8. September 2017 : Articles
Scale models, hand-drawn sketches, 3d rendering, real-time 3d or Augmented reality are all being used for architectural visualization

AR for architectural visualization

The Challenge

To liven up the exhibition stand our client wanted something unconventional, something new, something that is up to date. Since they were sharing the stand with MOL, another client of ours who was using VR presentation, choosing AR presentation was the natural thing to do.
A sketch by prof. Koželj
A sketch by prof. Koželj
A sketch by prof. Koželj
A sketch by prof. Koželj

Initial sketches

The project in question was at the time only an idea, a concept of function, but not yet any form, except the basic floor plan. Therefore, professor J. Koželj, who is the leading Urbanist of Ljubljana, drew a couple of sketches on a single A4 paper, to give the concept at least some cues of a form. Along with some references to similar architecture projects from the internet, that was our starting point.

Creating a basic AR app

Unity 3d in conjunction with the Fuforia SDK for AR tracking was the perfect tool of choice for our first commercial AR project. It is easy enough to learn and simple enough for non-programmers to create basic 3d apps. After a couple of “box on the table” tests, we were confident enough to start the real thing. Using professor Koželj’s sketches we modeled all buildings and in a matter of a few days. A couple of consultations later, the professor was pleased with the design and we could move on. From there on it was a straightforward and well-known process: optimize geometry and textures.Then export to Unity3d, test and repeat until satisfied. Add some props, some trees, some cars, and export to test if the hardware is still able to handle the load. Once you find the balance of what you want and what your hardware can handle, wrap it up, pack and export the final app.

Conclusion

During this project, we learned a few very useful things about AR in visualization. While it does make quite an impression, it is fairly useless on phones or smaller tablets.You need at least a 10” device. It can basically replace the “old school” scale model for small crowd presentations but lacks the broad reach of classic 3d renderings and animations. Quality wise it is still very limited by the relatively weak hardware in today’s phones and tablets, but in a couple of years that will not be an issue anymore.
Aleš Šumah

Aleš Šumah

Cofounder, 3d and video lead
Organic homegrown all-round 3d artist with 20 years of profesional experience.