Epic Wants Architects to Use Unreal Engine as a Design Tool

[cageymaru]

Epic is ready to unleash their Unreal Engine upon the architectural design community. Using visual tools, architects can convey ideas to customers by showing them the exact structures that they envisioned. When VR is added to the mix, customers can stand in the middle of a structure and see how lighting affects the model for example. Thought a statue out front of the stadium was a good idea? Drop a virtual statue there, scale it up to the exact size you wish, and see how it works visually and emotionally in the area. Scale models cost a lot of money to create and they take up even more precious space in a design studio. Drawings are 2D, and can't compare to a scale model or VR presentation. By being able to show clients in VR what the architect's ideas are for a home, business, etc; lots of time and money can be saved. If a design element just seems out of place, then it can easily be changed in Unreal Engine without costing the customer or architect a penny. Here is a video from Fabrice Bourrelly who is scheduled to be an integral part of the webinar demonstration.

The company is planning four free webinars with the first one kicking off April 2. That event will feature architect Fabrice Bourrelly, who will go over some of the reasons to use Unreal for architecture. Register for the webinar here.

“Using models of Philip Johnson’s Glass House and Tadao Ando’s Church of Light, Fabrice will illustrate how Unreal Engine brings the emotion, mood and atmosphere of offline-quality rendering to the real-time, immersive and interactive experience of virtual and augmented reality,” Unreal community representative Chris Ruffo wrote in a blog post. “Fabrice is an architect, artist, and 3D visualizer who has become a leading user and teacher of Unreal Engine over the past year. Fabrice’s client list includes Google, IDEO, Thomas Heatherwick, Anish Kapoor, Bentley Motors, and Philippe Starck.”

 

[arnemetis]

This is where it's always been headed, I was saying this at least 13 years ago early in my architecture studies (ten year anniversary of graduation this year I guess.) You used to have workers at drafting boards, then CAD monkeys. Now things are in 3D all the time with Revit and other BIM software, virtual reality will be the next step to be used extensively. This can be dangerous, as the client can now complain if something doesn't look exactly right, now that they've seen a perfect version of it that doesn't account for human hands putting it together...

 

[lcpiper]

Reminds me of something I want.

I want 3D printed miniatures of my server room equipment with little equipment racks that allow me to stack equipment in the racks, color code them for different purposes, label them, etc.


Orrr..... just make them snap together like Lego blocks

 

[-=SOF=-WID99]

will some one PLEASE remind them MAKE A GAME ! that shows off this engine to look that nice ..or will they just end like crytech ?

 

[Quartz-1]

So, not having watched the video, can you import AutoCAD et al into Unreal?

 

[Spidey329]

This is where it's always been headed, I was saying this at least 13 years ago early in my architecture studies (ten year anniversary of graduation this year I guess.) You used to have workers at drafting boards, then CAD monkeys. Now things are in 3D all the time with Revit and other BIM software, virtual reality will be the next step to be used extensively. This can be dangerous, as the client can now complain if something doesn't look exactly right, now that they've seen a perfect version of it that doesn't account for human hands putting it together...

Yeah, a startup I was working with was experimenting with using CryEngine for archviz back in 2008/09.

Unreal 4 has some nice plugins that allow you to load in a structural blueprint (for digital tours) and swap materials/items on the fly in an easy to use menu. Been available for a few years.

JerryWorld (Dallas Cowboys stadium) was archviz'd in Unreal3 during the design process.

 

[Ski]

This is where it's always been headed, I was saying this at least 13 years ago early in my architecture studies (ten year anniversary of graduation this year I guess.) You used to have workers at drafting boards, then CAD monkeys. Now things are in 3D all the time with Revit and other BIM software, virtual reality will be the next step to be used extensively. This can be dangerous, as the client can now complain if something doesn't look exactly right, now that they've seen a perfect version of it that doesn't account for human hands putting it together...

In theory, yes, however in practice it's actually more time saving, practical, and establishes a much more concrete approach in the client relationship. Everything is so much more streamlined and efficient once you have a good ground game in the system. And this doesn't even include the reduction in cost in terms of modeling material needed and the hundreds of hours to create said massing model. And then to go back to the drawing board and start over again is a fucking headache. If you're efficient in your 3d and good in establishing a sincere rapport with the client, then not only do you have an upper hand on a bigger firms that not only charge more but you'll be more accessible to clients in general who would feel intimidated if they had to go a bigger firm. The big change will be once VR headsets become as ubiquitous as your smart phone in your home then you'll be able to upload early model designs so that the client will be able to do an internal flyby of the building or home thereby making the experience more intimate and real to them.

But you're always going to deal with some assholes and putas every now and then, but at least by the time that day comes the technology will be there so that you can vet your client and have a good psychological profile on them before hand, thereby allowing you to decide whether you want to work with them or not. Sorta like the episode from Black Mirror, "Nosedive", anyone who has seen that will know exactly what I'm talking about, and shit like that terrifies the bejesus outa me.

 

[gxp500]

The lighting in that demo looks about as good as the lighting in doom 3.

 

[serpretetsky]

will some one PLEASE remind them MAKE A GAME ! that shows off this engine to look that nice ..or will they just end like crytech ?

Pretty sure EPIC is doing just fine making engines that A LOT of games use.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Unreal_Engine_games

The lighting in that demo looks about as good as the lighting in doom 3.

Doom3 doesn't have lighting, just a bunch of poorly lit rooms and hard shadows. I'm joking ofcourse, but there is truth in it. It's kind of the opposite of what most architects want.

 

[fs123]

Pretty sure EPIC is doing just fine making engines that A LOT of games use.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Unreal_Engine_games


Doom3 doesn't have lighting, just a bunch of poorly lit rooms and hard shadows. I'm joking ofcourse, but there is truth in it. It's kind of the opposite of what most architects want.

He meant none of the games can replicate the visual quality of the tech demos EPIC like to show. There are lots of games using UE but can any of them come close to looking that good?

UE4 is a resource hog most of the time so devs can't even get playable frame rates even when they use lesser quality textures let alone replicate the stuff in the tech video.

 

[percydaman]

As a professional arch vis artist, I've looked heavily into this sort of thing. As a game engine, UE has some of the best pipeline capabilities. It's pretty easy to use, and seems to be made for artists not programmers. Which is more than I can say for Unity. That said: other than the fact that it can render in 'realtime' it has little that is better, faster or more efficient than what I use now. And we've had a real hard time convincing clients that it has real value for their dollars. It's seen as more of a toy. Maybe that will change in the future, who knows. I've showed my boss some of the real good stuff that people have showcased using UE. As good as it looks, it still frequently looks like realtime game engine stuff.

www.studioamd.com is the company I work for. If you head there and just let the homepage cycle automatically through some of our projects, you can see some of the stuff I've worked on. I was senior artist for most of them. There are few projects shown there that would have looked as good in UE or given us the flexibility to change things as clients demand. There is always a tradeoff between quality and time for this kind of stuff, and realtime engines wouldn't make that any easier, probably worse.