Book Image

Unity for Architectural Visualization

By : Stefan Boeykens
Book Image

Unity for Architectural Visualization

By: Stefan Boeykens

Overview of this book

Architects have always relied on drawings, renderings, and sometimes even movies to present their design concepts to clients, contractors, and other stakeholders. The accessibility of current game engines provides new and exciting possibilities to turn any design into an interactive model that anyone can experience at their own pace. "Unity for Architectural Visualization" explains how you can create compelling, real-time models from your 3D architectural project. Filled with practical tips and in-depth information, this book explains every step in the process, starting from the very basics up to custom scripts that will get you up to the next level. This book begins with a general overview of the Unity workflow for architectural models. You will start with a simple project that lets you walk around in your design using basic Unity tools and methods. You will then learn how to easily get convincing lightning effects on your scene. You will then set up a basic navigation system in your project, and not only this; you will also cover some tips and tricks to take navigation to the next level. You will quickly learn how to fine-tune the shaders and how to set up materials that are a bit more advanced. Even when you finish Unity for Architectural Visualization, this book will make scripting easier with reusable examples of scripts that can be applied in most projects. After reading this book, you will be comfortable enough to tackle new projects and develop your own.
Table of Contents (15 chapters)
Unity for Architectural Visualization
Credits
About the Author
Acknowledgement
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Creating a custom Skybox


When you want to include a credible environment, you can use the Skybox tool. This looks like a large cube, with seamless texture maps of skies placed on the inner side. By setting it around the scene, it follows camera movements and appears as if the whole sky surrounds your scene. There is a default package included with Unity that you can use (Assets | Import Package | Skyboxes) that contains about nine examples. A Skybox can be activated in two places, as shown in the following screenshot. You can activate a default Skybox material in the render settings (Edit | Render Settings). You can also define a Skybox material for a particular camera, by adding the Skybox component to it (Component | Rendering | Skybox).

It is possible to create your own Skybox images in almost any rendering software. Define a camera and position it perfectly horizontal. Set its viewing angle at 90 degrees. Record a six frame animation, with the camera orientated to one of the six cardinal...