Real time interactivity and SketchUp models

esperientben · 27 Jan 2009, 15:02

Hello all,
I am a new member here and would like to introduce myself. I am CEO of Esperient, a Company that develops real time 3D authoring tools for visual computing applications.

Anyway, we have recently integrated our software (Esperient Creator) with SketchUp. This allows non-programmers to drag their SketchUp models into our software and then add (using simple drag and drop) animations, shaders, real-time shadow mapping, materials and a host of other features. The whole process takes just a few minutes and transforms a static model into an interactive application.

We have created a video that shows the process and this is available to view or download from http://www.esperient.com/videos/sketchup.wmv

I hope that I have posted this in the correct place and that it is of interest.

All the best

Ben

remus · 27 Jan 2009, 15:10

Thats very interesting, thanks for showing us.

goes of to check it out

esperientben · 27 Jan 2009, 15:32

Thank you Remus - I will be interested to hear your opinion...

All the best

Ben

chango70 · 27 Jan 2009, 15:56

Incredable! Thx!

thomthom · 27 Jan 2009, 17:47

Looks interesting.

sepo · 27 Jan 2009, 23:35

Looks very good...

Mike Lucey · 29 Jan 2009, 02:55

Hi Guys,

I've watched the video and rambled through the site. My initial impression is that this software offer good possibilities on the animation front. I would imagine it falls into the medium learning curve, maybe inclined to the easy curve.

Its a pity that there is not a Mac version! However I will try out Creator 3.5 on Bootcamp when time permits as I would like to get a handle on things.

The price at $500, if I am reading it correctly is reasonable for what is on offer in comparison to alternatives. I would not be inclined to rely on it for still renders though but again this would not appear to be Creator 3.5s forte.

If you want a quick overview check out this PDF http://www.esperient.com/images/stories/PDFs/esp_creator_product_data_sheet.pdf

If any of you Windows Guys try it out please post a video of the output.

Mike

solo · 29 Jan 2009, 05:03

Looks very interesting, is there a trial version available? (For some reason I cannot access the website, did read the pdf) as $500 for any app without a demo is unheard of these days.

esperientben · 29 Jan 2009, 05:57

Hi
There is a community version available at:
http://www.esperient.com/publicdownloads/SetupEspCreator.exe

This is free, fully featured but is water-marked and has publishing restrictions. The website also includes many demos (requiring the free viewer) and videos showing off features and applications.

Oh - the mac version is on the roadmap but we are a small team......

Ben

esperientben · 4 Feb 2009, 17:44

Hi all,

I wanted to show you some more ways to add real time interactivity to SketchUp models so have posted a video which can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkVM0Mj-iVc .
In this video, we drag terrain and boat models direct from Google warehouse and drop them into Creator. We then apply textures and shaders to make the water reflect and refract in real time. Finally, we add steering to the boat and a wake behind for more realism. All of this is done using drag and drop features and is completed in less than 10 minutes.
All the best
Ben

esperientben · 5 Feb 2009, 08:47

Another video showing how to transform a SketchUp car model into a basic product configurator. This time we have used drag & drop 'Smart Objects' to add a simple User Interface, a material color changer and pre-defined view buttons. Again, the model is dragged directly from Google Warehouse and the interactivity features are simply dragged and dropped on to the model. Total time to create - less than 10 minutes.

The video can be seen at:

http://www.esperient.com/index.php?...=192&Itemid=271

esperientben · 6 Feb 2009, 18:59

Following overwhelming public demand - well, one rather grudging invitation - I am going to point you to two more videos that have been posted on youtube. The first shows how various UI elements can be dropped onto simple SketchUp models, in this case a chair, to turn it into a professional looking product sales tool.

This can be found by following http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QASQulLZJq8

The second shows how the further use of drag & drop Smart Objects can add real time post-processing effects - pen & ink, slate & chalk, water color etc - to models in just a few seconds. This one uses an architectural street scene and can be found at

I do hope that these are of interest.

Cheers all

Ben

xrok1 · 7 Feb 2009, 06:35

seems pretty sweet, but i'm getting alot of choppiness on my AMD4600+ dual with 2Gig of ram. and an nvidia 8600 512M. is this normal?

esperientben · 9 Feb 2009, 11:46

Actually, that video did look a bit jerky - maybe it is the capturing software. Try out another video - we have just posted another on YouTube that shows how to drag & drop vehicle dynamics onto an imported car mesh from Google Warehouse. This allows you to drive your car model around!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmDRnfEp8bM

All the best
Ben

kwistenbiebel · 9 Feb 2009, 12:22

It would be a good thing to say in your opening post that you are talking about a commercial product (company? name of product?).
I have no problem with a product announcement, no need to disguise I would say.
It is confusing.

xrok1 · 10 Feb 2009, 01:30

@xrok1 said:

seems pretty sweet, but i'm getting alot of choppiness on my AMD4600+ dual with 2Gig of ram. and an nvidia 8600 512M. is this normal?

i'm talking about running the program, not the video.

esperientben · 13 Feb 2009, 14:52

Doh! You should not have any problems with the spec that you have. However, we have reports of the Nvidia 5/26/08 Ver: 6.14.11.6996 appearing to drastically affect real time shadow scenes in Creator and we are looking into this.

Can you let me know what driver you are using.

Thanks
Ben

esperientben · 13 Feb 2009, 15:06

Hi all,

We have developed some more Smart Objects to make it easier to transform SketchUp models into interactive scenes. These videos (3 of them) show how a model of Wall-E can be dragged into a scene from Google warehouse. Then a series of smart objects are also drag & dropped into the scene to create a game environment with scoring, health management, bonus objects, obstacles etc. While it is, of course, pretty simple, it only takes 10 minutes or so to build. The videos can be seen at:
Wall-E I http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwqkOj-pYoo
Wall-E II http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tg5ka0QWl-A
Wall-E III http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmuTJd0xPIs

All the best

Ben

xrok1 · 14 Feb 2009, 03:03

just to clarify its the viewer thats jerky.
grafics driver ver 7.15.11.8122 jan14/09

BTW i'm trying to [DOWNLOAD BONUS SMART OBJECTS] and i get this:

Not Found

The requested URL /\images\stories\demos\BonusSmartObjects.zip was not found on this server.

xrok1 · 14 Feb 2009, 04:20

i DL the gamesmart objects how do i install them?

PS also seems Esperient won't import my SK7 models? is this the case?