The Evolution of Virtual Reality

Virtual Reality has come a long way in recent years, many Architectural firms have invested in Virtual Reality technology, further utilizing their Design Models. The benefits are numerous, and in some cases surprising. When I first introduced VR into our office in 2014 I want to create a buzz around this technology by having all levels of staff experience VR. My thoughts were to utilize this visualization tool as a design validation tool, having our clients virtually experience the space to gain a better understanding of the design intent, and that worked well, I think most design firms utilize VR for this reason.

What I didn’t expect was the overwhelmingly positive feedback from the Project Managers.

Project managers really enjoyed walking through the digital model of their project, they would inspect crucial design area’s and after experiencing the space was able to make improvements and minor tweaks to further improve the design.

Jump to 2018 where Virtual Reality has progressed to the next level, multi-user VR.

In the past Virtual Reality has been a single user experience, no one else was able to interact with you directly within the VR environment. That has now changed, Virtual Reality companies like IrisVR have developed Multi-User platforms where numerous people in a variety of locations can come together in a VR environment to engage and discuss the design.

What a great opportunity to bring together people who are engaged in an international project, working together across great distance.

I recently set up a test of IrisVR’s Prospect (Multi-User platform), so I contacted Sam who is a IrisVR Customer Experience Associate to set up a challenge for him. I contacted my colleagues in Sydney, Australia, San Francisco USA and Stuttgart, Germany and had Sam, who is located in New York to set up a live demo for me.

Here’s some of the feedback I received.

“In general, the experience has me more enthusiastic now more than ever of what VR can do to transform how we think about and approach collaborating!”

“This was an exciting moment when I was able to 'dial in' using Virtual Reality goggles combined with bluetooth headphones to both review and speak directly with the team. The computer wifi was able to keep up comfortably with the call and actions during the review process.”

“The VR Meeting worked really well and it was very responsive. Super easy to set up.”

“You can talk with the other attendees, see where they are looking at, where their hands are and also what they are pointing at.”

“It certainly felt like we were in the same room together.”

If you want to learn more about IrisVR’s Prospect click the LINK here.

I love this technology, anything that further utilized our Building Information Model is great!

Sc.

IrisVR Release v0.2.3; Revit direct to VR

IrtisVR has recently released it's latest version of their VR App.

This release has been several years in the making. Behind the scenes of the latest release; IrisVR reads the 3D model and pulls out relevant file information. While reading this 3D geometry, they have optimized the software to improve stability, reduce loading times, and expand file support. 

The manual process of creating VR walkthroughs can take hours (if not weeks), but  Iris v0.2.3 will reduces the process to seconds. 

IrisVR is a standalone piece software, which  the users download and install the software themselves without needing to send their files to a consultant. 

This provides users fast access to VR throughout the entire design process, allowing you to show the design ideas in VR with your clients, creating a seamless integration with existing design workflows.  

New Features
    •    Revit 2014 - 2016 File Support
    •    Autodesk Material Support
    •    Navigation Overhaul
    •    Improved Daylighting
    •    Screen Space Ambient Occlusion
    •    Scale Model "Dollhouse" Mode
    •    File Load Time Improvements
    •    Start Position Reimagined
    •    New Revit VR Plugin

Known Bugs
    •    Jagged edges caused by aliasing
    •    Dollhouse mode doesn't calibrate properly with cropped Revit 3D views.

This new solution enables users to quickly view their Revit files in VR! 
To access, go to app.irisvr.com and log in to download the latest build of our software. 
Controls and installation instructions can be found at http://app.irisvr.com/help.

A video announcement that showcases IrisVR 0.2.3 is also available that will explain how to get your files working in Revit in seconds: https://youtu.be/ZIB-ydgg1-E 

This release is intuitive and I know IrisVR are very excited to see how companies use it. 

Send me your feedback via comments.

Sc.

Calgary BIM User Group - VR for BIM Presentation

If your in Calgary on May 20th 2015 come and join the Calgary BIM User Group for a couple exciting presentations... I'm especially looking forward to the second presentation. ;-)

Meeting is being held at the Smart Technologies building located at:
3636 Research Road NW Calgary.

Bluebeam & BIM – Nick Decker – Bluebeam

Nick will show how architects and engineers can use Bluebeam Revu and its Studio feature to collaborate in real time and monitor their documents. As an example, he will show a workflow of reviewing steel shop drawings during construction. This project included many document management challenges in keeping up with revisions and comments on several thousand documents at one time. The project’s architects and engineers used Bluebeam Studio to collaborate, monitor workflows, and utilized Batch and Sets functionality for document management streamlining.

Virtual Reality for AEC – Scott Chatterton – CEI Architecture

Digital design allows the public to easily recognize and conceive the design intent of the building. Tools such as virtual reality and augmented reality continue to evolve enabling designers to visually integrate imaginative concepts into real world settings, to explore how their ideas and designs fit into their surroundings, and to tap into the extensive databases that already exist on the current infrastructure.

CEI presents Virtual Reality

Where Virtual Reality is taking Architectural Design

Imagine designing a building in a virtual environment, similar to what we saw in the movie "Minority Report".

Project Anywhere takes virtual reality gaming to new level, Constantinos Miltiadis, of ETH Zurich, has created Project Anywhere, a real time augmented reality environment where your own body is a digital avatar.

The centrepiece of his proof-of-concept kit are these lightweight Inteligloves that 

Constantinos has developed.

"This is an elastic PLA material that you can 3D print on a home 3D printer. These are flex sensors, we have a wireless module. This is a nine degree of freedom…inertia measuring unit, so it has an accelerometer, gyroscope, and digital compass." 

Using a smart phone which is fitted to a simple 3D-printed headset, users become fully immersed in the VR environment. Eventually (with further development) multiple people could occupy the same virtual space. 

Check out the video care of Reuters Video. 

And, thanks Andrea (from my office) for sending me the link :-).

Sc.

Oh, and check these out from Sony

Sony's Morpheus virtual reality helmet set 

More on AR and VR....

Here is an image of one of my desks of late. 

I have a few desks.... I like the stand up desk, it's where I go when I need to get away from my usual desk  (clutter) to be able to focus on something, in this case setting up the Virtual Reality software with our new Alienware laptop and OculusRift goggles.

Recently I've been playing with Augmented Reality more, especially since now there are apps for your phone and web sites that make it so much easier to push your model into AR. 

I downloaded the Augment app and set up a trial account with them. 
Works great! Very similar to when I first tried AR in 2012 (check out this blog posting) 

I tried it on a number of different files that I have specific for this type of application, the Revit models I have are typically stripped out of views and also interior components so it's just the shell. The tower model I tries works well when exported at STL, actually all the models work well as STL expect the materials do not show up. OBJ works good, the materials show up great however for the larger files it takes too long to load on the app on my phone.

I can see huge potential with this technology such as site planning, promotional and marketing material, visualization aid for clients, design options etc...And it's lots of fun and easy to do!

Very impressive, it's a quick way to impress people!

Sc

Virtual Reality and its impact on Design

Recently here at CEI we received our developer’s kit from IrisVR including an Oculus Rift headset. IrisVR is a new company developing software that will offer full native support for many common 3D file types including SketchUp, Revit, Blender, 3ds Max, Archicad, and IFC.

I first met Shane Scranton from IrisVR at a conference in Chicago earlier this year where he was promoting Virtual Reality for the AEC industry. After trying out his sample file in VR I instantly saw the potential for Virtual Reality at CEI as a design validation tool, so we signed up.

It’s still early days but from what we have seen so far this type of technology is already having an impact on our industry. Being able to tour a design virtually immersed in the building has great benefit for both the client and the designer. By allowing our clients to be able to tour the design virtually they are able to better understand the space and design far easier than they could from ready plan and elevation drawings. Virtually touring both the exterior and interior of a building people are able to fully understand the design from their virtual point of view.

Speculating on the future of Virtual Reality and the design industry, I can easily see us purchasing a number of the simpler headsets where you can that fit your smart phone (available now), and offering to our clients the ability to download an app and have available their model to tour. I imagine that eventually we will have a number of users be able to experience the space simultaneously. For example have a medical team including the surgeons, nurses and the anaesthesiologist all together as avatars interacting together as they would during a procedure in a surgical suite.

Here at CEI we are already using this technology to show clients for design validation, this is a great opportunity for us to get instant feedback from our clients on the design and workability. By allowing our clients to tour the space virtually it allows us to validate the design concepts and use this tool to explain the aspects of one design over another.

Taking VR beyond Architectural design; by integrating the consultants building information models we are able to use VR to search for visual clashes between disciplines, tour a mechanical room for manuverability or tour an area such as a lobby to get a better feel and understanding to the space giving us the opportunity to make minor design changes improving the space in ways we would not be able to see without VR.

Virtual reality is yet another technology that can take advantage of the building information modeling process that CEI has fully embraced allowing us to yet again take the business of architectural design to the next level.

Sc

VR and the AEC Industry

Lately I've been experimenting with Virtual Reality in the office.

We want to explore opportunities to utilise technology such as this so we can better express our design intent to our clients. I can see VR being used where we have clients who want to view their home or suite, or say doctors and nurses exploring a surgical suite. The opportunities are endless. 

So far it's early days but the testing we've done so far has proven to be very positive, aside from the occasional nausea, if the settings aren't just right and you move around too much you an start to feel car sick.

Were working with Shane from IrisVR on this as they are developing software that will easily push our Revit or Sketch-up files into VR. I had Shane come to Vancouver to present to a group of people here and people loved it! Check out this Blog Posting.

Pretty cool stuff, will post more on this as it develops.

Sc

Virtual Reality and the Construction Industry

We had a great presentation and demo on August 12th at my "Improving Project Delivery" session. 
Thanks to Laura at Kasian for hosting the event and to Chris at Underhill Geomatics for sponsoring the event's food.

One of the presenters was Shane Scranton, the co-founder and CEO of IrisVR came in to talk about Virtual Reality and the Construction Industry. He also brought along his equipment so people could try Virtual Reality out for themselves... it was a hit! I think everybody in the room tried it out at least once.

"At IrisVR, we are working on an immersive design and presentation tool that sends SketchUp and Revit files directly into a virtual reality environment. Easily view your 3D models in the Oculus Rift and experience your designs true to scale."

I believe this type of technology is going to have great impact on the design and construction industry. I can see great potential for this technology especially when it comes to having to build “mock-up’s” for user groups.

A mock-up is where we have to build an physical example of an area for “user groups” to try out the area, to “experience the space”. This is typically first done by simply printing out to full size scale the floor plan, then we do a cardboard mock-up and then the contractor finally builds a replica of the final design. For example we typically do this for medical treatment area’s in a hospital. These mock-up can be very costly and time consuming. VR is far more cost effective, as least for the initial mock-ups.

Imagine sitting your client down in your office, giving him a headset (or a pair of glasses) and letting them explore the space in Virtual Reality! This is happening now, and the technology is improving very fast.

Check out this video as an example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgxPEBKueiY

Great presentation and Demo, thanks again for coming out to Vancouver Shane.

Sc

Capture your environment as a 3D model

This is pretty cool, Bobby Harris from wr7productions put me onto this.

"Structure SDK" is a device you can attach to your ipad that will allow you to capture your environment... not only as an image but as a 3D model.... think about that for a minute!

"Capture dense 3D models with the push of a button. Structure allows you to capture dense geometry. This enables you to simulate real world physics. The possibilities are incredible."

You can use this device to scan a room and accurately measure it's dimensions or an object such as a table and virtually (are we talking about augmented reality here?) place that table in your room using your ipad!

Architecturally and for interior design the possibilities are endless! Oh and it can also be used for gaming...

"The Structure Sensor enables games where virtual objects can actually go behind real world objects. It’s going to get hard to know where reality ends and imagination begins."

Check out the video, this device is affordable and easy to use.... I want one! BAD!

http://structure.io/

Sc