Archicad and VRML (Realtime web 3D)

[Anonymous]

I would like to know your opinion about the possibility to walk through archicad 3D projects in realtime online. Would it be interesting for architects and designer? I mean to create with Archicad good quality interactive 3D scenes to publish as realtime web 3D walk through.
With "interactive" I mean the possibility for a web user to interact with 3d scenes (linked to each other) by clicking on different links to open web pages, documents, pictures, video, audio and so on ...
Could Archicad become interesting for web 3d worlds creators?

Giovanni Dragone

[Andy Thomson]

Thanks for clarifying. I am certainly interested in live 3D interactive walkthoughs, and explored VRML early on with hopes that this was going somewhere, I followed the development and participated in the beta of Adobe Atmosphere, which hasn't really become well known, and the former macromedia's 3D shockwave plugin, which was pretty lame.

While I did get excellent results (geometry and texture, if not lighting), interactivity (multiple websites/portals through graphic, rich 3D environments, like doors) - it was a lot of work - to get AC models all the way over to Atmosphere, using Maya and Viewpoint/trixel software as intermediaries.

All that being said, I am still really disappointed there is no rich, architectural content viewer online yet. I played with Zermatt, but it seemed to be a real pig, not nimble at all. When I found turntool - I was happy to see at least someone advancing the charge, and making it work for Archicad (complete with multi-camera tours and free walkthroughs) - so yeah, while it is not free, it is better than me spending weeks getting a mediocre 'world' uploaded!

I am hoping some others may contribute to the discussion, as it is of great interest to me. And I didn't realize the thread was moved.

[stefan]

FWIW, I have a subscription to 3D World Magazine for the last two years and the topic of 3D for Website comes up about every two years. Each time, an overview is given of the main players (which are always the same 4 and then one of the older ones disappeared and a new one joins the gang).

They always say that 'last time', when Web3D stood at the point of breakthrough, it didn't happen for so and so reasons. And then they try to predict if we are on a breakthrough now.

Some comments on applications in this thread:

• - Atmosphere (I thought it has been retired?)

• - Cult3D: has it's own niche, where it doesn't seem to really grow, nor does it seem to disappear from the map

• - TurnTool: getting stronger? It has grown considerably with regards to architectural visualization, so it seems

• - Wirefusion: slowly growing? They are at least so desperate to donate free versions of their prior releases to 3D World and other magazines 😉

• - VRML: never really gone. In academic conferences (one of the things I visit for my job), VRML is still very active in many presentations, since it works, is available and is free to use.

I have been collecting info, some time ago and created the start of my 'Web Study' at http://www2.asro.kuleuven.be/asro/English/HOME/SBs/web/web.htm
including many realtime tools, for Web and VR use. I never finished it with full examples on every page, and some tools are not mentioned (e.g. Atmosphere)

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I still believe realtime 3D on the internet is very, very valid for architects, but in almost every case there are problems:

• - you can choose between interactivity or realtime walkthroughs, but often not both at the same time

• - you need a seperate authoring application, which requires (visual) programming and even though it could create all you need, it requires a tremendous amount of preparation.

• - there are direct plugins for CAD and 3D applications, but then you give up on editability and interactivity

• - almost every system targets 3ds max and/or maya, but few other systems (the conversion from ArchiCAD is usually strictly sequential: export, import, prepare, publish, evaluate... start all over again)

• - pricing is often an issue: either the software is expensive (several thousands of dollars) or the publishing fees are huge.

• - compatiblity can be an issue: most viewers are free, but many of them are ActiveX controls for Internet Explorer on Windows. Few options support alternative browsers and/or platforms (e.g. Wirefusion generates Java Applets)

[Anonymous]

Web3D is definitely being used a lot for architectural visualizations of houses to be built in Scandinavia. Though this is rarely the architects doings, it is the developers or real-estate agents hiring bureaus to remodel the architects design in 3D with baked lighting and nice furnishing. We have created a lot of such models using our TurnTool technology you can find examples here: Real estate vizualisations.