Unity for Architectural Visualization

For architects the walk-around 3D computer visualization is a fantastic marketing tool. This tutorial shows you how to use Unity to achieve modeling skills through step-by-step examples. You'll find the acquired expertise invaluable.

Overview

• Simple instructions to help you set up an interactive and real-time scene
• Excellent tips on making your presentations attractive by creating interactive designs
• Most important features of computer games covered, to develop compelling, interactive scenes for so-called “serious games”

In Detail

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.

What you will learn from this book

• Reuse Python logging in C
• Make an IRC bot out of your C application
• Extend an application to have a web server for rest calls
• Use Cython against your C++ code
• Reuse Python ConfigParser in C
• Create Python bindings to native libraries
• Learn about threading and concurrency related to the GIL
• Expand Terminal Multiplexer Tmux with Cython

Approach

A tutorial packed with practical examples and screenshots to help you become an expert in architectural visualization using Unity.

Who this book is written for

This book is written for students and professional architects who know how to model buildings in 3D and have a need to turn their design into an interactive model, even if you have never used Unity before. Experience with visualization and programming will be helpful, but is not required to follow along. You will learn all the basics throughout with the help of step-by-step examples. The majority of the examples work fine in any recent version of the Unity software, on Windows or Mac, but occasionally features of the Pro version are required.

Stefan Boeykens

Stefan Boeykens is an architect-engineer from Leuven, Belgium. After graduation, he was involved in architectural practice for about 4 years, before returning in 2007 to KU Leuven for his PhD on the integration of Building Information Modeling (BIM) in the design process. He worked on a variety of research and education projects, ranging from CAD and BIM, to metadata for architectural archives and cost simulations. His main research interests are BIM 3D modeling, and visualization, digital historical reconstruction, parametric design, programming, and interoperability between a variety of software tools, with a special focus on open BIM.

He is quite literate with software in general, with extensive expertise on ArchiCAD, AutoCAD, SketchUp, Rhinoceros, Excel, Solibri, Processing, CINEMA 4D, Ableton Live, Photoshop, Illustrator, CorelDRAW, Artlantis, and Unity. He likes cross-platform approaches, even more since switching to OS X. Hard disks are always too small for him.

Stefan Boeykens is currently employed by the Department of Architecture at the Faculty of Engineering Sciences at KU Leuven, Belgium. As a teacher, he is responsible for the Architectural Computing courses and teaches students how to use AutoCAD, SketchUp, ArchiCAD, Solibri, CINEMA 4D, Rhinoceros, Grasshopper, and Unity.

He is the author of the CAD-3D.blogspot.com blog, which discusses CAD, 3D, and BIM, with a particular interest in free and educational software for architects and interoperability.

Under the name of stefkeB he is active online in various platforms and networks.

He is also a schooled guitar player, both classical and electric, with a keen interest in musical composition in a variety of styles, including progressive rock, pop, metal, electronic experiments, and purely acoustic songs, in English and Dutch, but often also instrumental. As stefkeB, he records everything at home, using Ableton Live mainly. Some of his music can be heard on Soundcloud and Bandcamp. All his compositions are available under a Creative Commons license (CC-BY-NC-SA), by choice.

Unity for architectural visualization is his first actual book, but he has written countless software tutorials; recorded an extensive set of video-tutorials, freely available on Youtube; and has written several academic publications that have been presented on conferences worldwide.