Latest technology !

[ibrahimyounis]

Hi ,

 

Can some one help me please i want to know how to check the latest technology in the architecture field (AR, VR , 3D PRINTING , HOLOGRAM ....) and to be updated with its latest news .

 

Thank you / Ibrahim Younis

[Devin Johnston]

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=latest+technology+in+the+architecture+field

[ibrahimyounis]

Good one

[Jon Berntsen]

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=latest+technology+in+the+architecture+field

 

It might be possible to google it, but with all respect, I think it's pretty hard to find good results if you're not very specific in the search terms.

Ibrahim, you are asking for the latest news and techs in AR, VR , 3D PRINTING, HOLOGRAM's. The problem with all these, is that there are about a million different startups trying to make THE breakthrough in all these categories. That gives a lot of unfinished solutions with an unknown future. Not really something you'd like to invest big money in developing content for. It's a jungle out there.

 

I'll tell you what I know.

 

 

Hologram: We bought a hologram plate with our architecture in it several years ago. We got a cool gimmick out of it, but afaik latest tech still doesn't give very detailed and good hologram image, and it's certainly not really interactive as today's demands are (It's printed). If you are looking for interactive stuff (movies and things you can update yourself), you could look into one of those light & mirror hologram boxes. Or you could call the people who set up MJ's holographic stage image.

 

3d printing: Afaik, there are still issues with layering. I know there's been improvements in the materials you can print, but it seems like this hype where everybody suddenly could print their own furnitures and food has come to a (temporary) silence. You need to invest significant of money if you're aiming for a result without ugly layering, without that bad smell, and with fast print and dry/stiffness times. We have discussed it several times, but for our physical models, we are still using hand crafted ones. If you're printing white masterplan boxes and sites, you might have some luck, but I honestly don't see the big potential yet. And I do know that they are printing houses in China, but I can tell you that it's not gonna happen "quite yet" here in scandinavia.

 

 

VR: This is where most of the hype is going these days. But IMO this is what gonna happen the coming 1-3 years, in a certain degree. I think it's not going to overtake the existing needs for still imagery, but more as a supplement. People have less time for watching these things, they don't even have time for making proper dinner. So why should they spend time watching VR stuff everywhere. Not gonna happen. But there are rising solutions for direct exporting from CAD software to VR platforms, and this will certainly make a difference as soon as the consumer can get something constructively out of it. I believe this is the biggest concern right now. There's a lot of hype going on for us "behind it", but the customer/consumer has to learn how to really get results from it.

 

If you're developing a house for a client and the main functionality of your VR visual is to get feedback so that you can change the design to the better, then the customer would need a pair of VR glasses at home. Gear VR or similar will not be enough to make decisions on. You will need a realtime VR solution like VIVE, and you will ultimately need a 360 degree walking board, so that the customer can get a real interpretion of what they're about to decide. The general public will not have this at home use, then the customer will need to come to your office for taking a look at what's cooking with the design. Not really optimal. There's a lot of gaming people developing VR platforms, but almost everyone of them misses the real point, that it's not about coolness, but functionality. The customer won't buy stuff for coolness only. So for revising architecture drawings, I think it's a little useless (yet?). Your client has to pay significant money for getting content developed.

 

It's not that GOOD VR content is easy to make. It takes effort to make it realistic, or at least good looking with furnitures, use of lights, cameras and composition. But that's only a part of it. You need to render stuff in HUGE sizes, at least 12000x6000px. And speaking about noise... People are used to seeing noise in still images, but when they are using a HMD ("head mounted display" like Gear VR) they are looking at things as it was their own eyes. If you're aiming for good realism, you'll need to have "zero" noise. That doesn't come easily. This will need you to invest in a renderfarm or spend money on cloud rendering. Not small things, but I'd say you have to invest $30k, or let's say 200.000 SEK in render nodes to get your work delivered in reasonable times, and with such turnaround times so that you can get enough projects floating through the doors to get your bills paid. Just an estimate for the sake of example. If you're an architect in a small architect office with demands for a few renders a month, then you could maybe think a little out of the box, but remember that changes happens in designs often way too late. Luckily (or should I say unfortunately), when customers buy panoramic 360 VR content, they would order a couple of more interiors/exteriors than what they previously would, because you have to build the whole room anyway. So you need to render more than before.

 

Then take this to the next level, VR video. It's simply not gonna happen that architects are rendering these things from their workstations, (which relieves me a bit), and this is the real reason why I think VR might be a few years away still, for the mainstream use. (Because of the investments you have to do as a developer).

 

 

 

AR: I think VR is AR's real birth. We all know technologies have been around for decades, but again it's about usability and functionality.

VR has to find it's place first. Too early.

 

 

 

These are my thoughts, and sorry for not pointing out specific techs/platforms, because there are simply too many, and things are changing from day to day.

Edited August 21, 2016 by chroma

[johnniewalk]

At present, even you consider the interior designing as the latest technology in the architecture field.

[M V]

http://www.cgarchitect.com/

http://www.ronenbekerman.com/

http://www.evermotion.org/

 

These are first in my bookmark bar and I go to them every week.

[ibrahimyounis]

Thank you for your time and effort i appreciate , this info was more than enough

[beestee]

I think you have found an untapped market. I would love to find a news site that focuses on the intersection of architecture and technology. I just typically go to the sites tailored towards specific technology and keep an eye out for anything that might relate to architecture.

 

Here are some of my favorite tech sites that I check daily:

 

www.roadtovr.com

www.3dprint.com

www.theverge.com

 

You could probably go the other way as well and check on architecture news sites for articles on technology:

 

http://www.architectmagazine.com/technology/

[Francisco Penaloza]

It might be possible to google it, but with all respect, I think it's pretty hard to find good results if you're not very specific in the search terms.

Ibrahim, you are asking for the latest news and techs in AR, VR , 3D PRINTING, HOLOGRAM's. The problem with all these, is that there are about a million different startups trying to make THE breakthrough in all these categories. That gives a lot of unfinished solutions with an unknown future. Not really something you'd like to invest big money in developing content for. It's a jungle out there.

 

I'll tell you what I know.

 

 

Hologram: We bought a hologram plate with our architecture in it several years ago. We got a cool gimmick out of it, but afaik latest tech still doesn't give very detailed and good hologram image, and it's certainly not really interactive as today's demands are (It's printed). If you are looking for interactive stuff (movies and things you can update yourself), you could look into one of those light & mirror hologram boxes. Or you could call the people who set up MJ's holographic stage image.

 

3d printing: Afaik, there are still issues with layering. I know there's been improvements in the materials you can print, but it seems like this hype where everybody suddenly could print their own furnitures and food has come to a (temporary) silence. You need to invest significant of money if you're aiming for a result without ugly layering, without that bad smell, and with fast print and dry/stiffness times. We have discussed it several times, but for our physical models, we are still using hand crafted ones. If you're printing white masterplan boxes and sites, you might have some luck, but I honestly don't see the big potential yet. And I do know that they are printing houses in China, but I can tell you that it's not gonna happen "quite yet" here in scandinavia.

 

 

VR: This is where most of the hype is going these days. But IMO this is what gonna happen the coming 1-3 years, in a certain degree. I think it's not going to overtake the existing needs for still imagery, but more as a supplement. People have less time for watching these things, they don't even have time for making proper dinner. So why should they spend time watching VR stuff everywhere. Not gonna happen. But there are rising solutions for direct exporting from CAD software to VR platforms, and this will certainly make a difference as soon as the consumer can get something constructively out of it. I believe this is the biggest concern right now. There's a lot of hype going on for us "behind it", but the customer/consumer has to learn how to really get results from it.

 

If you're developing a house for a client and the main functionality of your VR visual is to get feedback so that you can change the design to the better, then the customer would need a pair of VR glasses at home. Gear VR or similar will not be enough to make decisions on. You will need a realtime VR solution like VIVE, and you will ultimately need a 360 degree walking board, so that the customer can get a real interpretion of what they're about to decide. The general public will not have this at home use, then the customer will need to come to your office for taking a look at what's cooking with the design. Not really optimal. There's a lot of gaming people developing VR platforms, but almost everyone of them misses the real point, that it's not about coolness, but functionality. The customer won't buy stuff for coolness only. So for revising architecture drawings, I think it's a little useless (yet?). Your client has to pay significant money for getting content developed.

 

It's not that GOOD VR content is easy to make. It takes effort to make it realistic, or at least good looking with furnitures, use of lights, cameras and composition. But that's only a part of it. You need to render stuff in HUGE sizes, at least 12000x6000px. And speaking about noise... People are used to seeing noise in still images, but when they are using a HMD ("head mounted display" like Gear VR) they are looking at things as it was their own eyes. If you're aiming for good realism, you'll need to have "zero" noise. That doesn't come easily. This will need you to invest in a renderfarm or spend money on cloud rendering. Not small things, but I'd say you have to invest $30k, or let's say 200.000 SEK in render nodes to get your work delivered in reasonable times, and with such turnaround times so that you can get enough projects floating through the doors to get your bills paid. Just an estimate for the sake of example. If you're an architect in a small architect office with demands for a few renders a month, then you could maybe think a little out of the box, but remember that changes happens in designs often way too late. Luckily (or should I say unfortunately), when customers buy panoramic 360 VR content, they would order a couple of more interiors/exteriors than what they previously would, because you have to build the whole room anyway. So you need to render more than before.

 

Then take this to the next level, VR video. It's simply not gonna happen that architects are rendering these things from their workstations, (which relieves me a bit), and this is the real reason why I think VR might be a few years away still, for the mainstream use. (Because of the investments you have to do as a developer).

 

 

 

AR: I think VR is AR's real birth. We all know technologies have been around for decades, but again it's about usability and functionality.

VR has to find it's place first. Too early.

 

 

 

These are my thoughts, and sorry for not pointing out specific techs/platforms, because there are simply too many, and things are changing from day to day.

 

Gish man, VR is not that bad now ha ha ha. I do get your point tho, and I think it is all because of media and much excitement with this new tech.

I work for a medium Arch Viz company and I am developing the integration of VR tool for designers here as we speak. I also agree with you on getting presentations as we see it in Unreal website take serious time, that honestly in an Architectural environment as you mentioned are way out of feasible.

But having said all these there are a few tools that fit pretty good. Tools such Irirs VR, it is literally drag and drop. You won't get Unreal quality but that's the strength of that tool, is exactly what an Architectural designer need during design period. Is like sketchup, you won't use to make CDs(well some people does but that's other theme) it is not BIM but still you can do a lot in very short time.

 

I think with all this VR fever people are easy to get exited and developers try to be the first to make more money, but because all of these we get very cool tools if you take time, plan your needs and manage your client expectations accordingly.

 

Of course depending of what area you work YMWV but really, there are software that can help you to sell or design your project right now that won't need such big investment.

 

To our friend Ibrahim, take this advice from an old timer

If you want to be successful in your profession, do not only read and learn things related to your profession. Just look around, learn about everything, because everything else will help you too. There are specialized websites that talk about technology as mentioned in this thread. But there are none called, tech for arch Viz, you may find info here and there but it is up to you to look for them. while you search for your answer you read a lot of other info too, and that believe me will help you any ways, sooner than later.

 

That's why we are here talking about VR in an architectural Visualization forum. VR was not designed for this, but still it fit perfectly for us.