thankyou, white paper and video

[phillip@esperient]

Hi all,

 

Over the last couple of months I have been looking closely at how real time 3D apps fit/don't fit into arch viz workflows. Without doubt one of the best resources available to anyone undertaking this type of research is the community and the forum here in CGArchitect. So firstly - everyone thank you very much for both the private feedback and the posts and information on record here.

 

A first output of the process is that today, we posted a short white paper on using our real time viz software, Esperient Creator as part of the arch viz process and there is a video that illustrates some of the points in the paper. For those interested the whitepaper can be found here:

 

http://www.esperient.com/images/stories/PDFs/whitepapers/EspArchVizJan2009.pdf

 

and the video is up on youtube:

 

 

If anyone has any questions on product/tech in the paper or vid please post them in real time thread since i think that is the most appropriate place on the forum..

 

cheers,

 

Phillip

 

www.esperient.com

Edited January 30, 2009 by phillip@esperient

[Peter M. Gruhn]

I quite strongly disliked the AO settings in the video and worry about the lies it seems to tell. Of course, I don't have to press that button ;-)

[phillip@esperient]

Hi Peter,

 

I actually agree on the AO setting in the video it is too high and the resultant shading is far too strong. Creator has a screen based ambient occlusion shader which executes in real time. Below is a quick snapshot from the the same scene with a slightly better SAO value. I'l see if we can correct this in the video if we have time, when I'm back in the office over the weekend.

 

In the meantime what I will do is modify the downloadable demo so you can control the screen based ambient occlusion amount dynamically with a slider and that might give a better feel for what we mean. Once the demo is up I'll post a link, in case you would like to play.

 

thanks for the comments and feedback

 

best,

 

Phillip

[phillip@esperient]

Hi - an updated version of the demo incorporating a slider so you can dynamically set the screen based ambient occlusion settings can be found here:

 

http://www.esperient.com/images/stories/demos/SampleScenes/AD_House/AD_House.esp

 

to run the sample app you will need to install the Esperient Viewer which is available from here:

 

http://www.esperient.com/publicdownloads/SetupEspViewer.exe

 

To navigate around the house, use Arrow keys or LMB and mouse to navigate, shift arrow keys to look up or down. To access shaders effects click on Sketch Menu

 

Cheers,

 

Phillip

[nige777]

Hi, and first off thanks to the guys at esperient - creator is becoming quite the giant killer in it's field - watch out Virtools and Quest3D!!!!!

 

Secondly I would like to know why real time technology gets such a slating on this forum?? I am sure people have valid reasons for their negative responses, but quite often what I read here sounds like sour grapes from guys who make a living from waiting for the rendering to finish!

 

Don't get me wrong I am aware that this technology is still in it's infancy, I've just finished a degree Architectural Visualization and have just embarked upon a PhD into augmented reality in arch design, but I remember not so many years ago when the use of GI was scoffed at because the real skill was in rigging the lights - (remember the e-light max script??).

 

Time moves on - and so does technology, we should embrace these new technologies and work-flows, as once they matured sufficiently, and hardware has developed sufficiently to make them 'usable' in an everyday sense, they will undoubtedly become just another tool in the visualizers palette.

 

Sorry if this sounds like a rant - although i suppose it is - this is a great forum with a fantastic community - keep up the good work.

 

Regards

[esperientben]

Release of Esperient Creator 3.7 and Esperient Creator Enterprise

 

New features make 3.7 faster to run and easier to use.

Enterprise version includes support for Motion Tracking, Stereo, Networking and Sockets

 

 

Ramona, CA – May 08 2009 - Esperient Corporation (“Esperient”), a pioneering developer of 3D authoring tools for interactive 3D visual computing applications, is pleased to announce the release of Esperient Creator 3.7 and Esperient Creator Enterprise. Coming six months after the release of Creator 3.5, this latest release contains dozens of improvements and new features, most of which are designed to make the software easier to use and faster to run. Principal new features include:

 

- Smart Objects™. Dozens of new drag & drop re-usable components have been added including Smart Objects™ for Navigation, Cameras, Lights, UI Elements, Game Content, Material Changers, Sketch shaders, Locators and boat controllers among many others.

 

- Glass Shaders. Now include colored and translucent shadows through glass, drag & drop handling of real time reflections and refractions, and cubemap refraction calculations.

 

- Unified most popular shaders. Rather than having separate shaders for all feature variations, features such as bump-mapping can be turned on or off as needed.

 

- Many new API functions and Scene variables.

 

- All new editor transformations. This allows the movement of huge objects (million plus polygons) within the editor without delays.

 

- Launch of Esperient Creator Enterprise which includes all of the new functions added to version 3.7 plus support for Motion tracking, Stereo Displays, Networking and Sockets.

 

Commenting on the new release, Ben Vaughan, CEO of Esperient Corporation, said:

 

“Release 3.7 represents a continuation of our mission to remove the barriers to adoption of interactive real time 3D software by developing an easy-to-use product. The inclusion of dozens of our Smart Objects™ that allow simple drag & drop of re-usable components will make it far easier for new users to develop applications very quickly.

 

“We are also taking this opportunity to introduce an Enterprise version of the software which is aimed at larger companies that wish to use more specialized features such as Motion Tracking, Stereo Displays, Networking and Sockets. The Enterprise version will cost $2,400 per license.”

[Hedayet]

i m always interested in new products........specially realtime.....but i have some easy nd stupid questions............

 

01. as this is concerning about architectural visualization........ scale is an important factor..........for example i m using metric system for modeling in 3ds max........or some one using imperial system........what type of unit system EC support........?

 

02. I still largely depend on light maps........i found many engines featuring dynamic light/shadow............but practically they can not be used on the whole scene, only on some moving objects..........some engines offer some kind of environment system but its still very poor comparing light maps baked from v-ray (except: cry engine/dunia engine)..........does EC have this type of environment/weather system?..............i want 2 export both the base map nd baked map with 2 different map channel, is it possible? can EC combine the base map with the light map?

 

03. i m currently using 3ds max 2009........can i import 2009 models?

 

04. i often use revit models........does EC support revit models..........though revit models r unnecessarily heavy for visualization purpose............

 

05. does EC publish executable file directly (like ouest3d) or need to use a compiler such as visual c++ (like virtools)

[esperientben]

Hi

 

Sorry for the delay in replying but I had to do a little research to double-check everything:

 

1 Creator uses a generic unit system- you can import whatever system/scale you wish- the only thing that could be affected by extreme scales are a few default settings, which can easily be changed

2. yes, there are several sample scenes showing this- it allows the Diffuse map to be changed during run time or tiled without affecting the lightmap

3. yes, the Max DCOM allows you to bring in models directly from Max2009

4. fbx directly from Revit2009 is NOT supported (won't open in DE). The suggested workflow would be fbx from Revit into Max, then into Creator as a Max file

Max2009 is well supported

5. You can publish to exes easily and directly

All the best

Ben