Interactive Walkthrough

[Exellite]

Hi,

 

I've recently been asked to make 1 for a client, not sure how to go about it. I know how I would LIKE to be able to do it but I'm not sure if its possible.

 

What I would like to do is setup the scene much like a game environment. So I model everything in max, render the whole area in vray, baking the textures to the model, then export the full model into something that will allow me to walkthrough using the keyboard or mouse to view any area I want, perhaps locking the camera into the room so it wont sudenly go outside or through walls if you get too close to any wall. Then I want that saved onto a CD or DVD and then ANYONE, whether they have max or not, can open something like an exe file and it will all load up and they can walkthrough themselves.

 

Is something like this possible? if so, are there any links to certain software and tutorials that I will need?

 

Thanks in advance for any help received

Mark

[alexthg]

I think there used to be a software called 'cadai' that lets you create & walk in realtime 3d environment (like playing quake / unreal). But can't seem to find it anymore (http://www.cadai.com). Anyone knows what happened to the site?

[BrianKitts]

your other option would be to do a series of quicktime VR's that are linked together. Once rendered out and setup properly it would allow the user to control the camera to look around and zoom into areas of a scene, and then you can designate active areas to move to different parts of the scene.

 

You would need a program such as VRworks to link the VRs together, but the process is alot easier then texture baking, exporting to a viewer and packaging for the end user.

[bjornkn]

I don't use 3ds Max,but you can probably export/render as a sphericalimage360x180 degrees? I do it in Lightwave 9.2.

Then you can easily link those together in JATC for a virtual tour in Java (or Flash) format.

You could also bake the textures, export to SketchUp (3ds) and let them use the free SketchUp viewer to navigate and walkaround inside (or outside) the model. Works fine for models that are not too heavy.

GoogleEarth may also be an alternative for exteriors?

And then there are lots of game engines around that would allow you to do it, but I think that best/smoothest results will always be had with lower poly counts.