SketchUp-LightUp-Unity first try

david_h · 6 Jan 2010, 20:07

That is Terrific. I have also put the idea forward to my bosses and Colleagues at my work as well.

Pixero · 6 Jan 2010, 20:11

Unity is FREE to use comercially. Works on both Mac and PC.
It can output to a webplayer like this or to standalone exe or mac app.
However some major features is missing in the free version, like realtime shadows, reflections and good water. There will also be a Unity logo displayed in the viewer.
This was made with the 30 day pro trial that you can get.
After the trial...all shadows have to be baked with something like LightUp or 3dsMax.
I did this to show my boss and hopefully we can buy the pro license...

All shading exept tree shadows and fireplace is baked with LighUp.
Isn't it amazing that you can watch all this with lots of animated trees and particle animation and more in a web browser?

P.S. I wonder if I could get some provision for possible LightUp sales...

olishea · 6 Jan 2010, 20:12

wow!

are there any unlimited ammo cheats?

Gaieus · 6 Jan 2010, 20:33

OK, thanks Jan, so this is the pro trial. That explains. Too bad the pro version is rather pricy (or better say - there is no "in between" with someadditional features between the free and pro).

Update: BTW LightUp is also used with Walkabout3D:
http://www.walkabout3d.com/Tutorial/lightUp.php

boofredlay · 6 Jan 2010, 22:05

Brilliant.
Thanks for sharing.

nomo81 · 7 Jan 2010, 00:09

impressive,
unreal develpment kit its free!
check it out, am studying this great pice of software and looks amazing.

http://udk.com/

regards
nacho

Chris Fullmer · 7 Jan 2010, 01:06

But the UDK does not have a web plugin, so users can not experience anything built with UDK in their web browser - which is what so many people seem to want lately. So UDK is incredibly powerful, but it requires a standalone application to be downloaded and ran. Plus, I was under the impression that it is prohibitively expensive to use the UDK commercially? Maybe that is not right though.

Anyhow, UDK is very cool and I would not mind working out a solid workflow into it.

But, back to the topic - Jan that is AWESOME! I really enjoyed that. Quite a good web experience. One question though, Where would the owner hang her clothes?

Pixero · 7 Jan 2010, 07:08

@chris fullmer said:

One question though, Where would the owner hang her clothes?

Don't blame me blame the architect. (Mies van der Rohe)

As of UDK, you cannot use it commercially without paying huge amounts of money. Unity is FREE to use commercially although more limited but with a great workflow and a webviewer.

d12dozr · 7 Jan 2010, 07:41

That's fantastic...I liked the animated trees/shadows. How long did that entire scene take to make? (I understand it was your first time, I'm just interested in the level of difficulty)

FWIW, my laptop had a some trouble displaying the scene - jerky movements and it made Chrome crash right away and Firefox crashed when I went full screen. Just an observation for if you send the scene to clients, maybe make sure their computer can handle it first so they aren't turned off by the experience

nomeradona · 7 Jan 2010, 08:43

excellent excellent. very nice visual presentation. any clients can apprecaite such kind of presentation.

Frederik · 7 Jan 2010, 10:50

Impressive, Jan...!

cadmunkey · 7 Jan 2010, 10:56

That's brillant, even the neat little touches like the trees blowing in the wind are great.
Good stuff!

CaptainsLS · 7 Jan 2010, 16:06

I was curious if you wrote the script for the camera movement, or if there are scripts built into the software?

Pixero · 7 Jan 2010, 16:57

For this I used the build in "First person controller" script.
You can write scripts in javascript or C sharp.

nomo81 · 7 Jan 2010, 20:31

this is an example of udk commercial terms
"An architecture firm uses UDK to create a live walk-through presentation for their customers. They charge their customers a fee of $500 for each walk-through. Before they begin to charge customers for the walk through, they would pay Epic US $99.99 for a Royalty Bearing license. they sell walk throughs to 10 customers in the first quarter, bringing in $5,000 in revenue to charge customers No payment would be required to Epic for that first $5,000. In the second quarter, they sell another 10 walk-though presentations, bringing in another $5,000 in revenue. They are required to pay $1,250 to Epic. On subsequent revenue, they are required to pay the 25% royalty."

regards
nacho

Pixero · 7 Jan 2010, 20:48

@nomo81 said:

this is an example of udk commercial terms
"An architecture firm uses UDK to create a live walk-through presentation for their customers. They charge their customers a fee of $500 for each walk-through. Before they begin to charge customers for the walk through, they would pay Epic US $99.99 for a Royalty Bearing license. they sell walk throughs to 10 customers in the first quarter, bringing in $5,000 in revenue to charge customers No payment would be required to Epic for that first $5,000. In the second quarter, they sell another 10 walk-though presentations, bringing in another $5,000 in revenue. They are required to pay $1,250 to Epic. On subsequent revenue, they are required to pay the 25% royalty."

regards
nacho

But you'll have to show them on site through the game Unreal or the UDK editor or making a "screen capture in game movie" since there is no webplayer for UDK...
IMHO UDK is more for modders than visualisation.

nomo81 · 7 Jan 2010, 22:13

you can create a .exe to play in a pc, publish in xbox or ps3 it need more scripting.
unity can publish in the wii but it cost a lot.
Unreal Engine 3 Editor its for mod the Unreal games, but UDK its for make something from the zero.

udk its a real time render engine editor like unity.

nacho

OnlySean · 8 Jan 2010, 03:40

The best thing I learned while working with UNITY this summer was a simple workflow:
SketchUp -> Blender -> UNITY
u can leave out Blender for a static scenes, but the last time i checked, if u wanted movement or interaction, i.e: opening doors, u needed blender. Because all SketchUp Objects (groups) have the same origin (0,0,0) which made transforming or moving SketchUp geometry in UNITY a nightmare. I never found a function in UNITY that allowed to me reassign an objects origin to its center. Luckily all it takes in Blender is hitting to buttons once everything was selected. To figure out this workflow however, I spent 2 days Importing, Exporting and wildly swearing at my mac. If anyone has a better way pls let me know!
format used from SU to Blend: .3ds
format used from Blend to Unity: .blend

Anssi · 10 Jan 2010, 00:03

The problem of a plugin or standalone .exe solutions to display 3D content is that most clients are not very eager for things that require installing anything on their computer or running an unauthorized application. In most companies staff has no right to perform such operations, and would have to persuade an IT department to do the installation.

Anssi

pilou · 10 Jan 2010, 01:13

Funny I have seen these Unity animation in another forum (6 jan 2010) without know who was the author!
Sorry I have seen only the animation without click on the link to the subject
So next time sign your work
I remember fire in the chimney and wind on the trees