srv4u Posted July 15, 2003 Share Posted July 15, 2003 Ive read some posts about people using 3d game engines and saw a lot of hesitancy was the coding and getting stuff omitted like a player carrying a gun, looking in a mirror and seeing some muscle guy,etc. I want to let you know about reality factory.. http://www.realityfactory.ca/html/. This would be a great all in one tool for realtime visualization. its free(open source) and its basically a "wrapper" for an older engine. genesis 3d. the rf crew have brought it up to dx 7 standard though, so graphically it will do just fine. Everything is customizable, it uses .ini files that you change to customize to your liking. Example: it has a "game style" menu when you start it up by default... new game, options, debug, etc. All you have to do is create a new menu and change the names in the .ini menu. This would be great for clients because you could personalize the project for the client. You can put the clients logo or a 3d rendering of the project, right on the menu before they wak into it in realtime. it supports .avi files so you could make a personlized fly around or animation for the client to put at the start of the project. It has environmental 3d sounds. you could have the sound of traffic in the windows as they walk through the house or birds chirping if its a non city environment. It has a scripting language of its own so you can script certain things to happen. It has a trigger system so if the client walks into the living room you can have trigger play an animation of an entertainment center come form the wall(just a wild idea). it has a moving platform entity, so if its an office building your designing...elevators could bring them to each floor. Well this post is long enough, but enough to get you started. The possiblities are awesome. if anyone has questions about it please post here and i will try my best to answer them. Thank you for your time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NEVIANS Cedric Architect Posted July 16, 2003 Share Posted July 16, 2003 thanks for info ... just see the price of pro version ... i look that ... thanks again for info ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
srv4u Posted July 16, 2003 Author Share Posted July 16, 2003 the reason there is a price for the pro version is for daocumentation. Its the exact same engine as the free one, but pro includes printed manual, a 250 page ebook, tutorials demo levels, etc mostly for support. http://www.realityfactory.ca/html/ this should bring you right to the community site where you can download it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plastic Posted July 16, 2003 Share Posted July 16, 2003 well, how do i get geometry and maps from 3ds max into that engine? i played around with vrml97 and the cosmo player...it works but there are ugly edges between lightmaps... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
srv4u Posted July 17, 2003 Author Share Posted July 17, 2003 i think there is a .map exporter for 3d max. If there is you can use this to get your level to rf as ity imports .map files. Also using the included actor studio( which is the format it uses to put in objects, like couches lamps beds, etc.) It imports .max files straighht from 3ds max. Hope that answers your question Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ICO88 Posted July 17, 2003 Share Posted July 17, 2003 I toyed with genesis and rf awhile back fast and fun but a little old and outdated now. Quest3d is the realy the best solution for realtime archtecture as it is a modern game engine geared towards architechs. Download the countless demos and examples and see how an archi presentation could be made(easily actualy) Wild tangent wich is an ofshoot of genesis had some games wich came bundled friends hp computer. they looked crisp and played smooth and were fun. Engines are gettin pretty insane nowadays. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ICO88 Posted July 17, 2003 Share Posted July 17, 2003 one last thing you wouldnt use actor studio to get youre geometry in to rf its for skined meshes. and the 3ds to map exporter is highly unreliable and would not be able to handle the geometry of some of the designs i see at cg architech without much frustration. You would have to model everything in a level editor like worldcraft. I used to search high and low for an indy engine that could take my dfx and 3dsmax and x files straight from a pro modeler like max and the only low cost sulution was quest3d Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
srv4u Posted July 17, 2003 Author Share Posted July 17, 2003 actually actor is the only way to get a model in rf besides .map file. The act studio it comes with imports the body (.max)which is essentially the mesh, then the materials.It also imports the motion files for animations. Milkshape is a great secondary tool that exports directly to rf. It costs $20. You can import your .3ds file from max then export directly to rf.Whenever I mention genesis 3d the answer aways comes back that its outdated. this is understandable, but the rf community has in the last year updated the drivers and various engine features and presently within the last 2 weeks the lead programmer is discussing building his own engine up to modern standards using th rf wrapper. This will still be free. As far as outdated goes an engine is only as good as the user. If the artist is great at design, this will come out in the engine whether it be genesis or unreal engine. Im sure clients are not too concerned with polygon level collision, ragdoll physics and an updated weapons warfare system. So if you can design rf is perfect for you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ICO88 Posted July 17, 2003 Share Posted July 17, 2003 I think Genisis is cool and the games made with it are awesome also but if youre an architectual designer why go to all the trouble converting this and that and this. Realtime CG is hard enough as it is. you want to waste as lesstime as possible converting and using different tools. Idealy you want to go from autocad/viz/max right into the engine. Now Im not a modeler Im here cause I want to learn archi modeling but if someone gave me a model I would in a weeks time be able to create a full realtime presentation in a weeks time. were talking title screen stereo sound full interactivity different rooms/sections user interface ect ect real time movement and dynamic caemeras ect ect. This would be a standalone product that a client could take home and "play" on there home pc I used some of rf features as a template for som of my expirements. rf is great software with cool people who use it Quest imports DFX directly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
srv4u Posted July 18, 2003 Author Share Posted July 18, 2003 Ill have to check out quest 3d. do you need c++ programming knowledge or do they have template style movements? You should download the new version of rf and give it a whirl, im sure quest 3d is awesome but ease of use might have to go to rf. Thanks for your responses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ICO88 Posted July 18, 2003 Share Posted July 18, 2003 RF hasnt changed much since it ofshot from genesis. with quest you use a flow chart like visual programming language with templates and youre own custom made channels. Even with rf though you eventualy need to know programming fundementals to realy get some juice out of it with quest you just dont have to script no errors but the visuals should be what sells you rf just does not compare to quest. the visual punch quest has is first rate. Quest is by far the easiest engine to work with. Download the demo and if youre 3d cards tough download the 3dworld magazine contest winners and all the other demos. I think this product is of high commercial value. I would love to work with a modeler to make a buisness of Realtime visualizations with quest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
srv4u Posted July 18, 2003 Author Share Posted July 18, 2003 can you have the same visual punch with the lite edition($89)? I noticed it has a shadow addon. does it not shadow with the lite edition? Just curious. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ICO88 Posted July 18, 2003 Share Posted July 18, 2003 Yup the rendering engine is the same and aside from arrays(only full pro game/sim developers would need them anyways)the lite version is fine. keep in mind from an archi visualization stand point realtime shadows for any engine are to be avoided as they take up processing power. You would more use pre calculated lightmaps(wich quest can make or lightscape or any modeling tools have texture baking now)this saves power to push geometry and and other effects. And best of all you can use lite commercially. One thing I missed from RF was how fast it did its lightmapping(although it didnot look near as good as quest). Pre calc lightmaps look just as good as real time if not better. Think about it does a building realy move that much. My prediction is one day theyll be a quest 3d forum on this site. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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