Digital Air

Saturday, March 19, 2005

Help


If you've got a few minutes to spare maybe you could test something I've been working on. It's just a small realtime architectural walkthrough which uses Blender's built in game engine.

Don't get your hopes up it's not going to look like Half Life it's more a test to learn the limitations with respect to low poly modelling (as used in the games industry), radiosity light solutions and small texture files. To turn this into a business application, speed of development is the key driver. What you see on your screen was created in less than two hours from a 2D floorplan, to a 3D model to a radiosity solved, textured, realtime environment.

So if you fancy helping me out with some feedback please download the zip file (1.4Mb) containing an .exe file and two .dll support files (at the moment this is for Windows boxes only but a OSX 10 version is possible). Unzip the files into a folder and run the office1.exe file. It won't install anything apart from placing the three files which can then be deleted when you're done with it. To move about the office you "look" by holding the LMB and move by using the four arrow keys. The window is also scalable so try it at maximum as well to see how it runs.

Things I'm looking for are;

1. Did it work?
2. How smooth did it feel?
3. What are your machine specs particularly OS, CPU, and most importantly, video card.
4. How cool is that glass on the internal walls? I'm really chuffed with the glass and the light bloom effect of looking through two or more panes of glass at once :)

If all went well it should look something like the screenshot below.



office1.zip

Category:

posted by Ricky Dee at 10:53 PM

9 Comments:

  • Tip: Don't walk into the dark corridor as you'll walk out of the building and fall forever in black space. I didn't block that bit off in the 3D model. You'll have to quit the file and start again.

    By Blogger Ricky Dee, at 19 March 2005 23:31  

  • Downloaded the zip and...

    1) It worked. Worked well.
    2) Very smooth - a slight bit of tearing on the texture if I spun really fast but apart from that it looked good.
    3) Windows XP SP2, P4 3GHz, 1 Gig Ram, 256Meg Radeon 9800 XT
    4) Way cool. I liked walking backwards out of the building and seeing the light from the door getting ever dimmer. All it need was a bit of Radiohead in the background and it would have been a perfect suicidal moment.

    By Blogger Ian, at 20 March 2005 09:48  

  • Thanks Ian for the feedback. It's humbling to learn that the readers of this rubbish can be counted on the finger of one hand :)

    By Blogger Ricky Dee, at 22 March 2005 20:12  

  • This is the third time I have tried to add this comment, if this doesn’t work I am giving up!

    1)It worked fine unless I maximized the window, resizing was OK up to a point, once it got beyond a certain size it just hung.
    2)It was nice and smooth, but I am using a laptop, and the refresh is only 60 Hz so I probably wouldn’t be able to spot the tearing Ian mentioned.
    3)Windows XP SP2, 2.1G Hz Centrino processor, 1Gb RAM. GeForce FS Go5200 with 32 Mb.
    4)Most impressive. Can you do dynamic lighting, like you might get from a naked flame?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 26 March 2005 10:14  

  • Thanks for the feedback, very helpful. I've been seeing problems with Blogger's comment system recently so keep trying.

    Unfortunately Blender's Game Engine isn't exactly bleeding edge (it's about 5 years old) so I'm just seeing bit by bit what it can achieve. Current development of Blender is looking to add real-time shadows, which will be a huge step forward. With fast computers it should be possible to create something quite smart but at the moment speed of creation is the driving factor. Quicker it can be done the less cost is attached. Having overdosed on every property programme going (well, Sarah "Inflatable" Beanie’s Property Ladder) I think there's a niche market to serve the low end of property visualisation, rendering, animations, real-time walkthroughs etc. Photo realistic rendering is big business but far too expensive for private residential customers. I want to fill that niche with Non Photo Realistic (NPR) content.

    By Blogger Ricky Dee, at 26 March 2005 11:29  

  • Worked great, very smooth even maximized at 1600 x 1200 (but noticable "tearing" at this resolution).

    Light bloom is very cool -- provides atmosphere.

    I suppose using straight key mappings you could drive this with a game controller or other multi-axis input device.

    I'm encouraged that it's possible to do begin this kind of thing without spending a ton of time on it. Thanks for putting this up! If you get a chance I'd like to try an OS X version, for comparison. Or, post the blender file and I'll make the .exe/.app myself.

    Chris



    3.00GHz P4
    1 GB RAM
    ATI Radeon 9600, CATALYST 5.4
    Win XP SP2
    1600 x 1200 LCD

    By Anonymous Chris Baumbach, at 18 May 2005 04:29  

  • Thanks for the feedback Chris.

    Unfortunately as the file was for test purposes it no longer exists as used to create the .exe attached here. I'll try and make a new one and post the .blend here and I'll also announce it's availability on the Sketchup forums. I don't have access to a mac so you'll have to build it yourself.

    There is a Joystick script in existence but I've never used it.

    By Blogger Ricky Dee, at 27 May 2005 13:56  

  • .blend file can be found here. Any queries, leave a comment.

    By Blogger Ricky Dee, at 27 May 2005 16:13  

  • Nice Job - Thanks for all the effort. This is exciting, as I've ben looking for a way to create an architectural walk thru as well. This is the first soultion that seems resonable. Have found others, but FAR FAR too expensive (check out www.turntool.com at $8,400 US it's not cheap)

    Thanks Again !

    By Blogger Rick0289, at 28 May 2005 13:49  

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