Zermatt [and in 2009: Virtual Building Explorer]

[Anonymous]

Has anybody heard some news about the zermatt engine? We know it sort of stopped beeing developed any further but any idea if there is still a future for this product?

Thanks Carsten

[Chazz]

VRML was, I believe, originally an Apple technology (hence GS's early support for it only on the Mac platform, VRML on Windows came later). Still, I've never heard of anything free on either platform that uses VRML and that gives anything like the functionality of VBE.

If someone does know of such a tool, this seems like a good time to bring it up.

[Brett Brown]

Hi Chazz, The viewer is free, Just use Vitruvian Studio ($199 euro) to shrink your VRML file saved from the 3D window, and if need be add lights etc, and then send the resulting file to your client. Simple.

[Chazz]

Now that you mention it, I recall looking into Vitruvian. It was Windows only (still is) and I never got past that. The other thing I recall from just using straight VRML with Quicktime player (available on both platforms, of course) is that the VRML files themselves are HUGE and the generation time was considerable. Vitruvian does some liposuction on the files apparently but the whole thing seemed a little odd that the company only makes the compressor and not the viewer, Also, requesting your audience to download, install and config a reader application is bordering on "not a solution". If VBE works as advertised, without massive files or long conversion times, it is probably worth it to my organization. I just wish the implementation, with all it's exposed complexity, was not so clunky.

[ci-JoshOs]

The Cortona viewer is actually just a simple 1-click installer on the cortona website:
http://www.cortona3d.com/cortona
Additionally, a VRML file is an email-able size, and a VBE file is not(check out the demo files on GS's website. The ING Building is 180Mb unzipped).
On the other hand, VBE with Global Illumination looks much better than VRML, so there are certain trade-offs on each side.

[Anonymous]

Hey

After starting this topic more then a year ago it looks like I and a lot of othere people get what we wanted!!

interactive Virtual Building Explorer run with the Zermatt engine.Check it out at:

http://www.graphisoft.com/company/press_zone/vbe.html

cheers

[Erika Epstein]

There will be a demo next week at the LA user group!

[Anonymous]

Carstene wrote:
Hey


interactive Virtual Building Explorer run with the Zermatt engine.

cheers

Ok fine -- buying an add-on is clever, instead of developing from sketch, maybe GS should take a look to objective 😉

anyway: GS should not ignore the core by developing "funky"-products.

[Anonymous]

Virtual Building Explorer is the child of Zermatt engine because Zermatt 3.1 = superior settings than the VBE for archicad .
I have the dream to export Zermatt from Artlantis with superior textured modell , or better export the .exe directly from artlantis ! Shadow , global illumination computed in artlantis and maped into model.

[Paul King]

VRML was ok in the 90's, but no implementation I have seen can touch the lighting, collision detection & other features of Zermatt. Something as basic as the sky background & solar lens flare added so much atmosphere to a presentation

[Anonymous]

as a user I like VBE but I think this should be more Architectural focused, I mean it is nice to be able to walk through the building , and wear red-cyan glasses ( although I could only find Hana Montana ones ! yeah .. not so funny when you wear those at office ! ) , so it is noce that we can walk , jump and duck , but I still think we should be able to generate Sections and plans ( driven from the 3D model something like 3D cut away) . which I don't think is so complicated, but it doesn't look that we have it within the package .