Visualization

[Katica]

Improvements to Physically Based Rendering

Archicad’s native Physically Based Rendering engine in 3D views ensures more realistic visualizations while you model - without having to create a rendering.

Archicad 28 brings new enhancements to this experimental feature:

Procedurally generated sky

Simulates light scattering effects in the atmosphere to generate a physically based sky dome. Surfaces in shadow reflect the diffuse illuminance calculated from the sky.

Sun altitude 35°

Sun altitude 10°

Improved ambient occlusion

Using a low-discrepancy sequence, the new algorithm distributes samples in a more efficient way, getting rid of artifacts in undersampled regions. (Available as of Archicad 27 Update 2.)

 Ambient occlusion - before

 Ambient occlusion - after

Shadow mapping

Shadow mapping produces much faster results than shadow volumes, with soft shadow edges. Perspective warping optimizes the shadow map so that objects closer to the camera take up more space (in the shadow map), thus getting rid of perspective aliasing almost completely.

 Shadow volume

 Shadow mapping - producing soft shadows

With this approach, billboard shadows work as expected (previously was rectangular shape).

Automatic exposure control and bloom

The tone mapper now adjusts exposure (semi-)automatically, similar to real life cameras. High luminance regions generate a “blooming“ (a.k.a. “glare”) effect.

 Exposure adjusts automatically

 Bloom effect

Exposure adjustment is more noticeable when in 3D explore mode, as it adds a half-second delay. Bloom may be stronger or weaker depending on the camera’s location in the scene.

Enhancements to Enscape (expected Q4 2024)

Introduction of custom mapping in this third-party rendering add-on.