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Is Unity a Solution for Us? We need your help!

Discussion in 'Editor & General Support' started by hospadam, Apr 10, 2006.

  1. hospadam

    hospadam

    Joined:
    Apr 10, 2006
    Posts:
    2
    First of all, I want to say that Unity looks absolutely awesome.

    But, I need your advice on whether or not to recomend Unity for our purposes.

    Currently, we are making 3d visualizations of proposed building projects. Right now we're just making walkthrough movies. We're using Maya and just doing some post production and putting out movies.

    I can only imagine that having an interactive would be much more aamzing. Instead of following the movie, you could move around in the enviroment itself.

    I guess my question is this. We're not looking for a "game" aspect, but more of just... throw in our full Maya scene, and then make it so someone can walkthrough the enviroment in Unity.

    Do you all feel Unity is proper for this situation? How easy is it to do these quick tasks? How much coding is involved in this? Thanks for any advice!!

    Adam
     
  2. jeremyace

    jeremyace

    Joined:
    Oct 12, 2005
    Posts:
    1,661
    Heh, to have it so someone can just walk/look around a scene...you don't need any programming at all. Unity comes with a first person controller prefab to do just that. :)

    I think Unity would be great for what you are doing and certainly save you a _lot_ of time. The only things I would make sure you know is there is no FSAA (full-screen anti-aliasing) in the standalone player yet, but it is in the web and widget players. I would also be aware that there are no shadows in Unity yet, but that shouldn't be a problem with visualizations as you can just do the lighting in Maya and bake the lighting into the textures.

    I think Unity would be great for that and there is already at least one person doing this. You may be able to find it on the showcase forum or go to http://unify.bluegillweb.com and look at the header banner image. That was done for a unity visualization test.

    EDIT: Give the demo a try. Just drag the first person controller into a scene and you should be able to just throw your maya files right in Unity. One thing to remember, the lower poly you can get it the better as this is realtime stuff. But unity is very powerful so it still shouldn't be much of an issue.

    Hope that helps,
    -Jeremy
     
  3. aigam

    aigam

    Joined:
    Dec 31, 2005
    Posts:
    170
    Mmmmmm it depends of your simulations in maya... all depends of the use of advanced graphic options you use in maya.

    Unity is great, and a really good simulation instrument, but there are more specific simulation engines for only a "click and view houses in 3d and high resolution".

    With all, if you want to integrate some interaction (dors, lights, dinamic structure changes, etc) in a near future unity is the best engine.
     
  4. dacloo

    dacloo

    Joined:
    Jun 30, 2005
    Posts:
    469
    also check out Quest3D as a possible solution (targeted at visualisation, not games).
    I like Unity's workflow much better though.
     
  5. hospadam

    hospadam

    Joined:
    Apr 10, 2006
    Posts:
    2
    Honestly, a few of the guys at work have been tinkering with Quest3d. I just haven't been as impressed with it, as I initially thought? It also doesn't seem to support Maya as natively as it looks like Unity does? In anycase, I'm going to try the demo of Unity when I get home.

    Another question, does Unity have a non-profit/educational pricing plan? Thanks!

    Adam
     
  6. David-Helgason

    David-Helgason

    Moderator

    Joined:
    Mar 29, 2005
    Posts:
    1,104
  7. dede

    dede

    Joined:
    Oct 10, 2005
    Posts:
    21
    Hello,
    Just to say that I have buy Unity pro this monday to make architectural visualizations. I think Unity is very good for that purpose, and easy to use. If you will, you can see an example on my website (http://www.v3d.be/Animations/Eghezee web3.html), made last year with the trial version. It's not perfect, but for a first try, I think it's not so bad.
    I'm working now on a second project (see screenshot).

    Voilà, c'est tout.

    Denis.
     

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