Game style ArchViz entirely in Blender anyone?

[Prettypicturegirl]

Hi,

I created this thread over in the general support section but thought maybe here are more people able to give their in put with regards to Blender:

Game style ArchViz entirely in Blender anyone?

Hi, I am working in ArchViz and do create 360 VR tours from CAD & rendered equirectangular high-res images. This works well and gives a lot of image quality control. Personally I do not like the jerky movement which games usually have, but that is a different matter. Despite that things move more and more towards game style navigation within 360 tours and I like to give that a go. All done by one person for a reasonable budget. Not in Unreal, but in our trusty open source program Blender. D…

What I’d like to know is if this is possible in Blender or if one would really need to use Unreal instead.

The ultimate goal would be something like this but with smooth movements:

Architecture Real-time Interative - Unreal Engine 4 (Archviz)

[sodsm_live]

It’s easily possible. A lot of time would be spent on modeling and materials. As for working with the game engine, you would have to turn all of your fancy models in to lower poly versions but keep the nice materials on them. Some good lighting and your’re set. Then its just a matter of moving your camera around. Slow parent the camera to your moving observer and suddenly the visuals are very smooth. And everything would be no collision. You would fake the floor and obstacles with invisible box primatives to walk on.

[Prettypicturegirl]

Thank you Sodsm.

The low poly thing is the tricky part I guess, because usually there are complex models imported from architects and suppliers of all sorts and from many software packages involved. It’s already a lot of work creating a 360 degree tour based on equirectangular images. So remodelling each and every part is a very costly option. especially as each clients always likes to have different furniture.

But I like the fact that you say its possible and the suggestion with “slow parenting” is great!!!
So i will experiment on a small scale.

One more question. Is it possible to export such a tour from Blender to an exe file? I would not want the client to install Blender and learn how to use it.
Neither would I want them to be able to extract the assets of a tour. The tour would need a clean and minimalistic interface. Can that be done with Blender game engine? How do you see the chance of the game engine getting revived eventually?

[sodsm_live]

@Prettypicturegirl

The low poly thing is the tricky part

It may not be necessary to rebuild the models depending on how well the models are created. If the model creator used a million polygons to make a single couch then you will run in to problems(and the modeller needs to go back to school).

@Prettypicturegirl

Is it possible to export such a tour from Blender to an exe file?

There is an addon with Blender (pre 2.8) called “Save as Game Engine Runtime” This allows you to export the game as a binary (.exe type file in Windows) but it also comes with about 1000 python files. The whole thing before you actually build any kind of game/tour will come to about 150MB so not really that bad.

@Prettypicturegirl

Neither would I want them to be able to extract the assets of a tour

NOTE: OBFUSCATING ASSETS REALLY ISN’T MY AREA

That’s the real tricky part. In order to use the binary, the blend file within it will need to be GPL. I’m not knowledgeable enough about the license to say what you can or can’t do with it. I believe anything packed in the blend file would need to be GPL as well(textures, models, sounds, etc.). You could always load the assets externally in a typical retail game fashion but that makes it much easier for someone to get to the assets.

Then there is the way to sidestep the GPL (as per blender.org’s own guidelines) by creating a separate blend file that is loaded in by the standalone. Within that you can pack all of your assets and you can apply whatever license you want to that blend file. The problem there is that anyone with blender can open that blend file. This whole subject requires someone else’s input.

@Prettypicturegirl

the chance of the game engine getting revived eventually?

No chance. There are other options for you to stay within the Blender realm though - Armory and UPBGE can keep you away from the big money grubbing engines. My other suggestion is to have someone build you a minimal opengl engine. As little as you interact with a 3d tour, it shouldn’t take much but not really my field either.

[lordloki_reloaded (Jorge Bernal)]

You can use UPBGE 0.3 Alpha to achieve something similar
Here is a quick test:

UPBGE 0 3 Alpha - Archiviz Test

Basically UPBGE 0.3 Alpha is the former Blender Game Engine but using EEVEE as renderer, therefore you will see the same that you see with EEVEE. Addittionally, you can make a walk through or even a game with it (there is no need to programming).

Here you have the last builds: https://mega.nz/folder/t9EEFSaS#JPiOPSInCZyU-SW_-rhEOQ

[Prettypicturegirl]

Hey guys thanks for the input so far, I replied in the initial thread (also with a link to one of my current tours.)

Game style ArchViz entirely in Blender anyone?

@Lordloki That a truely awesome reply. I’m impressed. I was literally sitting on a knife edge when looking at it (the knife does not need to be a knife, does it ?) So yes, it can be done. Thanks for showing that. Still, of course I have more questions Stupid questions at first what does UPBGE stand for? Will it continue to be developed? Here some more, also for @skuax HARDWARE Regarding end client usability. I will have no control as to what they use as hardware. M…

[Prettypicturegirl]

Wow, that UPBGE is based on 2.8. Thats good news.