new vs old bimx

[Dave Brach]

I just realized my BIMx pro on iPad pro is legacy and downloaded the new viewer app. I have about 30 projects on the old app, which I use as a portfolio with prospective clients. Do I need to download each project one-by-one onto the new app?? also when I go to the transfer site to grab a new project from my firm, it wants to open it in the old app--how do I change that default? do I need to delete the old app? (I'd like to keep both for now)

[Roland Szabo]

Hi Rex,

We appreciate your honest opinion.

Enhancing the visual quality of the new 3D Engine is one of the important topics for the Product Team. We are doing our best to develop significant improvements as soon as possible.

Please note that the next-generation mobile app doesn't use the precalculated Global Illumination at all. It applies a real-time lighting calculation algorithm instead, called Ambient Occlusion. This way, publishing and updating Hyper-models from Archicad can be multiple times faster without GI.

We are aware that the Parallel projection and Stereo 3D features would be great in the renewed app. I administrated your requests in our system accordingly. Hopefully, these functions will be implemented soon.

Thank you for the clear explanations and the comparison images. Feel free to contact us at bimx@graphisoft.com if you have any further questions.

Kind regards,

[Rex Maximilian]

Thank you for your response Roland.

I understand why the renderings look as they do... prebaked textures vs. real-time textures. However, it is so bad, that it makes it almost unusable and actually detracts from the design when presenting to your clients. In fact, one side is lit, and the other side in shade; and you cannot change it. At least I haven't been able to. As it is now, you can't even see depth in many cases as the planes blend together. It looked great in Legacy.

Whatever the rationale for the new engine, it should at least look good.

My main request is obviously to fix the render quality... I mean, look at Twinmotion's real-time rendering. It looks almost real. Graphisoft is already tightly aligned with Epic, so why not implement Unreal as the rendering engine for BIMx and that would fix everything.

I am counting on BIMx Legacy to be available and supported up until the issues above is resolved. And please, change the icon to not be "intentionally" ugly; because we know it was meant to look bad when compared to the pretty new BIMx app icon. Also, please remove the disclaimer as well. It makes it look bad to all of our clients who use it.

As for the 3D option, yes, please re-implement the stereo 3D feature. Google "cardboard" is not a solution for the reason mentioned in my previous post.

Again, thank you for your response. And please, please, please implement these features again before charging us $50 for the new BIMx, which should be free by the way. We pay enough for ArchiCAD subscription service with little to show for it. BIMx should be part of the package.

Apologies if this sounds like I'm ranting, but I feel I need to fight for the smaller firms, who've been left behind by Graphisoft lately.

[Lingwisyer]

Rex wrote:
look at Twinmotion's real-time rendering. It looks almost real. Graphisoft is already tightly aligned with Epic, so why not implement Unreal as the rendering engine for BIMx

Twinmotion maybe built on the Unreal Engine but that does not mean you could simply rebuild BIMx on the UE platform and get the equivalent rendering output. UE5 might change that though.

I also see the Epic Graphisoft partnership as a marketing ploy so the shortcut of just incorporating Twinmotion's rendering features into BIMx would be a no go as that would kill future sales...



Ling.

[Rex Maximilian]

Hi Ling, yes, I understand implementing a completely new rendering engine would be quite a task... however, it was more an "example" of how one "real-time" engine renders beautifully, while another (BIMx) looks very, very bad, (again, see my earlier comparison posts).

Twinmotion 2021.1 was just released. They implemented a new feature called "Presenter Cloud" which enables the architect or designer to share the presentation via a weblink and in-browser navigation; without having to manually download the model. It basically works like BIMx navigation, but has a near photorealistic look. Unfortunately right now it is computer only (no phone or tablet). But I hear they're working on that.

I think for me, this is the end of the road for BIMx. Unless Graphisoft corrects the ill-chosen changes they made last year, I'll forgo continuing with the subscription or even using it.

[Emre Senoglu]

Hey Rex, small correction, TM Presenter actually works on a tablet through a web browser - I've recently tested it on my iPad Pro. It's quite a powerful tool now, to be able to show realtime visualizations on a tablet. Also you are entirely correct on your remarks.

At this point the only weapon BIMx has left in its arsenal is the ability to have drawings and 3d in one file. But at this point, it looks like it not strong enough a reason to keep anyone using the outdated BIMx app.

[Rex Maximilian]

Hi Erne,

I did test run it on my tablet through the browser and wasn't able to navigate without a mouse or keyboard. When I hooked up the iPad keyboard, I was then able to do the AWSDQE navs, but still no mouse to pan or pivot the view. If you've found a way to do this, I'd love to know! Would be stoked to use the iPad for presentations.

[Emre Senoglu]

heya rex - so my mouse works, but with limited functionality. I am using a logi anwhere mx2. I can hold down right click and rotate the camera (exactly like in the full app), but can't pan using the left click / middle button. I'm guessing that middle click is not possible due to apple's implementation, but if TM would allow the user to use left click for panning, things would be smoother. You should perhaps write to them on the TM forum (there's a dedicated presenter cloud section now) or perhaps via Bug report. I will do the same one I test it out a bit more.

Oh and I've found that turning on fullscreen made things worse and even the right click didnt work. So there's still some small bugs I guess.

Also, have you tried it with a controller? I think mouse/keyboard setup is a bit clunky for client presentations on the ipad, so I hope controller support is there. I will give that a try tomorrow once I'm at the office.

[Lingwisyer]

Is Presenter Cloud a provision for someone to explore a shared model that is rendered on the cloud?

Though less of an advantage now given the availability of decent internet connections while on the go as well as cloud computing, BIMx, at least the old one from my limited knowledge of it, could be run offline on basically any device that could read it. Not sure about the "new" one as it doesn't(?) use prebaked lighting anymore...



Ling.

[Emre Senoglu]

Hey ling, I can send you a presentation link via pm so you can see the quality - but yes, basically it is a 'interactive presentation' that you could yourself show to your client, or send a link to them so they can view it on their own device. You can also create a gallery of images that they can browse through, similar to the bimx presenter.

The advantage of this is you can show highly realistic visualizations on a portable device that might not be capable of running high end graphics realtime. The current quality of the presenter is okay - it doesn't match what you would get locally on a pc, but i can imagine that this is only because the feature is in beta right now.

[Lingwisyer]

Looks pretty good. Maybe the quality is to limit server overheads which could be increased post beta. Still, with the quality it is at, it is not bandwidth heavy which opens it up to more people.



Ling.