2023 AEC Predictions – Arcturus

By Arcturus

From the first days of mixed reality, it seemed inevitable that the architecture industry was going to be an early adopter of the technology. After all, if a picture is worth a thousand words, how much would a fully immersive virtual environment you can interact with and explore be worth?

The rise of game engines gave firms and designers the opportunity to build 3D models — mostly for clients, but in some cases to rally support for a new proposal. Telling someone about a new commercial structure is one thing, but allowing them to tour a future rooftop garden or check out what a future restaurant space might look like is another. In many ways, architectural visualization was a precursor to virtual production, which is having a major impact on entertainment. And as we’ve seen countless times in the past, as goes entertainment, so goes innovation across multiple industries.

Arcturus, one of the early pioneers in volumetric video, has been working with clients around the world to utilize the power of volumetric capture – the act of recording a live subject using multiple cameras to create a photorealistic 3D replica. The company is involved in everything from e-commerce to live broadcasts to game creation, and in the coming year, recent tools added to Arcturus’ flagship HoloSuite tools will give architecture visualization firms a new way to breathe life into 3D models.

Imagine touring a 3D model of a proposed hotel, but instead of wandering through a deserted virtual hallway, you walk down that same hallway filled with real, fully three-dimensional people all moving towards destinations of their own. Virtual models of commercial properties like airports and stadiums look great in a game engine, but adding crowds brings them to life and exponentially increases the immersion. Clients won’t have to imagine what it may be like when complete – they will feel it.

These tools are available now. Accessibility to volumetric capture studios continues to improve, but right now creators can simply purchase volumetric assets from several asset stores. At the click of a button, architects and designers can populate their models with real people moving in preset patterns. A wide selection of these ready-made volumetric assets are available, with more on the way in the coming year. And once an asset has been obtained, these volumetric characters can be edited within HoloSuite using a new tool known as “Blend.” With it, creators can now take a volumetric video clip and connect it to another, similar clip to extend and combine performances, or loop the clip back to its starting point so the playback feels constant and continuous without a reset moment.

Firms competing for multi-million – or billion – dollar projects need every advantage they can get. Volumetric video might be exactly what they need, and Arcturus helps make that possible.

Category: Industry Predictions

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 17th, 2023 at 12:06 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.