'm happy to unveil the latest project Pure3d had in the works for the past weeks. We did a real-time visualization for a french architecture client. Our task was to deliver a solid interactive visualization which shows the final real estate look near the french town of "Warmeriville". Some elements needed to be directly shown like cyclling paths, little parc elements and of course the 80+ land sections. We did the source content for a movie and some pictures for print. Workflow differs from game-development using a game-engine for Viz. You work a lot more in the modelling application and export larger chunks of prepared models. Things like modular design can't be applied in most cases because you are bound to the CAD floorplans which need to be rebuild accurate. Pic: http://pure3d.de/gfx/echtzeit/warmeriville_web/parcarea_big.jpg Polycount and other "rules" for game-development don't need to be taken into account in some cases. This speeds up modeling but if a client demands an interactive visualization to pass it further to his clients you need to optimize the scenes like doing a game-level. Most times you have even to optimize more because architects are usually no gamers with high-end graphics software. In this case a movie and print-ready screenshots were the main task. Rendering was a blaze. With a source material of 4000px x 3000px per frame the whole movie rendered around 30 minutes and was re-scaled later to 1080p. CG renderers can't compete here in speed. The whole pre-viz stage was skipped because of the speed advantages too. If something was wrong with the fly-through, we just adjusted it in real-time. A partner did the final movie and sound. So what's the bottom line? The quality of the real-time solution relies heavy on the clients need and budget. Does he want to just sell land like in this case, or does he present large scale projects in the best possible graphical way? For complex requirements we have a lot more to offer with Leadwerks Engine. Walking and talking 3d people, driving cars (even the viewer can drive them), flying animals, more polies, fast movie rendering and a prooved production pipeline coming from game-development on up to 16 square kilometers terrains. So stay tuned for additional projects coming in a few months from our arch-viz department. Not to forget: Costs are around 60% lower using real-time. So we reach clients who would like animations for their projects but don't want to pay $ 300+ per second film. Plus they always get the realtime project so they can do new material on their onw or show their clients an "game like" look of their project. Pic: http://pure3d.de/gfx/echtzeit/warmeriville_web/streetview_big.jpg Links: YouTube (The movie) Website: www.pure3d.de