Topic: [Answered] Rendering elevations and VR walkthrough support

[R2dx]

Hello,
My company is moving away from Artlantis that we were using for past couple of years and we are considering new Lumion Pro as one of our 3 possible choices for the replacement. What we have seen from version 9 samples is really encouraging in terms of quality (outclassing the competition by miles, also the library of objects and greenery is just amazing) and we like the fact that it's not limited to subscription-based payment option but we were only able to test the 7.5 trial and we found two really important things to be seemingly missing. Maybe it's the trial limitation, maybe they were added later on or maybe they are there but we just can't access them so I came to ask.

1. Rendering elevations - that's a very big one for us since we use those elevations when presenting ideas to clients and for competitions a lot. It's not feasible for us to use different software for rendering elevations since we would have to set up materials twice and try to make them look the same in different program - impossible. This feature also seems to be missing from Enscape but unlike Lumion it requires having all the materials already assigned in architectural software so technically we can export elevations from Archicad directly (although it seems very limiting and it's not our preferred workflow at all, not to mention inferior quality of actual renders).

2. Walkthrough/pedestrian mode - this is something that we are asked for by our clients frequently and something that we really like in Enscape and Twinmotion (we found it useful not just for presentation but also during design process). We were able to set spectator height in Lumion but as soon as the camera moved it was flying freely again, not locked to that height and it seems like there is no way to turn on collisions with solid objects so the camera just moves through walls and everything no matter what. Even though the quality and speed of the preview (Build mode) in Lumion seems really good and snappy in real time we couldn't use it for this purpose at all. We also could't find any way to export it to a standalone *.exe file. Is it possible to do this somehow or is Lumion limited to panoramas where you can only look around with the VR headset?

If those features are actually missing and it's not just us (or the fact that we were using older, limited version of Lumion) please consider my post as a form of feature request because those things are really important and especially the true VR walkthroughs seem to be the future of client presentations and something a lot of my colleagues from other offices use more and more. Any help would be greatly appreciated, thank you.

[peterm]

Hi R2dx

Many thanks for the enquiry and interest in Lumion. 

I should mention first that there is a current full featured and content version (v9.0.2) Trial available via our resellers.  Please see our Knowledge Base Article: Is there a Trial version of Lumion?

In regard the features sought, both of those as explain are not really covered by that Trial, and are not specific features of Lumion, but there may be some options.  To consider those options, see if you can get the Pro Trial mentioned above.

1. Rendering elevations:
Unfortunately no, those are not available.  Thanks for the +1, as some other users have also suggested. Technically, it is very tricky in 3D and tends to break lots of other stuff in the render process.

Some of our users do emulate elevations by using a very high Focal Camera that then produces the flattened look.  You can have one Clipping Plane for side elevations.  The result will sometimes cause a little quality problem with shadows and some materials, but most users seem to be able to adjust those enough that they are OK with the result.

2. Walkthrough/pedestrian mode:
Not in real-time VR, no.  Again some users have also suggested that as an additional option to the static image VR that Lumion does support for VR headsets.

There is, and a number of users do use the Lumion Viewer for real-time consultation with client based meetings, or providing the Scene direct to the client.  The Lumion Viewer is a standalone, installed, non-licensed software available for Pro licensed users. 

You present and can do walk-throughs, and playback in realtime of the movies on a PC/PC connected screen.

Some users are now also doing more interactive design phases with clients by running both their modelling software and Lumion at same time and with our LiveSync technology, doing real-time update of the design for client input changes.  Then the result is seen live in the full 3D context related world that Lumion can provide.

As you are presenting to screen it does not have that immersive element of VR headsets.  But then, it does not have all the issues still surrounding use of headsets especially in a client meeting/engagement environment.

Hope that helps give you a better idea of Lumion.  And, have a chat to your reseller about getting the Pro Trial.

Let us know if there's anything else we can help with.