architectural use

ballard33 · Post by **ballard33** » Mon Mar 22, 2004 9:34 pm

Hello, I have been a closet gamer for a while now but have never dabbled in the creative side. I guess I figured I was too old for games but maybe not... Anyway, I am an architect - possibly the reason I have been intrigued with these incredibly visual games. I have been working in AutoCAD and 3ds for a while now, but I am wondering if there is a possibility to use game editors as architectural tools. Obviously the answer is yes, but the question I have is what platform should I use? I?d love to try and design some of my buildings with a game editor, but what good would that do if none of my potential clients (I have a web based home plan service) can view the maps. Is there a solution out there that would be easily available for someone to download? Small and light? Is there a better way? If someone out there knows a good answer, I?d be interested in working with/employing someone. Thanks for any help.

blue60007 · Post by **blue60007** » Mon Mar 22, 2004 9:44 pm

Thats a good idea, but I don't know of any little plugin or whatever you want to call for potential clients to download and install for the Quake3 engine. Do you have an office that clients could come to? If so you could buy Medal of Honor, or other Quake3 game, install it then you could show them on your computer what the building would look like...

Just a thought...

Cheetohs · Post by **Cheetohs** » Mon Mar 22, 2004 9:49 pm

If you did that im sure they would love viewing the textures with a man in uniform bearing a weapon

what if the person was against guns... there goes your client! hehe. I have also thought about using Mohradiant for architectural use outside of the game, but i didnt really find any real use when there are hundreds of programs specifically made for house/office designing already... an interesting thought though!

blue60007 · Post by **blue60007** » Mon Mar 22, 2004 10:18 pm

well, you wouldn't have to give the player weapons.

Also you could take screenshots and post them on your website.

kai0ty · Post by **kai0ty** » Tue Mar 23, 2004 3:57 am

holster the gun b4 they see lol.
its a good idea. why not get fraps, of a DVC and make a littel movie of you walking aorud ur architectural idea? that would be cool.

ballard33 · Post by **ballard33** » Tue Mar 23, 2004 7:21 am

all good ideas... unfortunately, all of my clients are sitting in their own homes, so if they do not have MOHAA, then they can not enjoy. What is frap? Sorry, just getting into this bit. I do like the idea of making a neighborhood, then I could do a walkthrough vignette of each house. Although that?s not nearly as cool as letting some one loose just to wonder and discover themselves. I guess there is no way to use the quake engine just for this ? i.e. license it from whomever and use?

M&M · Post by **M&M** » Tue Mar 23, 2004 3:59 pm

fraps is a program that can capture video and do other stuff ,i think u must buy it ,dont know if there is a demo . HERE is the link 2 the website .

but i didnt really find any real use when there are hundreds of programs specifically made for house/office designing already

u should think about that ,as game editors arent as easy as other programs specialized in that matter .but if u holster the gun in mohaa and use fraps 2 capture video of it then it would be the same as setting a camera in 3dmax (4 example) that moves and give it a little shake or rotation 2 simulate a person walking.another mean ,same ending .

blue60007 · Post by **blue60007** » Tue Mar 23, 2004 4:45 pm

thats a good idea, make a small movie of each house and then upload it to your website so your clients could view it at home.

Post by **jv_map** » Tue Mar 23, 2004 6:23 pm

You could try RtcW Enemy Territory as everyone can download it for free and you can alter the source code as much as you want. I would not know however if you are allowed to use it in this way...

You could also try licensing a quake2 engine over at ID software... should be pretty cheap by now.

kai0ty · Post by **kai0ty** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 4:13 am

hmm, this gets creative juices flowing. RTCW is a really good idea, u could probably ask them if it would be okay to completely change it (almost) if u just put the company name on there somewhere.

wacko · Post by **wacko** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 8:36 am

although I'd be glad to see an architect starting to map and giving some helpful influence on the mapping scene, I'd say, u better try to find information about VRML. It's some time since I read about it, but I think, it can use AutoCAD files and the (online-)viewer is rather small. But go and google a bit...
For a rough idea of what I'm talking about, go to http://www.parallelgraphics.com, get their viewer and visit some of their examples

ballard33 · Post by **ballard33** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 9:00 am

thank you all. I'll look into the suggestions. I'm based in Slovakia (business is in US, though), so I am hoping to find someone local who can help me. however, if any of you know of anyone that wants to do some freelance work, please let me know. thanks, again.

MadMapper · Post by **MadMapper** » Sat May 08, 2004 12:59 pm

Well... VRML is pretty lame

... but id take a look here

http://www.vrmlworld.net

chris_in_cali · Post by **chris_in_cali** » Fri Jun 18, 2004 6:20 am

I did beta testing for a program Adobe was making a few years ago (back when I was making websites, not mapping). The program is called Atomosphere and I think it will do everything you need. It's designed to be used for building 3-D web pages, or whatever else you want to do. You'll have to buy the software, viewers only have to download and install a small explorer plug-in.

http://www.adobe.com/products/atmosphere/main.html

M&M · Post by **M&M** » Fri Jun 18, 2004 3:41 pm

well chris ,this is an old topic .
probably the author either lost interest or found what he was looking for.

this was his last post

Posted: Wed Mar 24, 2004 12:00 pm

and this was the last post on this topic

Posted: Wed Mar 24, 2004 12:00 pm

so its usually no use to bump old threads