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Unity creates new open source tool for architects

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Re: Unity creates new open source tool for architects

#51

Post by mushufasa »

mslong wrote: post #43

Unity is in a continual state of building out "shiny new toys"; libraries and modules and sibling software that work as intended for 1 or 2 release cycles before breaking and being discarded. I've seen this time and again with Unity and I think it will hurt their stock going forward as they try to convince more industries to use their tools. Just in the past two years I've seen them develop, hype, and then quietly dr…

In my perspective that is a good sign -- they are constantly trying new ways to grow, and dynamically reallocating their resources to markets where the product features gain traction.

IMHO it's unrealistic to expect long-term commitment for maintenance / compatibility from ${ANY} new software, unless there's a 5-year enterprise contract with a SLA. Maintenance is difficult work, and only rewarding if the software provides real-world usefulness.

Re: Unity creates new open source tool for architects

#52

Post by vincnetas »

nocturnial wrote: post #50
eps wrote: post #2

We made a foray into designing and building a brand new house and let me tell you, my fellow HNers, the state of affairs with the design part is ABYSMAL, even in a reasonably modern architect firm. Basically you first design, for look and feel, then you calculate technical details, then you build. Or rather the architect does all three, but you would normally want to "chip in" during the design phase - change the lay…

This is a blatant plug for something that's not ready and still in alpha: freecad (www.freecadweb.org) It's an open source parametric modeler and the export to (still) renderers like appleseed, luxrender,... and import to blender is still a work in progress. I'm hoping someone reads this and thinks "Hey, I can contribute to this" or at least file a bug/feature report.

Wander if it's useful to also share "brew cask install freecad" near actual URL to make it even virtually frictionless to test things out?

From site it looks really promising. Will test it out.

Re: Unity creates new open source tool for architects

#53

Post by sayangel »

Where did the author get the info that this is open source? I haven't seen Unity state anywhere that this tool we be open source.

I could see them giving source code to people who pay for some enterprise license, but I doubt it will be open source. At least not the part that extracts data from BIM software.

Re: Unity creates new open source tool for architects

#54

Post by meheleventyone »

eps wrote: post #2

We made a foray into designing and building a brand new house and let me tell you, my fellow HNers, the state of affairs with the design part is ABYSMAL, even in a reasonably modern architect firm. Basically you first design, for look and feel, then you calculate technical details, then you build. Or rather the architect does all three, but you would normally want to "chip in" during the design phase - change the lay…

These tools are starting to be built. A product I was part of the founding team for is just about to enter beta, although I left to go back to games:

https://www.arkio.is

There’s a bright future for better design tools but it was very interesting to talk to architects about them. Most are hugely conservative and want tools to fit their current workflow rather than anything that might be too innovative. That includes how much clients are able to get into the design process.

Re: Unity creates new open source tool for architects

#55

Post by gamblor956 »

mslong wrote: post #43

Unity is in a continual state of building out "shiny new toys"; libraries and modules and sibling software that work as intended for 1 or 2 release cycles before breaking and being discarded. I've seen this time and again with Unity and I think it will hurt their stock going forward as they try to convince more industries to use their tools. Just in the past two years I've seen them develop, hype, and then quietly dr…

And it's basically impossible for other companies to manage Unity SDKs with a ground that moves that much.

Many successful video game companies use Unity to make their games. It's basically impossible to use except compared to the alternatives, which are just as impossible or more so.

Re: Unity creates new open source tool for architects

#56

Post by jayd16 »

gamblor956 wrote: post #55
mslong wrote: post #43

Unity is in a continual state of building out "shiny new toys"; libraries and modules and sibling software that work as intended for 1 or 2 release cycles before breaking and being discarded. I've seen this time and again with Unity and I think it will hurt their stock going forward as they try to convince more industries to use their tools. Just in the past two years I've seen them develop, hype, and then quietly dr…

And it's basically impossible for other companies to manage Unity SDKs with a ground that moves that much. Many successful video game companies use Unity to make their games. It's basically impossible to use except compared to the alternatives, which are just as impossible or more so.

It's pretty impossible to make an sdk or plugin that's runs on every version of Unity. I haven't seen it, anyway.

Studios have the same issue. They pick a version to ship with and work around whatever known bugs there are. Upgrading is a huge event and it's never painless.

Re: Unity creates new open source tool for architects

#57

Post by Mirioron »

simonsarris wrote: post #28
throwaway744678 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Drawing your plan on the floor sounds a good idea, but isn't there an effect where outdoor surfaces look much smaller than the same surface indoor? How do you account for that?

Actually that seemed to be a big problem of computer models to me too. When I was a kid I modeled the houses I was living in using Counterstrike Source's Hammer editor, and they always felt SO SMALL to walk around "inside" when they were correct to scale, even though one of them was a fairly big 1800's house. So either way you simulate things you have funny perceptions. And during construction you are kind of thrown…

>and they always felt SO SMALL to walk around "inside" when they were correct to scale, even though one of them was a fairly big 1800's house.

Is that due to the Field of View being lower in games compared to real life? When you increase the FoV in games then things further away look smaller.

Re: Unity creates new open source tool for architects

#58

Post by kaffeemitsahne »

pixelpoet wrote: post #44
ossworkerrights wrote: post #9

Wondering how many commercial products have been jeopardised by this freeware sponsored by a corporation, and how many jobs have been put at risk?

Pretty much all commercial archviz oriented 3D rendering software (where I've spent the last 10 years) continues to feel the heat from such efforts, including Blender and all the support it gets these days from AMD and Nvidia. Don't understand why you're getting so harshly downvoted.

Didn't vote but I simply don't see how it is a bad thing when free software competes with commercial software. Something that used to cost money can now be done for free, sounds great to me.

Re: Unity creates new open source tool for architects

#59

Post by ossworkerrights »

pixelpoet wrote: post #44
ossworkerrights wrote: post #9

Wondering how many commercial products have been jeopardised by this freeware sponsored by a corporation, and how many jobs have been put at risk?

Pretty much all commercial archviz oriented 3D rendering software (where I've spent the last 10 years) continues to feel the heat from such efforts, including Blender and all the support it gets these days from AMD and Nvidia. Don't understand why you're getting so harshly downvoted.

I dont really understand it either. Whats is happening is that some giants give out “free” software, kill their competition and then monetise in other ways (personal data, or cross selling other products), while in some cases they make use of open source products to sell services. Either way the only win is a lousy 9-5 job for programmers who write the freeware, or loss of jobs for those developed the code commercially. Basically open source for non mission critical software is digging one’s own grave.

Re: Unity creates new open source tool for architects

#60

Post by detaro »

sayangel wrote: post #53

Where did the author get the info that this is open source? I haven't seen Unity state anywhere that this tool we be open source. I could see them giving source code to people who pay for some enterprise license, but I doubt it will be open source. At least not the part that extracts data from BIM software.

Haven't found any price/release model information at all either.
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