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]

Djordje "pointing big brother's finger" Grujic wrote: 😉

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

Sure I could. But I think the answers I want are of interest to more than just me. You kind of strengthen my feeling there's something behind this. A conspiration?

But I'm easily bribable. Give me all info and a fat check and I'll sign any NDA 🙂

Thomas

[stefan]

Well you're right about one thing: other people might be interested 😉

I think that ArchiLumos (I know nothing about it) is either:
- soon to be revealed
- forbidden to talk about

I hope the first option.

I only like a NDA when I'm into the game 😉

[Thomas Holm]

It's just this: At the moment, I really need that fat check. In fact, even a thinner one would be welcome! javascript:emoticon(':twisted:')

Thomas

[Ben Odonnell]

Thomas wrote:
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?

Woooh.
I have totally missed this thread!! Didn't recive a mail about it!

Ok here we go

1. please read these pages and then tell me why Archilumos is described as a plug-in?:

Because it is an Add on to ArchiCAD. It, after installation, sits under the image menu. Once the Archilumos add on is initiated it starts up an external app.

2. And, why have you removed it from your add-ons index page?

Good question. I'm not responsible for our web site. That would be my college in the Stockholm office. I'll have to get back to you about that one.

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?

We market the product because we believe it to have a lot of potential. Why the others have ripped or moved from their sites I can't answer. If Graphisoft suppresses marketing of the product? No they don't. Only time will tell if something else is 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?

Of course I knew about it. At the time of my posting the final version was not official. It is now though I downloaded it yesterday and it runs really nicely on Panther.

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?

You are 100% right. Archilumos is based on the ShadeR4 engine. Optgraph is the company that develop the engine..

Cheers.
Ben

[Karl Ottenstein]

Hey guys, can we take this outside?

This RPC Objects thread has become an Archilumos discussion ... clearly something that belongs in its own thread, eh?

Thanks,
Karl

[Djordje]

Karl wrote:
Hey guys, can we take this outside?

This RPC Objects thread has become an Archilumos discussion ... clearly something that belongs in its own thread, eh?

Thanks,
Karl

... and there is an ArchiLumos topic, started by a fellow talker we know as seow seow, at http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=278

Let's move there, shall we?

Ben, don't run away, and yes, you did say that

[Ben Odonnell]

Djordje wrote:

Karl wrote:
Hey guys, can we take this outside?

This RPC Objects thread has become an Archilumos discussion ... clearly something that belongs in its own thread, eh?

Thanks,
Karl

... and there is an ArchiLumos topic, started by a fellow talker we know as seow seow, at http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=278

Let's move there, shall we?

Ben, don't run away, and yes, you did say that

Run away, from what?? May be it's time to move this dicussion over to the other thread, if possable.

and yes, you did say that

How many time will I have to hear that?? I think I'll have to change my sig

[Anonymous]

Has there been an update to the RPC discussion since 2003? Is there a plugin available for ArchiCAD to use RPCs?

[Karl Ottenstein]

Alice wrote:
Has there been an update to the RPC discussion since 2003? Is there a plugin available for ArchiCAD to use RPCs?

Things are actually a step backwards. Now, Mac users cannot use RPC in Piranesi since Archvision dropped OS X support:
http://www.informatixsoftware.com/forums/showthread.php?p=6931
The Archvision web site still does not distinguish between PC and Mac versions of Piranesi for compatibility - so Mac users beware!
http://www.archvision.com/GetCompatibilityMatrix.cfm

There is no plug-in for ArchiCAD.

Karl

[Dwight]

This is lamentable since, Archicad LightWorks rendering deficiencies aside, RPC content is the simplest way to make sophisticated entourage and rightfully dominates the entourage market in other applications.