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

About the Reviewers

Dr. Pieter Jorissen finished his computer sciences studies at the Limburg University Center, now known as Hasselt University Belgium, in July 2001. Thereafter, he started working as a researcher at the Expertise Center for Digital Media (EDM) which is the multimedia research center of the UHasselt and is a partner in the IBBT, a Flemish research initiative.

He worked at the EDM for approximately 6 years on several research projects concerning Collaborative Virtual Environments. In January 2008, he obtained his Ph.D. with his dissertation "Dynamic Interactions for Networked Virtual Environments."

In 2008 he mainly worked as a Researcher/Consultant on new technologies and information security for Smals, a large Belgian IT company mostly focusing on supporting the social security administration and eGovernment. His main task was to follow up on new technologies and find ways to implement them for the government administration.

In 2009 he left research and development to start a career as a lecturer at the Karel de Grote University College. He focuses on teaching how to program and build 3D interactive applications. He has also been active as an international program committee member for several computer graphics and virtual reality conferences.

Dr. Sebastian T. Koenig received his Ph.D. in Human Interface Technology from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, developing a framework for individualized virtual reality cognitive rehabilitation. He obtained his degree as Diploma-Psychologist from the University of Regensburg, Germany, in the areas of Clinical Neuropsychology and Virtual Reality Rehabilitation.

Dr. Koenig is currently working as a Research Associate at the USC Institute for Creative Technologies, where he designs, develops, and tests clinical virtual reality software.

He also works as Lead User Researcher for the game development company Red 5 Studios and as a freelance software engineer and cognitive psychologist to develop mobile applications and cognitive assessments for the US military and health care companies.

His professional experience spans over ten years of clinical work in cognitive rehabilitation and over five years of virtual reality research, development, and user testing. Dr. Koenig has extensive experience as a speaker at international conferences and as reviewer of scientific publications in the areas of Rehabilitation, Cognitive Psychology, Neuropsychology, Software Engineering, Game Development, Games User Research, and Virtual Reality.

Dr. Koenig has developed numerous software applications for cognitive assessment and training. For his work on the Virtual Memory Task he was awarded the Laval Virtual Award 2011, in the category "Medicine and Health." Other applications include the virtual reality executive function assessment in collaboration with the Kessler Foundation Research Center and the patent-pending Microsoft Kinect-based motor and cognitive training JewelMine/Mystic Isle at the USC Institute for Creative Technologies.

Dr. Koenig maintains the website www.virtualgamelab.com about his research and his software development projects. His website also contains a comprehensive list of tutorials for the game engine Unity.