Bloom Unit (Real time Render Engine for sketchup)
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Never underestimate the power of the subtle message. Although this one is only as subtle as top positioning will allow.
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Not sure how it works.... and indeed it might be expensive.
I was just impressed with the real time render engine and what they are showing on Youtube.
Really looks good and stable...I would love to try a demo, not sure if there is one yet
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I took time to have look at their website and explanations.
It is driven by Iray.
Concept feels interesting. A little too busness oirented for me but the potential seems interesting.
However at this price I personnaly would appreciate a demo version (with free rendering time) and all the "online" tools: ok for a paying time, but it should be an option. Local rendering should be possible (on user PC...) -
What I am interested in to know is whether they borrowed that render engine for their 'cloud service' or whether they actually developed the render engine themselves.
My feeling is they borrowed the technology and in that case I would love to know which render engine it is.
I rather use the render engine on local CPU's apart from the service they provide... -
For me it sounds like you buy the renderer for $299AUD and get 10 hours of time doing sessions like they do in the video where you can invite your customers to have a walk around your creations and show off your work. They don't write if the renderer itself locally works without any session hours but i would think so. Of course the primary goal of this is to show your work off to others in real time which is truely great.
If they advertised here maybe they should jump in and explain their product to the target customers
Edit: guess i was totally wrong. Their FAQ says:
@unknownuser said:
When you are not using the Bloom Unit service but still working with SketchUp, you can do everything except open the Bloom Unit window. So, you can use all normal SketchUp functionality, place objects and luminaires, assign library materials and create custom materials, you simply will not see the photorealistic results until you press the Bloom Unit button and start using the service.
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Hello,
I work at Bloom Unit myself, I can tell you the new pricing structure is 6 dollars an hour, being that the rendering is almost instant we don't feel thats too bad!
And you purchase hours, but you get billed on a 10 minute basis, so its 1 dollar for 10 minutes. But you can get 10+ very high quality renders in 10 minutes.
Youtube.com/bloomunit has the best show of exactly how fast it is.
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Also, it doesnt currently work locally because of the enormous local requirements but we are working on something along those lines, this is how its sent to different devices, its just a stream of images which are broadcast to whatever device you decide, phones, tablets computers etc.
I think if it turned out people wanted to see a local version en masse its something we would work harder to address, but as a cost effective means for people without demonic machines this seemed like a good way to go. Since not everyone has the big GPU's required!
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And as for information about the engine its using iray, but distributing via the cloud by a technology known as realityserver, developed by partners of ours called mental images. Iray's requirements are quite high, and we know not everyone is able to meet those requirements, so we've made a product that allows the crappiest laptops able to achieve high quality rendering. It even works on 3G connections since the server is working and throwing images at you constantly. Which you can save when your happy with the quality.
So its all cloud based at the moment, 1 dollar for 10 minutes, 6 dollars for one hour (minimum purchase being 1 hour, and is bought in increments of 1 hour).
I'll try to answer questions as they appear!
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Some Images of Renders from BU I've made
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Oooh thank you Danble for explaining more about the concept.
I actually like the whole real time idea and I definitely see a market for the real time sharing of the output. -
I hope its informative, i found this thread, created an account and tried to answer everything pretty quick, if you have any questions i havent answered I'll do my best to help!
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Just another note for some of the posts I've seen
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The cloud rendering if you view the http://www.youtube.com/bloomunit site is much faster than anything local that is currently available.
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RealityServer is the base product underlying Bloom Unit, and is entirely owned by us now.
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We are moving toward an ability to also facilitate local rendering as well, but no clear times are available for that. But it is entirely within our abilities.
Hope this was of some help!
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Hi, Danble:
Thank you for the additional information. I agree that this is a great concept. I hope the latency issues are minimal. -
Thanx for all the precisions Damble!
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Idea:
Offer your clients this only if they, too, are willing to pay per minute for your work and for those sessions.
I do like the idea of cloud rendering. This would mean I can work from any PC as long as it has broadband.
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Danble, Is there any way to test the latency (ping) to the render server before purchasing?
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Hello guys,
mitcorb - The servers are currently done primarily from the servers in Virginia run by Amazon. The latency delay is minimal since the server runs the updates constantly, and you simply get the latest image your network allows. So a super fast connection will get 10 updates in 5 seconds, or even as we've seen, many more, but a very slow connection will get 2 or 1 in 5 seconds at worst. Functionally, you still get to the excellent render in the same timeframe.
Ecuadorian - Its a good idea for a company to do this, to simply add the cloud hours to their costs, its no doubt much cheaper than the high spec machine and the high quality operator who would sit on it so I wouldn't think the client would complain greatly. Unfortunately there isnt a way to see it running on your machine as a 'test' since all the hours we would have to pay for ourselves from Amazon. But I can tell you we've run it from the UK off the Amazon servers and its been perfectly fast, I assume Ecuador would be a similar distance, and similar performance.
Let me know about any further questions guys!
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Final question: If the actual render engine is never installed in my PC, why the AUD 299 "installation fee"? What resides in my PC is just a client, after all. You would get tons more customers without an installation fee.
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To put it in a vague and simplistic term - stay tuned for upcoming announcements!
At the same time, you're also getting a library (that will expand) of manufacturers light fittings and 308 (at current) high definition materials.
There are also licensing costs that have been in flux until recently regarding the rendering and delivery technology.
However, as I said, stay tuned!
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Danble
as elmi said: why the initial 299$? I second on that
"Felix" renderer" based on maxwell works the same way but I dont remind of an initial fee...
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