topic Re: RPC Objects / Archvision in Visualization

RPC Objects / Archvision

Karl Ottenstein — Thu, 11 May 2023 11:14:14 GMT

One of the things that impressed me during the Piranesi demo was the power of RPC-content cutouts from Archivision:
http://www.archivision.com

It's pretty neat to have cutouts that show properly at various angles, and cast appropriate shadows.

I was surprised to see the 'Compatability Matrix' on the Archvision web site:
http://www.archvision.com/RPCCompatabilityMatrix.cfm?ProductID=all

The only CAD software that can use RPC imagery is Revit, ADT and Microstation. This again points to the inferiority of the internal ArchiCAD rendering engine ... and yet another reason why for competitive reasons Graphisoft should update it IMHO.

If we could use RPC imagery in ArchiCAD (or Artlantis) as the other software listed in the link above, fly-through animations could look ever so much more realistic than with the ArchiCAD polygonal people... otherwise, we'd need to use 3DS Max to get the benefit.

Have people who have purchased RPC libraries been generally happy with the quality? E.g., is there enough pixel content so that the cutouts don't look artificial if in the foreground of an image?

Has anyone downloaded the (free) RPC Creator and tried to make their own RPC image file?

Thanks,
Karl

Re: RPC Objects / Archvision

Thomas Holm — Wed, 29 Oct 2003 16:41:08 GMT

Lightworks is a rendering package that offers both cross-platform speed and RPC compatibility, among a lot of other things. Something for Graphisoft?

http://www.lightwork.com/lw_home.htm

But it has the same drawback as Archilumos and AV-Works: One Archicad license is occupied while rendering.

Re: RPC Objects / Archvision

Ben Odonnell — Wed, 29 Oct 2003 17:48:27 GMT

Thomas wrote:
Lightworks is a rendering package that offers both cross-platform speed and RPC compatibility, among a lot of other things. Something for Graphisoft?

http://www.lightwork.com/lw_home.htm

But it has the same drawback as Archilumos and AV-Works: One Archicad license is occupied while rendering.

Thomas.
What do you mean by when you say that an ArchiCAD licence is occupied?

AV-Works yes does take up a licence, as it is run with in the ArchiCAD environment.
Archilumos on the other hand is an external application therefore, of course depending on the power of your computer you have, you can continue running ArchiCAD.

Ben

Re: RPC Objects / Archvision

Thomas Holm — Wed, 29 Oct 2003 17:54:04 GMT

Yes you did say that 😉

I was under the impression that Archilumos is an add-on that runs within Archicad as an extension of the Archicad rendering engine, like AV-Works. I haven't used it myself, so I may be wrong.

And if you have a "normal" USB key, you can run more than one session of Archicad on one machine, but if you have network licenses, I think each session will use one license. And if I'm right, this is significant, because a good radiosity solution of a reasonably complicated view will use a whole day or more!

Re: RPC Objects / Archvision

Karl Ottenstein — Wed, 29 Oct 2003 17:57:08 GMT

Thomas wrote:
Lightworks is a rendering package that offers both cross-platform speed and RPC compatibility, among a lot of other things. Something for Graphisoft?

http://www.lightwork.com/lw_home.htm

But it has the same drawback as Archilumos and AV-Works: One Archicad license is occupied while rendering.

Would be great. Dreaming away...

Karl

Re: RPC Objects / Archvision

Ben Odonnell — Wed, 29 Oct 2003 18:22:04 GMT

Thomas wrote:
Yes you did say that 😉

I was under the impression that Archilumos is an add-on that runs within Archicad as an extension of the Archicad rendering engine, like AV-Works. I haven't used it myself, so I may be wrong.

And if you have a "normal" USB key, you can run more than one session of Archicad on one machine, but if you have network licenses, I think each session will use one license. And if I'm right, this is significant, because a good radiosity solution of a reasonably complicated view will use a whole day or more!

LOL
Lumos is an external app. So it doesn't take up any licence, therefore you can keep on working with ArchiCAD. You are right about AV as it runs within the ArchiCAD environment.
As far as network licences go if I start up 1 instance of ArchiCAD it will take 1 licence
I can then start as many instance of ArchiCAD I like without it taking further licences from the server. But please note that this is if it is the same version of ArchiCAD. If I have an ArchiCAD 8 and then an ArchiCAD 7, this will take 2 licences from the key server.. BTW I just tested this with ArchiCAD 8 and 8.1 and it worked like a gem I mean it doesn't take any licence from the key server.

Ben

Re: RPC Objects / Archvision

Thomas Holm — Thu, 30 Oct 2003 18:32:36 GMT

Ben,

You may be right about the network license now allowing mroe than one instance running on one machine. I'm still on Ac7/macOSX and i haven't been able to make that work with the WIBU drivers. But it was a while since I tested it.

About Archilumos: All the info I have, the resellers' pages etc, and my recollection of the demos I've seen says it's a plugin/add-on to Archicad and gives you new rendering options there. Of course this might be wrong. I think the final answer will be found at this site

http://www.graphisoft.co.jp/products/ArchiCAD/ArchiLumos.htm

which I have certain problems to understand. I will have to rely on others. Have you bought the program and are you using it?

Re: RPC Objects / Archvision

Ben Odonnell — Thu, 30 Oct 2003 19:13:06 GMT

Thomas wrote:
Ben,

You may be right about the network license now allowing mroe than one instance running on one machine. I'm still on Ac7/macOSX and i haven't been able to make that work with the WIBU drivers. But it was a while since I tested it.

About Archilumos: All the info I have, the resellers' pages etc, and my recollection of the demos I've seen says it's a plugin/add-on to Archicad and gives you new rendering options there. Of course this might be wrong. I think the final answer will be found at this site

http://www.graphisoft.co.jp/products/ArchiCAD/ArchiLumos.htm

which I have certain problems to understand. I will have to rely on others. Have you bought the program and are you using it?

Hi Thomas.
Yes I have the program. I'm the support guy at Lasercad

I could fix you a demo version, but unfortunately it's not available for the MAC Never know maybe they are going to port it?
Give me a call if you wan to know more about it. You can find my number on our website

Re: RPC Objects / Archvision

Thomas Holm — Sun, 02 Nov 2003 13:20:33 GMT

Sorry, late on this.

Since you understand Swedish (which I didn't know at first) and you're the Lasercad support guy,

1. please read these pages and then tell me why Archilumos is described as a plug-in?:
http://www.lasercad.se/produkter/add-ons/archilumos/lumos.htm
http://archicad.nu/Lasercad.dk/col2text.asp?pid=35&reload_coolmenus

2. And, why have you removed it from your add-ons index page?
http://www.lasercad.se/produkter/add-ons/add-ons.htm

3. It seems Archilumos has also disappeared from the Italian Archiradar site, as well as some others. The mentions still there are japanese or Russian. Does Graphisoft suppress marketing of this tool outside of Japan? Why? Is there something else coming?

4. Also, I don't know about the demo, but the full version Archilumos 1.5 is supposed to be available for MacOSX. I've seen a beta and it should be released by now. You would know that, wouldn't you?

5. The gallery link on the Danish Lasercad page (above) points to a Japanese page with images labelled as made with ShadeR4. Is that the radiosity engine used within Archilumos?

Re: RPC Objects / Archvision

Djordje — Sun, 02 Nov 2003 17:41:36 GMT

"Thomas "slow at catching on" Holm" wrote:
Sorry, late on this.

Since you understand Swedish (which I didn't know at first) and you're the Lasercad support guy,

... he asked you to phone him. Maybe you should?

Re: RPC Objects / Archvision

Thomas Holm — Mon, 03 Nov 2003 11:31:22 GMT

Djordje "pointing big brother's finger" Grujic wrote: 😉

... he asked you to phone him. Maybe you should?

Sure I could. But I think the answers I want are of interest to more than just me. You kind of strengthen my feeling there's something behind this. A conspiration?

But I'm easily bribable. Give me all info and a fat check and I'll sign any NDA 🙂

Thomas

Re: RPC Objects / Archvision

stefan — Mon, 03 Nov 2003 16:00:12 GMT

Well you're right about one thing: other people might be interested 😉

I think that ArchiLumos (I know nothing about it) is either:
- soon to be revealed
- forbidden to talk about

I hope the first option.

I only like a NDA when I'm into the game 😉

Re: RPC Objects / Archvision

Thomas Holm — Tue, 04 Nov 2003 08:43:00 GMT

It's just this: At the moment, I really need that fat check. In fact, even a thinner one would be welcome! javascript:emoticon(':twisted:')

Thomas

Re: RPC Objects / Archvision

Ben Odonnell — Wed, 05 Nov 2003 14:17:23 GMT

Thomas wrote:
Sorry, late on this.

Since you understand Swedish (which I didn't know at first) and you're the Lasercad support guy,

1. please read these pages and then tell me why Archilumos is described as a plug-in?:
http://www.lasercad.se/produkter/add-ons/archilumos/lumos.htm
http://archicad.nu/Lasercad.dk/col2text.asp?pid=35&reload_coolmenus

2. And, why have you removed it from your add-ons index page?
http://www.lasercad.se/produkter/add-ons/add-ons.htm

3. It seems Archilumos has also disappeared from the Italian Archiradar site, as well as some others. The mentions still there are japanese or Russian. Does Graphisoft suppress marketing of this tool outside of Japan? Why? Is there something else coming?

4. Also, I don't know about the demo, but the full version Archilumos 1.5 is supposed to be available for MacOSX. I've seen a beta and it should be released by now. You would know that, wouldn't you?

5. The gallery link on the Danish Lasercad page (above) points to a Japanese page with images labelled as made with ShadeR4. Is that the radiosity engine used within Archilumos?

Woooh.
I have totally missed this thread!! Didn't recive a mail about it!

Ok here we go

1. please read these pages and then tell me why Archilumos is described as a plug-in?:

Because it is an Add on to ArchiCAD. It, after installation, sits under the image menu. Once the Archilumos add on is initiated it starts up an external app.

2. And, why have you removed it from your add-ons index page?

Good question. I'm not responsible for our web site. That would be my college in the Stockholm office. I'll have to get back to you about that one.

3. It seems Archilumos has also disappeared from the Italian Archiradar site, as well as some others. The mentions still there are japanese or Russian. Does Graphisoft suppress marketing of this tool outside of Japan? Why? Is there something else coming?

We market the product because we believe it to have a lot of potential. Why the others have ripped or moved from their sites I can't answer. If Graphisoft suppresses marketing of the product? No they don't. Only time will tell if something else is coming

4. Also, I don't know about the demo, but the full version Archilumos 1.5 is supposed to be available for MacOSX. I've seen a beta and it should be released by now. You would know that, wouldn't you?

Of course I knew about it. At the time of my posting the final version was not official. It is now though I downloaded it yesterday and it runs really nicely on Panther.

5. The gallery link on the Danish Lasercad page (above) points to a Japanese page with images labelled as made with ShadeR4. Is that the radiosity engine used within Archilumos?

You are 100% right. Archilumos is based on the ShadeR4 engine. Optgraph is the company that develop the engine..

Cheers.
Ben

Re: RPC Objects / Archvision

Karl Ottenstein — Wed, 05 Nov 2003 18:24:23 GMT

Hey guys, can we take this outside?

This RPC Objects thread has become an Archilumos discussion ... clearly something that belongs in its own thread, eh?

Thanks,
Karl

Re: RPC Objects / Archvision

Djordje — Wed, 05 Nov 2003 19:22:46 GMT

Karl wrote:
Hey guys, can we take this outside?

This RPC Objects thread has become an Archilumos discussion ... clearly something that belongs in its own thread, eh?

Thanks,
Karl

... and there is an ArchiLumos topic, started by a fellow talker we know as seow seow, at http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=278

Let's move there, shall we?

Ben, don't run away, and yes, you did say that

Re: RPC Objects / Archvision

Ben Odonnell — Wed, 05 Nov 2003 21:40:11 GMT

Djordje wrote:
Karl wrote:
Hey guys, can we take this outside?

This RPC Objects thread has become an Archilumos discussion ... clearly something that belongs in its own thread, eh?

Thanks,
Karl
... and there is an ArchiLumos topic, started by a fellow talker we know as seow seow, at http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=278

Let's move there, shall we?

Ben, don't run away, and yes, you did say that

Run away, from what?? May be it's time to move this dicussion over to the other thread, if possable.

and yes, you did say that

How many time will I have to hear that?? I think I'll have to change my sig

Re: RPC Objects / Archvision

Anonymous — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 16:43:51 GMT

Has there been an update to the RPC discussion since 2003? Is there a plugin available for ArchiCAD to use RPCs?

Re: RPC Objects / Archvision

Karl Ottenstein — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 17:12:46 GMT

Alice wrote:
Has there been an update to the RPC discussion since 2003? Is there a plugin available for ArchiCAD to use RPCs?

Things are actually a step backwards. Now, Mac users cannot use RPC in Piranesi since Archvision dropped OS X support:
http://www.informatixsoftware.com/forums/showthread.php?p=6931
The Archvision web site still does not distinguish between PC and Mac versions of Piranesi for compatibility - so Mac users beware!
http://www.archvision.com/GetCompatibilityMatrix.cfm

There is no plug-in for ArchiCAD.

Karl

Re: RPC Objects / Archvision

Dwight — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 17:37:20 GMT

This is lamentable since, Archicad LightWorks rendering deficiencies aside, RPC content is the simplest way to make sophisticated entourage and rightfully dominates the entourage market in other applications.