We have been using various virtual world systems since the launch of ActiveWorlds in 1995. Teaching students in both New York and London simultaneously gave us an early insight into the potential of these environments for collaborative lectures. Since then Second Life has come along and grabbed the headlines with its rich environments and ability to set up your own ‘Island’ on which to build. Both Oxford University and Edinburgh have recently released their own Virtual Islands with lecture halls and learning centres. For an insight in how Universities are using Second Life take a look at the Campus at Ohio State University:

We therefore require a step back – Oxford have recently launched their own Second Life campus but just talking to some of the people asked to use it I have serious doubts on its take up – and this is from an academic community that should be embracing such developments.

Of course Universities shouldn’t jump on the Second Life bandwagon for the sake of it but neither should they dismiss it out of hand. For those who dismiss such innovation take a look at the movie by Dr. Tony O’Driscoll on Experiencing the Sensibilities and Imagining the Possibilities of Learning in Three Dimensions:

Just don’t mention the research on these pages into Game Engines and real-time interaction..

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In terms of city visualisation the genre is suited to high rises and long draw distances. As UK GameSpot note in their review of the game – The city isn’t gigantic, but there’s enough familiar scenery around to make you want to explore, and that the city looks excellent is a big plus. Buildings are nicely detailed, the streets are jam-packed with cars and pedestrians, and the game uses some nice lighting effects to give the sky, as well as reflections of the sun off buildings, a rather pretty glow.

The three YouTube movies below provide an overview of the cityscape – from the game trailer to a run down of the city map and finally general gameplay.

Spiderman 3 Trailer

The City Map

Game Play

As ever with such games we, maybe uniquely, don’t focus too much on gameplay but on shear visualisation and the ability to explore the urban realm. As such Spiderman 3 is a game that should be on display in any architecture office if only to simply open peoples minds up to what can be achieved with game engines.

See our Oblivion posts, Game Engines and Cities in Games for more thoughts..

You can buy Spiderman 3 for the Xbox 360, PS3 or Wii from our Amazon Store.

The post Cities in Games – Spiderman 3 – New York appeared first on Digital Urban.

As an update for those new to these series of posts using the PC game Oblivion it is possible to easily import models from both 3D Studio Max and SketchUp. This opens up the ability to use the real-time lighting and weather effects within Oblivion for architectural visualisation.

The movies below provide an overview of our experimental imports to date, the tutorial will detail a step by step walkthrough of how to achieve the following:

University College London – SketchUp to Oblivion

London Eye – 3D Max to Oblivion

Fantasy City – 3D Max to Oblivion (Large Scene Sample)

The tutorial should be online Wednesday 23rd May, you can purchase Oblivion via our Amazon Store which includes the Elder Scrolls Construction Kit required for the tutorial.

The post Oblivion – SketchUp/3D Max Import Examples appeared first on Digital Urban.

In truth you only get peoples attention when you show the output and the realtime visualisation you can achive with software costing less than £20 ($35). See our posts on Game Engines for examples.

If the use of the word ‘Game’ gets laughter from people inside the industry, let alone fellow academics, our proposal three years ago to the ‘Cross Rail’ Board to visualise the Cross Rail route through London using a game known as Trainz suffered a similar fate. The following demo of Trainz highlights its potential:

Trainz is a very accomplished piece of software, not only allowing complex transport simulations but also the ability to import 3D models from other packages. As such we had a functioning demo, with fully texture mapped models and a series of UK rolling stock, operating through parts of the City of London.

It would of been a small jump to visualise the proposed Cross Rail route – sadly the word ‘game’ meant looks of derision from the members sat around the table in the board room. A 3D visualisation of the Cross Rail route would have been a fantastic leap forward in informing the public on both its benefits and its impacts on the environment, sadly if you look at the Cross Rail website there is no such level of sophistication.

If we had used the term ‘Agent based Transport Simulation’ we would of probably got the go ahead, its all the same work just a change in wording and a sad indication of the way that games based visualisation is perceived…

The post Perception of Gaming in Architecutre and Transport Modelling – Trainz appeared first on Digital Urban.

Of note is the realtime ambient maps demo – we know that criticism of 3D Max is frowned upon in many circles but can you imagine how long such a scene would take to render? To be able to do this in realtime via a game engine is enticing and it makes us wonder why more 3D modelling software, such as 3DMax, don’t have better realtime tools built in.

To see more on this and our realtime Oblivion movies take a look at the Game Engine Thread.

The post Crytek Realtime Architectural Visualisation – 2 appeared first on Digital Urban.

The two movies below illustrate the use of the new engine, the results and aim are similar to our work using the Oblivion Engine – you can see examples in the Game Engines Thread – but with a $10,000 dollar price age compared to our $20.

With the increase in computing power it is now becoming possible to carry out simulations in realtime on PC’s which were once limited to high end virtual reality suites. Interesting time ahead and times which move the emphasis increasingly towards photorealisic imaging and thus research on the rapid capture of city models.

After all if you have a realtime engine you need increasingly realitisic models to put in it…

The post Crytek Realtime Engine for Architecture Visualisation appeared first on Digital Urban.

The two movies below illustrate the use of the new engine, the results and aim are similar to our work using the Oblivion Engine – you can see examples in the Game Engines Thread – but with a $10,000 dollar price age compared to our $20.

With the increase in computing power it is now becoming possible to carry out simulations in realtime on PC’s which were once limited to high end virtual reality suites. Interesting time ahead and times which move the emphasis increasingly towards photorealisic imaging and thus research on the rapid capture of city models.

After all if you have a realtime engine you need increasingly realitisic models to put in it…

The post Crytek Realtime Engine for Architecture Visualisation appeared first on Digital Urban.

St John’s was designed by Edward Blore, one of the leading architects of his day, in the Early English style with a tall, ornate south western spire. Interesting architectural features are, externally, the lancets (like stone bridges) and internally the moulded piers (grooves in the pillars) and depressed arches (the tops of the arches are flatter than usual).

Modelling St John’s has become a slight labour of love in CASA with the aim to produce a rapid modelling technique giving way to frequent visits and concentration on reproducing the ornate windows and architecture.

The movie above displays the model in Google Earth (music:Requiem, Mozart performed by Le CHOEUR DES MARAIS). In the coming weeks the church will be imported into the Oblivion Engine and merged with the developing model of the area, you can view progress to date here. The raw model (24Mb) will be available for download in kmz format early next week.

Thanks goes to Chris Parker for his work on the model.
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The post St John’s Church Newham – Google Earth appeared first on Digital Urban.

The two movies above illustrate work to date with the project mid-way to completion on modelling the streetscape of Newham in London. The second movie includes air photography on both the ground and the buildings, enhancing the level of realism. The next step is the trees, lamppost’s, signage and the remaining buildings and then finally porting the model into the Oblivion Engine.

Further updates will follow, we should then have a blueprint on how to rapidly model the local streetscape with the aim of rapid architectural visualisation.

The post Modelling Cities – Update appeared first on Digital Urban.

The movie above illustrates the city first with snow fall and then at sunrise, it is still work in progress but for architects the use of a £20 game engine is surely intriguing..

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