CGarchitect.com - View Single Post - HKS taking RT architecture to the next level .......

Vince Paske · January 16th, 2008

Ok, being a gamer I have to ask - Do you guys ever take some of those projects , load them up with guns and do a little deathmatch at lunch to blow off steam? It'd be a blast blowing out the windows of the luxury boxes with a rocket launcher.

Another (more serious) question - who runs the camera during the presentations? I know that clients and most of the architects I work with would have the world flipping upside down and quickly be out of control using w,s,a,d and mouse-look.

The herky-jerky motion and transitions on the demo video on the web site can cause motion sickness in most viewers (at least the 3 I've shown). You may want to smooth it up a tad.

Unreal 3, Gears of War and Bioshock are beautiful games with wonderful lighting and texturing (that use that engine). However, they take a long time (year ('s)) to develope with large teams pounding on them. How many people and how much time did it HKS take to do the Dallas Stadium for instance?

Most of the environments in those gorgeous games are in smaller settings, not large stadium sized environments. How does that factor into working with the engine, especially in regards to lighting? When I first read the article I was expecting to see quality achieved in those games and was dissapointed with what I saw, but I suspect it's because of those reasons.

The last section of the Business Week article states "Visualation may even become part of the design process...". I'm not sure how using an interactive approach with a game engine facilitates the process better than what many of us are doing in-house with VRay and a render farm. In fact, because I use a system where I can achieve very realistic materials and light fast, from any view, render, remote view it along with other designers as it renders (usually under a minute), tweak - the design process is amazingly fast.

I think its great what you are doing - pushing the envelope. I think all of us have thought about the possibility and "what-if's" regarding using game engines for AEC visualizations, and you are doing it and that is awesome. However, like the article also states, it'll be a while before our industry masters these engines to the level of a game developer. I guess that's why you are looking interns with game develp/program experience ;-)

January 16th, 2008	#13 (permalink)
Vince Paske Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Madison, WI Posts: 281 Name: Vince Paske	Re: HKS taking RT architecture to the next level ....... Ok, being a gamer I have to ask - Do you guys ever take some of those projects , load them up with guns and do a little deathmatch at lunch to blow off steam? It'd be a blast blowing out the windows of the luxury boxes with a rocket launcher. Another (more serious) question - who runs the camera during the presentations? I know that clients and most of the architects I work with would have the world flipping upside down and quickly be out of control using w,s,a,d and mouse-look. The herky-jerky motion and transitions on the demo video on the web site can cause motion sickness in most viewers (at least the 3 I've shown). You may want to smooth it up a tad. Unreal 3, Gears of War and Bioshock are beautiful games with wonderful lighting and texturing (that use that engine). However, they take a long time (year ('s)) to develope with large teams pounding on them. How many people and how much time did it HKS take to do the Dallas Stadium for instance? Most of the environments in those gorgeous games are in smaller settings, not large stadium sized environments. How does that factor into working with the engine, especially in regards to lighting? When I first read the article I was expecting to see quality achieved in those games and was dissapointed with what I saw, but I suspect it's because of those reasons. The last section of the Business Week article states "Visualation may even become part of the design process...". I'm not sure how using an interactive approach with a game engine facilitates the process better than what many of us are doing in-house with VRay and a render farm. In fact, because I use a system where I can achieve very realistic materials and light fast, from any view, render, remote view it along with other designers as it renders (usually under a minute), tweak - the design process is amazingly fast. I think its great what you are doing - pushing the envelope. I think all of us have thought about the possibility and "what-if's" regarding using game engines for AEC visualizations, and you are doing it and that is awesome. However, like the article also states, it'll be a while before our industry masters these engines to the level of a game developer. I guess that's why you are looking interns with game develp/program experience ;-)