VR viewers

[jonchis]

I'm feeling a similar sway to offering clients a stand alone viewer with which to explore their models - although Zermatt at nearly $3000 AU feels way too expensive for a viewer - with the number of offices presenting 3D these days, an affordable viewer around the $750 - $1000 mark AU would grab a major market share.

I had in the past used cosmo viewer to view WRL files and another free utility called Worldview - both seem to have disappeared. it seems strange with the staggering proliferation of games that no one is producing an affordable game - engine driven viewer, i note that the Zermatt engine seems to have broadened it's market appeal by relying on the 3DS format, pretty common to the gaming world.

if anyone has found anything of interest, i'd be keen to hear. regards jc

[Barry Kelly]

Not quite a VR viewer but you can save your 3D model as U3D format and embed this into a PDF.

Not particularly fast - you have to wait a little while for the 3D image to become active in the PDF.
And it can make some pretty big files so you have to be careful about turning off non-essential layers.
But it doesn't cost a cent.

Barry.

[Richard Morrison]

You might check out the Cortona3D viewer http://www.cortona3d.com/cortona.

[Mats_Knutsson]

jonchis wrote:
I'm feeling a similar sway to offering clients a stand alone viewer with which to explore their models - although Zermatt at nearly $3000 AU feels way too expensive for a viewer - with the number of offices presenting 3D these days, an affordable viewer around the $750 - $1000 mark AU would grab a major market share.

I had in the past used cosmo viewer to view WRL files and another free utility called Worldview - both seem to have disappeared. it seems strange with the staggering proliferation of games that no one is producing an affordable game - engine driven viewer, i note that the Zermatt engine seems to have broadened it's market appeal by relying on the 3DS format, pretty common to the gaming world.

if anyone has found anything of interest, i'd be keen to hear. regards jc

Have you checked the Virtual Building Explorer?

http://aec.cadalyst.com/aec/Web+Exclusive/Graphisofts-New-CEO-Discusses-a-New-Product/ArticleStandar...

[jonchis]

Thankyou guys, i'll jump in and check these out now.
rgds

jc

[Ben Cohen]

WOW! that is great news. I've got to say, the screen shots shown in that article look exactly the same as Zermatt (I have Zermatt 3.0). Has Graphisoft bought Zermatt!? Great to see Graphisoft creating a decent VR file viewer, if the price is right they will sell them by the truck load.

Thanks for the link Mats

[Mats_Knutsson]

Ben wrote:
WOW! that is great news. I've got to say, the screen shots shown in that article look exactly the same as Zermatt (I have Zermatt 3.0). Has Graphisoft bought Zermatt!? Great to see Graphisoft creating a decent VR file viewer, if the price is right they will sell them by the truck load.

Thanks for the link Mats

You're welcome! The Zermatt feeling is not a coincidence. It's on the shelf very soon. Is your avatar Mr Sheen Jr?
Mats

[Brett Brown]

So Mats, How is Virtual Building Explorer going to be better than the FREE Cortona? And how does your client see the result like they can now with Cortona?

[Ben Cohen]

the Avatar is Ace Rimmer!! From a classic English TV show - kind of a cross between Star Trek and South Park....

Back on topic. The new Graphisoft CEO has said in that article.... "innovation as our top priority". Well if Graphisoft have to buy the innovation, thats fine, the main thing is to bring innovation to the platform, I don't care who the inventor is!!. This is how software companies become huge, think Adobe, MS, Autodesk, Nemetschek ... the common thread is acquisition.

[Anonymous]

Mats_Knutsson wrote:

Have you checked the Virtual Building Explorer?

http://aec.cadalyst.com/aec/Web+Exclusive/Graphisofts-New-CEO-Discusses-a-New-Product/ArticleStandar...

I confess that I am very excited about this news.

I think there is a misunderstanding about the capabilities of this add-on, otherwise this tread would not be in the Rendering and Multimedia chapter.

From the images on the Cadalyst article you can see that this add-on gives you not only pretty pictures, but the ability of querying the model, like VICO 5D presenter http://www.vicosoftware.com/products/5d_presenter_2008/tabid/84575/Default.aspx (which btw is free...). Like Zermatt, of course, but I won´t go here

This is something that is SORELY needed.

As more and more ArchiCad users model their projects ever with more detail, being able to send this model to your client, engineer, constructor, licensing entity, as a navigable standalone is of enormous value.

Like I said, I am pretty excited. Zermatt has always been very promising, but lacked focus. With a Graphisoft similar product, we will have the support we need.

I would go as far as betting that if GS included this add-on as the main AC13 feature, it would be a winner, but luckily I am not responsible for their development policy

I will camp in line to get it, and will keep my fingers crossed that they develop a IPhone compatible APP.

Way to go, GS.