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FisherDachs
Up and Coming
January 8, 2014

Architectural Design Development - A First Try

I'm an architectural consultant specializing in theater design. When I first saw the Oculus Rift, my initial reaction actually wasn't 'yay videogames!', but actually 'yay seat views!'.

A big part of my job is helping clients understand what a theater will 'feel' like--both in general and from specific seats. This has a certain X factor that's difficult to pinpoint using only flat renders on a sheet of paper. Thus, due to the depth perception and rotational tracking afforded by the Oculus Rift, it's a wonderful tool for simulating architectural spaces.

I see a vast scape of potential here, and here at the beginning I'm just scratching the surface. There's a thousand things I'm now working toward, including a fully animated and lit stage, animated audience members, playing with materiality, showing different design options in real time, and camera height changes. Also can't wait for when we get a version of a Rift that has motion tracking!

(the only thing I'm worried about is clipping plane problems)

For now, here's my first pass:

My first Oculus Rift project: http://youtu.be/7qQNCHYe4K8

A little bit under the hood of what I'm doing in Unity: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsKA1JWJFUU

Love to hear what you all think. Thanks :D !

    5 replies

    drash
    Inspiring
    January 8, 2014
    Watched your first video. I enjoyed hearing your insights on what you can do that you couldn't do before. And, I know this wasn't your point, but all this time I had only been thinking about watching movies in a movie theater in VR, but now I realize there could be plays, operas, circus shows, all of that. Cool!

    For your geometry clipping issue, I think you said you already brought the near clipping plane down as much as you could but you probably could double-check that this change is actually affecting the individual CameraLeft/CameraRight cameras at runtime. Depending on which version of the Oculus Unity integration you're using, there were some issues w/ the clip plane values sticking, so if you're running into that issue, be sure that you're setting the desired clip plane values in 3 places: on the OVRCameraController, CameraLeft, and CameraRight.

    Thanks for the interesting videos!
    Titans of Space PLUS for Quest is now available on DrashVR.com
    FisherDachsAuthor
    Up and Coming
    January 9, 2014
    Thanks so much drash! You were right, my left and right cameras did not have the clipping planes adjusted. That helped a lot. Thanks again!
    deflix
    Up and Coming
    May 14, 2014
    Nice - I particularly like the sketch style you have achieved, it works well for design development.
    i have also been working on design visualisation in the rift, and also for theatre design - you might find it useful to see our first attempt here - viewtopic.php?f=28&t=7446#p101614

    cheers
    "Behind every successful man is a woman rolling her eyes" -Jim Carrey
    dsparkes
    New Participant
    August 26, 2014
    Hello!

    I watched both of your videos because, soon I'm going to be in the same (similar) situation. I plan on using the oculus for some architecture visualizations as well. I have very very little experience with unity/ other 3d programs such as 3ds max, blender, etc. I do however use Revit somewhat regularly.

    Could you share with us what your workflow is like, and what you do in each program/step(in a broad sense)? I'm assuming that since you use 3ds max you either modeled everything in there (along with your animations) and then dumped a .3ds file into unity or started somewhere else first.

    What would really help me is: If I'm going from Revit>Unity, is it necessary/recommended to make a stop in 3ds before I go to unity? At what point in this process is it best to start applying materials? Materials at this point seems to be the most important thing (to generate a simple walk through), until I am more experienced and want to start looking into animations.

    Thanks! :D
    lravera
    Participant
    August 28, 2014
    Hey,

    Love the concept, and your logic behind it, I think this is where VR can really shine, lliterally transporting you wherever you want, in the comfort of your home/office. I'm also attempting a similar workflow. I'm on a Mac working with Cinema 4D and Unity Pro, and just received my DK2. Would also like to hear an overall workflow.

    Thanks!
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