Can this be Sketchup 7 clue?
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Hey all,
Well i guess we are all wondering when, how, and where is skp7, there has been no word from the all mighty google and every one seems to be throwing some wishes and bug fixes to be in the version 7, but lets face it no one has any clue about how it will be. Well i just found something that might shed some light in the sketchup 7 black hole, but lets face it probably the guys in the development team are watching all these posts with some amusement.
Here it goes, in my opinion google wants sketchup mainly for on reason, the reason for what they bought the program, that is to populate google earth with 3d models, i guess that in the role of sketchup in the google agenda and all the other features are just some small extra bonus. So the main development should be in the direction of making 3d buildings textured easily and in the fastest way possible, so that all the 12 year old kids in warehouse start to compulsively model their cities. The best way to do this is with a Procedural modeling engine, and google tech talks has recently had Pascal Mueller a PhD candidate and research assistant at the Computer Vision Lab of the ETH Zurich, Switzerland and the creator of one such programs to talk and explain how his program the "CityEngine" works, and also the concept for automatic architecture
"Creating digital content for virtual worlds remains a significant challenge, especially for urban environments, which are among the largest and most complex. As display capabilities improve and audience expectations grow, procedural modeling techniques are becoming an increasingly important supplement to traditional modeling software."
So is this a probable design feature for sketchup 7. I have to say watching the cityengine break and build a facade in seconds is impressive, and what about making Pompeii in a blink of a eye! this would make modeling buildings much much easier.
What do you guys think of all this??
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Interesting, well spotted ELYSIUM. I watched some the
the first video and this approach would probably be a
very attractive direction for Google Earth!Mike
PS: BTW, I noted that the presenter says Pompeii was
allegedly destroyed by a volcano
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Elysium,
I think you are right about the purpose of Sketchup (according to Google).
(That's why I am slowly starting to learn Cinema4D for modeling.)
Google Earth and all gps applications that will derive from it, makes SU a low poly mass modeler and not so an arch modeler. -
I like the fact that sketchup will have cool new tools for building creation, but as that is not the only thing people use it for i think they should not ignore other needs of the users.Google should remember that most people are not architects and care more about modelling any other thing than buildings.
Hope that Sketchup won't end up just a architect's tool and nothing more. -
It seems to me that no matter what direction they go, they are not likely to take away any tools already in SketchUp. Therefore, if many disciplines are using it as-is, why would they stop using it if only more architecturally related tools are added?
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I think the question is: will SU become a low poly modeler solely?
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I agree with kwistenbiebel, why whould they want for example nurbs and other advanced modeling tools if their goal is to have low abilities modelers making buildings (AKA 12 year olds form warehouse) for google earth. is it high complexity program and high learnig curve VS simple program small learnig curve? they surely want it simple and easy for the masses.
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yes, interesting. however, if you go procedural's site you see a lot of stuff but not a word about HOW you do it. the whole thing could be just the work of a very skillful animation team. i will wait until the app is released to see how it works.
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@kwistenbiebel said:
Elysium,
I think you are right about the purpose of Sketchup (according to Google).
(That's why I am slowly starting to learn Cinema4D for modeling.)
Google Earth and all gps applications that will derive from it, makes SU a low poly mass modeler and not so an arch modeler.How are you finding Cinema4d Kwist?
A friend of mine has just purchased it and is using one of my SU models and adding terrains, flythroughs and some rendering. He is not using it for modelling though.
How is it for actual modelling of Architecture? -
Edson,
i find it strange that you might even consider this some form of elaborat hoax, i mean we are talking about a PhD candidate at the Computer Vision Lab of the ETH Zurich, not some underground person, and why whould google invite him to show his work to their team? Unless google is also in on the hoax?! i bet we can find a conection to the pentagon! (just joking)
any way i think this is the link to the papers made to the Phd in Zurich.http://www.vision.ee.ethz.ch/~pmueller/wiki/CityEngine/PaperCities
Procedural modeling is a normal tool i guess most modeling programs have some form of it, nothing ou of the ordinary, they just took adpted it.
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elysium,
do not get me wrong. i did not even consider it being a hoax. what i mean is: if you are hawking a product or an application, it does not help much to show just the final product without showing how you get there. a potential customer will want to know how easy it is to achieve those results.
as for someone being a PhD candidate, this is no assurance of anything. i know what i am talking about as i hold a PhD (earned in the US) and direct lots of theses all the time. PhDs can be honest and bright but they can also be pompous, dishonest and, believe me, plain stupid.
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roger that Edson,
In these subjects you certainly have much more experience than me, any way no point arguing, we will just have to wait and see, like you said. but i still believe that sketchup 7 might incorporate some form of urban procedural modeling, that seems more likely than other advanced modeling tools that so many people are asking for. -
I actually think that SU is at the cross-roads now and V7 is going to pretty well determine which track Google is taking.
The kids and the hobyists and even a lot of serious designers are pretty well covered with the free version.
If Google want people to actually pay money for the next upgrade its going to have to be pretty damn attractive. Im sure they are not going to ignore the GE side of it but surely some of the Google honchos must be aware that SU has been taken up by an enormous number of design professionals, particularly architects etc., many using 3DCG for the first time.
Google has a captive market......come up with something great and we will be falling over each other to pay for it.
Or maybe they dont really care that much?
Stu
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I wonder if there will be revelationsat 3D Basecamp in Mountain View...
I'd personally like to see them come up with a web-based Sketchup...a 3D "Google Docs" of some kind (but hopefully without sacrificing current capabilities). I'm already rather feverishly tied into all this iGoogle and Gmail stuff...
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This "Procedural modelling" is quite fascinating. I'm hoping it would see its way into SU7 (or SU8 - whenever / if it sees the light of day) as it would make generating believable neighbourhoods and backgrounds so much easier.
As for SU7, I hope they've sorted a lot of the old bugs and have been able to add much needed support and speeding things up a lot. I really like using SU, but I fail to see at this point why I would pay for an upgrade seeing that there is so little difference between the free and Pro versions, something that was quite surprising to me.
To add insult to injury, most of the progress being made SU-wise are by people doing unbelievable ruby scripts, most of which are free.
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got to agree with juju . . . the productivity of the ruby amateurs must be putting the real team to shame!
Procedural modelling? Frankly I would rather see the text tool working properly . . and Layout too . . -
Stuart, you cant do everything with ruby. As good as ruby is, id much rather have the SU team working on getting a really good base program than have them working on things that can be achieved with ruby.
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