RPC Objects / Archvision

[Karl Ottenstein]

One of the things that impressed me during the Piranesi demo was the power of RPC-content cutouts from Archivision:
http://www.archivision.com

It's pretty neat to have cutouts that show properly at various angles, and cast appropriate shadows.

I was surprised to see the 'Compatability Matrix' on the Archvision web site:
http://www.archvision.com/RPCCompatabilityMatrix.cfm?ProductID=all

The only CAD software that can use RPC imagery is Revit, ADT and Microstation. This again points to the inferiority of the internal ArchiCAD rendering engine ... and yet another reason why for competitive reasons Graphisoft should update it IMHO.

If we could use RPC imagery in ArchiCAD (or Artlantis) as the other software listed in the link above, fly-through animations could look ever so much more realistic than with the ArchiCAD polygonal people... otherwise, we'd need to use 3DS Max to get the benefit.

Have people who have purchased RPC libraries been generally happy with the quality? E.g., is there enough pixel content so that the cutouts don't look artificial if in the foreground of an image?

Has anyone downloaded the (free) RPC Creator and tried to make their own RPC image file?

Thanks,
Karl

[Thomas Holm]

Lightworks is a rendering package that offers both cross-platform speed and RPC compatibility, among a lot of other things. Something for Graphisoft?

http://www.lightwork.com/lw_home.htm

But it has the same drawback as Archilumos and AV-Works: One Archicad license is occupied while rendering.

[Ben Odonnell]

Thomas wrote:
Lightworks is a rendering package that offers both cross-platform speed and RPC compatibility, among a lot of other things. Something for Graphisoft?

http://www.lightwork.com/lw_home.htm

But it has the same drawback as Archilumos and AV-Works: One Archicad license is occupied while rendering.

Thomas.
What do you mean by when you say that an ArchiCAD licence is occupied?

AV-Works yes does take up a licence, as it is run with in the ArchiCAD environment.
Archilumos on the other hand is an external application therefore, of course depending on the power of your computer you have, you can continue running ArchiCAD.

Ben

[Thomas Holm]

Yes you did say that 😉

I was under the impression that Archilumos is an add-on that runs within Archicad as an extension of the Archicad rendering engine, like AV-Works. I haven't used it myself, so I may be wrong.

And if you have a "normal" USB key, you can run more than one session of Archicad on one machine, but if you have network licenses, I think each session will use one license. And if I'm right, this is significant, because a good radiosity solution of a reasonably complicated view will use a whole day or more!

[Karl Ottenstein]

Thomas wrote:
Lightworks is a rendering package that offers both cross-platform speed and RPC compatibility, among a lot of other things. Something for Graphisoft?

http://www.lightwork.com/lw_home.htm

But it has the same drawback as Archilumos and AV-Works: One Archicad license is occupied while rendering.

Would be great. Dreaming away...

Karl

[Ben Odonnell]

Thomas wrote:
Yes you did say that 😉

I was under the impression that Archilumos is an add-on that runs within Archicad as an extension of the Archicad rendering engine, like AV-Works. I haven't used it myself, so I may be wrong.

And if you have a "normal" USB key, you can run more than one session of Archicad on one machine, but if you have network licenses, I think each session will use one license. And if I'm right, this is significant, because a good radiosity solution of a reasonably complicated view will use a whole day or more!

LOL
Lumos is an external app. So it doesn't take up any licence, therefore you can keep on working with ArchiCAD. You are right about AV as it runs within the ArchiCAD environment.
As far as network licences go if I start up 1 instance of ArchiCAD it will take 1 licence
I can then start as many instance of ArchiCAD I like without it taking further licences from the server. But please note that this is if it is the same version of ArchiCAD. If I have an ArchiCAD 8 and then an ArchiCAD 7, this will take 2 licences from the key server.. BTW I just tested this with ArchiCAD 8 and 8.1 and it worked like a gem I mean it doesn't take any licence from the key server.

Ben

[Thomas Holm]

Ben,

You may be right about the network license now allowing mroe than one instance running on one machine. I'm still on Ac7/macOSX and i haven't been able to make that work with the WIBU drivers. But it was a while since I tested it.

About Archilumos: All the info I have, the resellers' pages etc, and my recollection of the demos I've seen says it's a plugin/add-on to Archicad and gives you new rendering options there. Of course this might be wrong. I think the final answer will be found at this site

http://www.graphisoft.co.jp/products/ArchiCAD/ArchiLumos.htm

which I have certain problems to understand. I will have to rely on others. Have you bought the program and are you using it?

[Ben Odonnell]

Thomas wrote:
Ben,

You may be right about the network license now allowing mroe than one instance running on one machine. I'm still on Ac7/macOSX and i haven't been able to make that work with the WIBU drivers. But it was a while since I tested it.

About Archilumos: All the info I have, the resellers' pages etc, and my recollection of the demos I've seen says it's a plugin/add-on to Archicad and gives you new rendering options there. Of course this might be wrong. I think the final answer will be found at this site

http://www.graphisoft.co.jp/products/ArchiCAD/ArchiLumos.htm

which I have certain problems to understand. I will have to rely on others. Have you bought the program and are you using it?

Hi Thomas.
Yes I have the program. I'm the support guy at Lasercad

I could fix you a demo version, but unfortunately it's not available for the MAC Never know maybe they are going to port it?
Give me a call if you wan to know more about it. You can find my number on our website

[Thomas Holm]

Sorry, late on this.

Since you understand Swedish (which I didn't know at first) and you're the Lasercad support guy,

1. please read these pages and then tell me why Archilumos is described as a plug-in?:
http://www.lasercad.se/produkter/add-ons/archilumos/lumos.htm
http://archicad.nu/Lasercad.dk/col2text.asp?pid=35&reload_coolmenus

2. And, why have you removed it from your add-ons index page?
http://www.lasercad.se/produkter/add-ons/add-ons.htm

3. It seems Archilumos has also disappeared from the Italian Archiradar site, as well as some others. The mentions still there are japanese or Russian. Does Graphisoft suppress marketing of this tool outside of Japan? Why? Is there something else coming?

4. Also, I don't know about the demo, but the full version Archilumos 1.5 is supposed to be available for MacOSX. I've seen a beta and it should be released by now. You would know that, wouldn't you?

5. The gallery link on the Danish Lasercad page (above) points to a Japanese page with images labelled as made with ShadeR4. Is that the radiosity engine used within Archilumos?

[Djordje]

"Thomas "slow at catching on" Holm" wrote:
Sorry, late on this.

Since you understand Swedish (which I didn't know at first) and you're the Lasercad support guy,

... he asked you to phone him. Maybe you should?