Filed under: architectural resources, archvirtual, community, engineering, machinima, real estate, rl architecture, Unity3d, virtual architecture | Tags: architecture, archvirtual, city, downtown, dubuque, funding, game, iowa, kickstarter, main street, MMO, multi-player, multi-user, real, realtime, Unity3d, urban
We’re raising funds to launch Main Street MMO, and we need YOUR help as a founding supporter!
There are so many incredible sci-fi, war games and medieval adventures available today, with amazing complexity, detail and realism.
Main Street MMO seeks to combine the fun and interactivity of video games with real cities to promote local businesses, showcase city initiatives, visualize architectural designs, and a lot more.
We need your help!
Here’s a link to our Kickstarter page where you can pledge your support for our project:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/keystone/main-street-mmo-real-cities-in-realtime-3d
As a founding supporter of Main Street MMO, we will engrave your name in a cornerstone, add your name to the credits, name an NPC after you, or even kickstart an MMO of your city (other creative award ideas are welcome! =)
Even if you can’t afford to back the project financially, please consider sharing this within your network to help raise awareness! Your tweets, facebook updates, and blog posts are the stuff a successful Kickstarter project is made of, so please help us spread the word!
We’re just getting started! For the past year, we’ve been partnering directly with local businesses in our premiere city of Dubuque, Iowa to determine which features they feel would be most useful in a technology like this, and have compiled a list of features and functionality we believe will take this project to a new level, but we need your help!
Please consider backing Main Street MMO! Your support is very much appreciated. If you think your city would be interested in something like this, or if you have ideas for new features we should add, please get in touch with us!
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/keystone/main-street-mmo-real-cities-in-realtime-3d
Thanks SO MUCH @openingdesign @epredator @pbroviak Derek Barrett @samdriver and @moirah for stepping up as our first backers! We can’t thank you enough for your support!
Filed under: architectural resources, archvirtual, city planning, collaborative design, real estate, rl architecture, Uncategorized, urban planning | Tags: 3D, animation, AR, arch virtual, architecture, archtech engine, augmented reality, autodesk, BIM, CAD, cities, city, collaboration, community, design, downtown, dubuque, education, game engine, geography, GIS, google, government, historical, interactive, iowa, jon brouchoud, kml, main street, maya, planning, realtime, replica, resource, simulation, tour, Unity3d, urban, virtual, walk-through
Introducing Virtual Dubuque, a premiere development of our new Realtime Cities initiative by Arch Virtual, built with ArchTech Engine.
Read the full post HERE.
This new community resource will provide free and easy to access windows into interactive, customizable 3D models of cities. To learn more about how we can build a realtime model of your city or architectural project, send us a note here. We’re currently seeking development partners to build new features, create custom content, and build out additional architecture and cities around the world, so please send us a note to learn more.
Over the past year,we have been partnering with local businesses and organizations in Dubuque, Iowa to develop features and sponsored content, including a project in the Historic Millwork District for a local real estate developer (coming soon!), as well as the Masonic Temple, where international members of Demolay will be working with industry pioneers in developing a world-class learning environment, using Virtual Cities as its core platform.
Read the full post HERE.
“We’re harnessing the same technology used to make the latest iPad apps and XBox 360 games, but we’re not making a game, we’re building dynamic and ever-changing models of cities that are designed to serve as true community resources that can be easily accessed directly from a website,” said Jon Brouchoud, Founder of Virtual Cities.
Using ArchTech Engine and the Unity3D platform, we’re now able to transforms buildings, geography and entire cities into realtime 3D environments that are easily accessible, and can be embedded on your website, or deployed to a tablet. These interactive models can be geo-referenced to real-world coordinates, dynamically linked to databases, and layered with interactive content.
As visitors explore virtual cities, links to websites and additional information about nearby buildings, parks, and businesses appear automatically. For example, when you approach a restaurant, you can click through to read their menu. If you’re near a historic building, you can learn more about its past. Businesses and organizations can customize and enhance their space in the virtual model, layering it with more information or interactive features.
Read the full post HERE.
Proceeds from sponsorship and custom content are then re-invested in the ongoing development of the city model, enabling Realtime Cities to add more features, build new parts of the city, and refine models with more detail.
But a virtual replica is just the beginning.
“If you’ve ever experienced the Voices Gallery in the Millwork District of Dubuque Iowa, for example, you’ve seen how a building can be completely re-imagined into a destination that celebrates the unique architectural character of a place, yet transcends it to become something completely unique,” said Brouchoud.
“That’s really what Virtual Dubuque, and the Realtime Cities initiative is all about. A replica of the city as it is now will certainly have interesting use cases, but I’m looking forward to seeing how cities can be re-imagined within an environment where anything is possible.”
Read the full post HERE.
Read the full post HERE.
Filed under: architectural resources, architecture, autocad, real estate, Unity3d, urban planning | Tags: 3d environments, AEC, animation, arch tech engine, arch virtual, architectural drawings, architectural visualization, architecture, archtech, BIM, building, CAD, cg, city, collaboration, communication, computer, construction, education, engine, engineering, game development, geography, interactive models, learning environments, military, military simulations, multi-player, planning, prototype, simulation, training, Unity3d, urban, video, virtual, voice, voip, walk-through
[Intro video] I am very excited to announce the launch of our new ArchTech Engine, a technology that transforms buildings, cities and geography into realtime 3D environments that are easily accessible, and can be embedded on your website, or deployed to a tablet.
Read the full post HERE
These interactive models can be geo-referenced to real-world coordinates, dynamically linked to databases, and layered with interactive content.
Transform your architectural drawings and 3D models of almost any format (including CAD and BIM) into information-rich applications that are perfect for architectural visualization, and city planning, as well as learning environments, military simulations, historical recreations, training environments and more. Students can interact within a more memorable learning environment, and achieve much greater retention over reading a textbook. All within a web browser or tablet.
Your application can be customized to suit your project’s specific needs. Make it multiplayer with voice and video communication or a single player experience and add non-player characters or an entire crowd of people to bring it to life.
To learn more about Arch Tech Engine, or to get started on your own project, visit www.archtechengine.com Arch Tech Engine is built on the Unity3D, and was developed in partnership between Arch Virtual and Tipodean Technologies.
Read the full post HERE
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: 3D, arch virtual, architecture, city planning, education, online, participatory, simulation, training, Unity3d, urban planning, visualization, walkthrough
Check out our new site here! http://www.archvirtual.com
It’s been a while since our last post, but we’ve been hard at work on some new projects we hope to publish soon! In the meantime, check out our newly renovated website: http://www.archvirtual.com We’ve made some exciting progress in technologies and methods for bringing architectural and city models into virtual environments, along with interactive features to augment and enhance those models. We will be posting more about these projects and services soon, so stay tuned!
Here are some pieces from the new website front page:
Architectural Simulation: Import buildings and entire cities into online 3D environments that can be accessed from a browser or embedded directly into your own website. We use cutting edge game development technology that enables you, your clients, project stakeholders or community members to explore, interact and collaborate within immersive 3D environments that are easily accessible.
Virtual Architecture: Use virtual environments for long-distance collaboration, education, training, simulation and more. We create virtual spaces that help organizations achieve greater effectiveness and efficiency for a variety of use cases. Contact us to learn more about how your organization can make use of virtual environments.
Design Collaboration: Nobody knows how your new building should function and perform better than you. Being able to witness and participate in the design evolution through interactive workshops, puts you, the end-users of your building, and other project stakeholders in the driver’s seat of the design process. Instead of waiting weeks to see the results of design changes, see them take shape immediately. Contact Arch Virtual today to learn more about how we use virtual environments to offer a whole new approach to building design.
Check out our new site here! http://www.archvirtual.com
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: AEC, architecture, collaboration, innovation, jeffrey philips, jena ball, jibe, opensim, ovo innovation, prototype, retail, startled cat, Unity3d, virtual
This blog has moved – read the full post HERE.
What a year so far! Lots of great Unity3D and jibe projects, a pair of OpenSim builds, and even some Unreal and Web Alive work. This year has been all about platform diversification, and some of the biggest and technologically innovative builds I’ve had the pleasure of working on.
Yet it seems somehow fitting that the ‘dream come true’ project brought me full circle back to Second Life, with a project for a Fortune 500 firm to design and prototype the firm’s physical retail spaces. This project truly raised the bar for architectural brainstorming and collaboration around physical architecture and the built environment. Jena Ball (Startled Cat) and Jeffrey Philips (OVO Innovation) touch on some features of the project, and the advantages of innovation and collaboration in their paper, “Immersive Virtual Worlds as Innovation Platforms: http://www.innovationmanagement.se/2011/05/26/immersive-virtual-worlds-as-innovation-platforms/
The full white paper describes the concept in greater detail. Here are a few of my favorite quotes:
“More recently, the authors of this paper worked with a Fortune 500 firm to design, prototype and model both the look and feel of the firm’s physical retail spaces and the experiences the firm wanted customers to have in retail establishments. To accomplish this task we immersed the team – clients and consultants – in Second Life, building new retail establishments and interacting with those retail spaces using avatars. We believed thatworking as avatars in an infinitely malleable 3D environment would not only spark their creativity and encourage experimentation, but be quicker and more cost effective than trying to do the same work in a sterile conference room.
“As we developed the retail spaces, their avatars moved through the spaces, recommending changes and generating ideas on the fly in a setting where rapid prototyping was exceptionally simple.
“Working with trained innovation facilitators and a “real” world architect specializing in virtual world development the firm’s participants generated more ideas, a much larger range of ideas, in far less time, at a fraction of the cost than in previous attempts. We were also able to create a significant number and wide variety of prototypes for consideration. The immediate feedback and ability to modify the prototypes in real time while participants watched and commented significantly increased the speed and effectiveness of the prototyping as well. We easily tested dozens of ideas based on the architecture, technology, allotted space, traffic flow, the needs of customers, and the skills of the firm’s retail personnel. It is important to note that all of this work was done with a team whose members were distributed all across the US and never met face to face. All interaction and prototyping was conducted in Second Life.”
“Virtual worlds allow rapid, iterative prototyping in three dimensions with little cost. Architects, for example, can quickly and easily create mini or even full-scale models of homes to show to their clients. Likewise, it is quick and easy to make adjustments based on client feedback in real time as it is given. This kind of iterative prototyping not only speeds up the development process, but encourages idea generation and out-of-the-box thinking as well. Rapid, iterative prototyping is so natural in these spaces that you’d think the virtual worlds were designed for this purpose alone” (bold emphasis mine).
Filed under: Unity, Unity3d | Tags: animation, architecture, design, documentation, elevation, engine, game development, how to, plan, prefab, quality settings, rendering, section, teleport, toggle, tutorial, Unity, Unity3d, urban, visualization, walk-through, waypoint
Check out Architectural Beginners Kit 2! If you’re not a programmer, this is a must-have toolkit for architecture and design visualization projects built with Unity3D.
Here’s a video showing the kit in action: http://vimeo.com/17939173
Here’s a demo build: http://archvirtual.com/ABK2.html
Here’s where you can purchase the kit for $45: http://bit.ly/fx4TPQ
Here’s what the kit includes:
Click to Look: instead of having to lock and unlock the mouse to click buttons, this kit now includes a ‘click to look’ setup, where the scene doesn’t move unless you want it to.
Scene Switch: Load several models, and let visitors switch between them. For example, you might load several iterations or options for a design project you’re working on. Visitors will now be able to simply click a button to switch between them.
Waypoints: Set up various waypoints in your scene, and enable visitors to access those locations just by clicking a button. For example, you might have waypoints set up for the Lobby, Offices, Cafeteria, etc. so visitors can quickly access those areas without wandering through the model trying to find it.
View Switching: The default mouselook view is great, but sometimes those traditional Plan, Section or Elevation views are helpful to understand the design. With this feature, you can set up those views, and enable visitors to your project to switch between them.
Quality Toggle: You never know what kind of computer your visitors are using. With Quality Settings toggle, they can adjust it to suit their own computer’s performance. If they’re on a netbook, they can toggle it way down to ‘Fastest’ – which won’t look as great, but it won’t lag as much. If they’re on a super fast machine, they can enjoy the highest possible quality settings.
Detailed Tutorial Documentation: As with the previous kit, the tutorial documentation is just as valuable as the prefab elements themselves. You can drag and drop the prefabs into your scene, or you can dig deeper, learn how they work, and customize them to suit your project’s specific requirements.
We hope you enjoy the new Kit! We’re already brainstorming the next kit, and welcome any suggestions for specific features you would like to see included. Send us a note at info (at) archvirtual.com if you have any questions.
Architectural Beginner’s Kit 1 is available here: http://archvirtual.com/?p=2950
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: anders gronsted, indie, jibe, jon brouchoud, kyle gomboy, metaverse, reactiongrid, serious games, train for success, Unity3d
This site has moved to
www.archvirtual.com
Tomorrow (Dec. 2nd), I’ll be joining Kyle Gomboy from ReactionGrid and Anders Gronstedt from Gronstedt Group for their ‘Train for Success‘ meeting. We will be meeting at the new space I recently finished for the Gronstedt Group – built with Unity3D, and published to ReactionGrid’s ‘jibe’ platform for multi-user access. You can access the build HERE.
“This meeting will be held in our brand new virtual world developed by 3-D developer and architect extraordinaire Jon Brouchoud in Reaction Grid’s industry-leading, web-based, Jibe platform. Developed with red-hot game engine, Unity3D, this 3-D virtual world can be accessed in any standard browser (no big software download needed, just a small plug-in) and in a few months it will be available on the iPad, iPhone, Android and other mobile devices. Join us for a demonstration of the platform, which can be hosted securely by the client behind the firewall and offers a realistic and beautiful visual experience. Note that this meeting is not held in Second Life, just click on this link to access (it will prompt you to download the Unity plug in):http://jibemicro.reactiongrid.com/Gronstedtgroup/Gronstedt.html
Then on Friday, (Dec. 3rd), I’ll be giving a presentation titled, “Design Methods and Strategies for Creating Effective Virtual Spaces.” Please check back Friday morning for the exact time.
This site has moved towww.archvirtual.com
This is a 2 part video tutorial series, providing an overview of the process involved with importing architectural models into Unity3d. In this case, we’re using Revit Architecture 2009, but the process is relatively universal, and can be applied to just about any architectural CAD or BIM software. After importing your model, try out our Architectural Beginner’s Kit, which enables you to quickly add operable doors, lights, material changers, orbiting cameras and more. If you need some help, or would rather not tackle this on your own, I can also be brought in as a consultant to help with your project.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: browser, second life, tipodean, Unity3d
This site has moved to www.archvirtual.com
A few weeks ago, I was given a demo of a project called ‘Canvas,’ by former Linden Lab manager Chris Collins (Tipodean Technologies). After clicking a url he gave me and logging in, I was suddenly standing on Architecture Island (in Second Life) – yet I was in a web browser, seeing SL through the lens of Unity-built viewer. Surrounding the 3D view were various javascript widgets that Chris tells me can be customized – “there’s nothing stopping you from really going crazy with these.” Imagine a custom Studio Wikitecture viewer with voting and commenting built into the window, instead of flipping back and forth between SL and the web.
I logged into SL through the standard viewer, and used that avatar to rez a prim – which then showed up within the Unity-built browser viewer.
This is an exciting step toward integrating the ‘worlds’ of Second Life and OpenSim with the power and sophistication of Unity3D. Whereas Unity is superior in almost every way for creating the actual 3D online environment, its a bit lonely, and it doesn’t feature any ‘in-world’ modeling tools out-of-the-box (although it could be used to build that). Its more like working in CAD or Photoshop, and I miss glancing up at the mini-map to see who’s nearby. I’m always half-expecting a friend to fly in next to me, but Unity unity is an application, not a world (although it can be used to build one).
Seeing this glimpse of a potential future is very exciting, insofar as it can be seen as an eventual bridge between the sophistication and power of Unity with the world and social graphs of Second Life and OpenSim.
The ARCH 