2 years later and I still think static 3D 360 is better than full 3D
Two years ago I wrote a rather controversial article about the fact that I think that 360 3D renders are way better than full 3D walkthrough in architecture. Two years later I can only say that (based on my knowledge from running theViewer.co and conversations with our customers) I believe… my statement was 100% correct. And here is why.
First of all: what is (or at least should be) the point of creating a VR Tour or a VR walkthrough?
I’m not going to write about aspects like “getting the upper hand in convincing your customer to make a purchase”… That’s obvious!
You can do it with a traditional presentation as well.
So what is the point of doing it in VR at all?…
What I believe in, is that you want to BLOW. YOUR CUSTOMER’S. MIND.
You want them to see how unique and well-thought your design is and you sure hope that you will outstand your competition by a mile.
But in order to do it… VR itself is not enough! You may ask “why is that so?”
Well, I don’t know where have you been for past couple of years but… VR is not really that new anymore :)
Your design won’t sell itself. And using just any random VR tool to give it a try won’t sell it either!
Don’t get me wrong — I do believe that VR is the ONLY way. But what I have learned over the years is…
Pardon my French — “sh*t in — sh*t out”.
If your content lacks quality and you want to cover it by moving it into VR… Sorry to be the one to break it to you, but you are still showing your customer bad content, on a screen located a centimetre away from their eyes.
Definitely not the way to go.
We witnessed dozens of lost opportunities because our customers thought that the fact that they will load their content in VR will always seal the deal for them!
It’s not going to happen.
As mentioned before — you are showing your end user a close-up of bad content. You are making things even worse.
What was true years ago is still true today — Content is King.
YES, VR is amazing and yes, we have a lot of customers that will confirm that once you go into VR, you never go back… Provided you always keep in mind that content is what matters the most.
OK, so we have established that you have to create outstanding content.
But how do you do it?
And that’s where the comparison between 360 3D and real-time game engines (you know quite well which engine I mean here, without me even mentioning the name, right?) should happen.
Doesn’t matter how unreal the graphics are in the real-time engine (you see what I did there? ;)), it will never be as good as a still render.
Yes, real-time is getting better and better — I see some incredible progress happening over the past two years. But it still not even nearly as lifelike as a still render.
Still renders have been around for quite a while already. Even if you are only a beginner with engines like Corona or V-Ray, you can achieve amazing photorealistic results within a relatively short time frame.
Are we able to achieve comparable result with real-time rendering?
Well in my opinion (which is based on discussions that I had with the best visualisation studios on the planet) — we are not.
They can look amazing and the technology is quite mind-blowing, but are they as good as renders done in Corona or V-Ray?
Nope. Not today.
Does real-time rendering have potential?
Undoubtedly!
That’s the reason why I’m not allowed to share any of the names of visualisation studios I talked to. Even though they realised that this solution is not fit for them today, as it takes way more time to generate good quality content (which again — is not yet photorealistic), they all believe that it might change in 2 or 3 years.
And they are absolutely right. It will get better in a couple of years. But let’s not forget about the fact that guys in Corona and V-Ray are aware of it as well. And they will not sleep for those 2 years.
What you can achieve with those renders today is already amazing. Think about the results in 2 years from now. In 2 years of constant development.
I am absolutely convinced that still, images will remain way better than the real-time for many years to come.
Why?
Think about it — the real-time engine is generating 30 images per second. 30 full size 360 renderings per one second.
When we generate a 3D 360 render it takes roughly a few hours to obtain a proper image.
It’s all about physics — time for the reality check.
Do you really believe that a real-time engine (which, don’t get me wrong, can do an amazing job) which is generating 30 frames per second is currently able to compete with a powerful rendering engine that takes many hours to generate one image… in terms of image quality?
I highly doubt that.
So why all those people use real-time rendering?
Well, it is for sure amazing for the design part of the project. When you still don’t know how the final design will look like when you want to give your user the possibility to change the dimensions or move things around…
That’s clearly where such a solution comes in handy — those actions are clearly not possible in a static image.
Until not so long ago real-time also had the advantage of giving users a better immersion. Even if you were standing still in one place, there were some changing elements you could see — like an animated fireplace, a moving escalator, working ceiling fans…
Well, ladies and gentlemen, 2018 is here. Let me just announce that it has become possible in a still VR image as well!
Today we are also able to insert animated objects inside of a still 360 image. This way, upon entering VR you can see the burning candles, the water movement in the pool, moonlight reflecting in the surface of a lake…
All of those things are now possible. And I will describe them in the next blog post, so stay tuned ;)
To sum up, everything that has been said…
After almost 2 years I am still absolutely convinced that a still 3D 360 render is way more effective and convenient to use if you want to impress your customer than a real-time game engine.
Real-time game engines are great — if you are still in the design process and you want to take some decisions. However, if you want to rock your final presentation and you want to blow your customer away… There is nothing better than a static 360 3D image in VR. And it will definitely stay this way for a long while.
