No more VR scene & Object??

[Stephen Dolbee]

AC15 no longer supports VR Scene/VR Object. I really like Bimx, but cannot spend the extra money. Are there any alternatives? It was nice to give to a client to view on his own computer.

[Anonymous]

Stephen wrote:
As an incentive to upgrade to V16, GS could include Bimx.

It's an interesting move discontinuing the QTVR support, however apple are known for killing off technologies when newer things are coming out (good bye CD drives).
BIMx is great, but I think the price tag will stop a few people from purchasing. A pay per use system might be better??

[Anonymous]

Hi,

This was also a great disappointment to me. I don't like Bimx, especially as I cannot control what the client sees. I have, however, found what I consider to be a great alternative to Bimx, and it provides the same kind of operation as QTVR did. And the best part is that you can specify the output as either flash or HTML5, which means that it will work on Ipads, etc. as well.

That said, it does not offer the same simple integration as QTVR had with Graphisoft. So there is some fiddling to be done, but it hasn't turned me off.

I am still in the process of polishing this, but here is an initial sample result that you can view of one of our recent projects still in the design stage. No materials applied, just wanting to take a look at form.

https://sites.google.com/a/williams-partners.com/jones-residence/home/spins-1/jones-cardboard-3.swf?...

Please note that you should just ignore the control buttons on the bottom, EXCEPT for the one on the far right-side. That is the full-screen mode, and it is pretty impressive to open that one up. To move the model, simply put your mouse over it, click (hold) and drag it whichever direction you want to go. Use your mouse wheel to zoom in and out.

I should also note that I no longer use Lightworks to render except for very early design development stages. Yet, with the right settings and computer, I think that Lightworks could spit out the images you need in a fairly reasonable amount of time. For the "Spin" I did with the link above, the ouput images were 1920 px by 1080 px, and I think there were 216 of them in total. It took my machine about 45 minutes to crunch out all the frames. After putting all the frames into the Spin software, it spit out a 17 MB flash file, which is quite reasonable. And, I think that you could do these Spins at much lower resolution, say 1024x768 or so. And that would cut the render time to 10 minutes.

If anyone is interested in more details about this Spin software, let me know (I am not the developer).

Best,
Foster

[Anonymous]

Hi John, that looks great. How long did it take you? I guess a key part of the BIMx concept is that it is quite easy to push out.

[Anonymous]

SDB,

I tried out "Bimx" before it was called that (can't recall the previous name). And I remember that while testing it, I chose settings for "global illumination" or whatever the most realistic settings were, and it took a good 45 minutes or more for it to create a file. And the file was fairly large. Maybe that has been improved upon recently, I am not sure as I don't follow Bimx. And the main reason I did not like it was not because of the cost, but because I cannot control what I want the clients to see.

For me, the workflow to create a 1024x768 image spin would go something like this:

Render Time (highly dependent on computer specs) - 10-20 minutes
(I need to point out here that you should do your own testing on this if you are using Lightworks. I use a different rendering software, which would take about 10 minutes to do all the images at the quality in the link above)

File Creation Time: - 10 minutes
(This is after you have already used the program once or twice and are familiar with it.)

Creating a file is relatively straightforward:

-Batch import your images into the software
-Confirm that the images are in the correct sequence
-Choose a few parameters (Set the output image size. Choose which buttons you do or don't want. Do you want to be able to zoom? Etc..)
-Click the "Create" button and sit back while the software creates a final output file - either flash or html5
-Upload to your website
-Done

As I said, I find it fairly straightforward. In fact, I think the only difference between it and the BIMx software I tested out a long time ago would be that you need to batch import all the individual images into the software. But that's easy. In Bimx, ArchiCAD does that seamlessly.

Best,
John

[Anonymous]

ok great. What was the cost of the tool you are using now. You could almost do a similar thing with photosnyth.net

[Anonymous]

Photosynth appears to be more geared to panoramas rather than objects, looks interesting though. The cost for the software I use is 49 Euros.
John

[Anonymous]

I was bummed to find it out, too.

Instead, I placed 4 cameras together in a tight circle facing out... and close-looped them to create a FlyThrough with about 60 to 80 frames in between cameras and saved it as an MOV.

Sooo, in QuickTime, a viewer can drag the timeline marker and view it for them self and see right to left to right...

I keep my 3d Window in OpenGL and it renders as such. Decent clarity lets them get a good understanding of the mass with minimal texture. Renders about 2000 frames in about 3 to 5 minutes which is enough time for an espresso

Not ideal, but its a good work around for now... at least until BIMx goes to being the viewer (FREE!) that it should be.

[Anonymous]

Dear Foster - you mentioned "I have, however, found what I consider to be a great alternative to Bimx"
My question is, what is the program that you used for that spin? I've only just realised now that 15 does not do VR!!! And I need to do a VR scene this week!

I look forward to your response.

Regards,
Benjamin Wharton

[Anonymous]

Benjamin, I have sent you a PM.