Author Topic: VR or realtime type software  (Read 3676 times)

2016-03-24, 09:53:37

Paul Jones

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A client has asked if I can do a web based setup where the customer can add kitchen units to a scene, choose materials and get a print out. My part would be all the modelling and texturing. Anyone got any experience of this?

2016-03-24, 14:18:01
Reply #1

FrostKiwi

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A client has asked if I can do a web based setup where the customer can add kitchen units to a scene, choose materials and get a print out. My part would be all the modelling and texturing. Anyone got any experience of this?
Web-based is very though...

On the complex end we have UE4, but it's HTML5 capabilites, of which there are many and are well implemented, are not well explored to this day. Impressive, but outside the official documentation, you will have to put in quite some sweat into making it work. Also Firefox support is choppy at best and internet-explorer-tier at worst. Chrome only it is.
here are the semi official HTML5 demos and the one official one, which was made for Mobile, but runs in a browser.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7JBbG2G32TQR1FGenpYMlZ4b1U/view doubt vr will work web based.

I presonally worked with a html5 webgl framework called PlayCanvas:
https://playcanvas.com/
They are AWESOME for what they have achived in terms of simplicity and you programm in javascript of all things. There is also Lightmap support, so baking AO and possibly GI is maybe possible, but I'm not too sure when you hit the limit on bandwidth and wether GI can work.
All of it is based on a very Compatible and performant webGL version, but it does not support stuff you would expect to correctly implement ArchViz, like screen space reflections, but only changing model color and kitchen stuff, maybe...
...I personally used that plattform to demo a life unwrap 360° surveilance concept, where you zoom with a lens onto a part of a sphere and can reproject an enviroment from there, as if you were there.
Graphics used were non existant, as I only used it to stream video data and project.
As far as I recall it will be very very limited, but it is the easy to programm way. no vr support.

Lastly Unity. Unity has a very well developed and a great support for web based stuff.
You will find a ton of reference material and for quite some time it had better VR support then UE4, as Carmack worked to implement low latnecy VR APi features to unity first.
I however have zero knowledge of it and I strongly recommend you hit up the Unity forums for details.
I'd guess Unity is your best bet though.

All in all, web App means big tradeoffs - prepare for that. Forget photorealism, unless you want to go prerendered route, like The Foundries Color way demoed https://colorway.thefoundry.co.uk/
They have a different philisophy, where instead going dodgy ass web 3D, they render out specific passes and combine them in a smart way, where you can HUE shift live a color part and reflection, gi and so on is changed with that, but again, it's static.

Web 3D is still young compared to proper executable, so know, you will get in a load of hurt with some things.
I'm 🐥 not 🥝, pls don't eat me ( ;  ;   )

2016-03-24, 14:48:14
Reply #2

PROH

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Take a look at Autodesk Homestyler (Homestyler.com). I think it could be use to do what you're talking about.

2016-03-26, 18:18:12
Reply #3

juang3d

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The best way to do this IMHO is Unity, but this is to do a full custom app of course, and you can even offer them multiplatform if they want this in phones and tablets.
We did several apps, the counterpart is that it's not a cheap thing to do, not because the software but because you need a lot of time to make sure the app works correctly and to implement every feature you want, so to prototype an app like that is fast, to make a fully working app of good quality high level is costly, but as anything well done :)

Cheers.

2016-03-30, 21:13:39
Reply #4

Paul Jones

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Thanks guys, I'll check it all out.