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Cesium for Unreal – Bring the Real World to Unreal Engine

cesium.com

31–40 of 58 posts

Re: Cesium for Unreal – Bring the Real World to Unreal Engine

#31
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If people in such places had more immediate access to beautiful nature, then such a need wouldn't exist.

Son, you don’t need to see the desert or the ocean or the rainforest. You have a beautiful Midwest prairie right here at home.

Apropos of nothing, it seems weird to me that we observe a vocabulary distinction in identical phenomena based on where those phenomena are located.

A prairie is called a steppe if it's in Asia. A steppe is called a prairie if it's in America.

A hurricane is a typhoon, except it's striking the west coast of the Atlantic instead of the west coast of the Pacific.

None of these make any difference to what the object is like. Why do we care? We don't call mountains something different when they're in Asia. We don't even call them something different when they're underwater, which makes a huge difference.

Re: Cesium for Unreal – Bring the Real World to Unreal Engine

#32

Why do people strive to create such realistic environments when they're a much more realistic world outside? Although I understand the purpose from a fantastical-escapist perspective, I wonder if this sort of increasingly realistic escapism actually is reflective of how we're making the real world far worse than it ever was before and we're preparing an alternative world to escape into due to our destructive tendenci…

Simulation is a really useful tool for practice! I’m pretty sure this Hang Gliding sim uses Cesium for its environment: https://freeflightexperience.com/

I know people who will practice flying at unfamiliar sites on it first - so that they’re better prepared when they get to the real thing.

Re: Cesium for Unreal – Bring the Real World to Unreal Engine

#33
On one hand it is great Unreal is being used in many places outside Gaming from VR, VFX, Movie production or anything to do with 3D / Photorealistic Graphics.

On the other hand there are some recent backlash suggesting these direction and default in Unreal is making games look worst. [1] [2] And Nanite may not be the silver bullet we were looking for.

[1] https://www.vg247.com/unreal-engine-5-has-been-a-disappointm...

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJu_DgCHfx4

Re: Cesium for Unreal – Bring the Real World to Unreal Engine

#34
post #33

On one hand it is great Unreal is being used in many places outside Gaming from VR, VFX, Movie production or anything to do with 3D / Photorealistic Graphics. On the other hand there are some recent backlash suggesting these direction and default in Unreal is making games look worst. [1] [2] And Nanite may not be the silver bullet we were looking for. [1] https://www.vg247.com/unreal-engine-5-has-been-a-disappointm..…

These remarks are hilarious.

Nanite was never supposed to be a silver bullet but a way to enable high density mesh streaming and high fidelity shadows and lighting when used with Lumen. Both techniques work incredibly well.

The only valid criticism is games getting too expensive (to make) and frame generation can work against gameplay. But both are really up to game designers to use appropriately, not engine providers to dictate.

Re: Cesium for Unreal – Bring the Real World to Unreal Engine

#35
post #33

On one hand it is great Unreal is being used in many places outside Gaming from VR, VFX, Movie production or anything to do with 3D / Photorealistic Graphics. On the other hand there are some recent backlash suggesting these direction and default in Unreal is making games look worst. [1] [2] And Nanite may not be the silver bullet we were looking for. [1] https://www.vg247.com/unreal-engine-5-has-been-a-disappointm..…

Even if true, still - unification of efforts across multiple industries will create more value and synergies in the long run compared to narrow optimisations.

Re: Cesium for Unreal – Bring the Real World to Unreal Engine

#36
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Son, you don’t need to see the desert or the ocean or the rainforest. You have a beautiful Midwest prairie right here at home.

Apropos of nothing, it seems weird to me that we observe a vocabulary distinction in identical phenomena based on where those phenomena are located. A prairie is called a steppe if it's in Asia. A steppe is called a prairie if it's in America. A hurricane is a typhoon, except it's striking the west coast of the Atlantic instead of the west coast of the Pacific. None of these make any difference to what the object is…

Well, hurricane is a Caribbean word and typhoon is an Arabic word. These two languages named the phenomenon before they could share a word for it.

Re: Cesium for Unreal – Bring the Real World to Unreal Engine

#37
post #22

Why do people strive to create such realistic environments when they're a much more realistic world outside? Although I understand the purpose from a fantastical-escapist perspective, I wonder if this sort of increasingly realistic escapism actually is reflective of how we're making the real world far worse than it ever was before and we're preparing an alternative world to escape into due to our destructive tendenci…

Imagine being able to experience a place that no longer exists. Close to my hometown there was a dam made that completely changed the landscape. But a museum reconstructed as best as they could the area so one can still see it as it was in VR and walk around. That's one use. There are many others, such as simulation of human behaviour in a digital twin (you can make sure experiment variables remain the same, difficul…

In my opinion, this will just lessen the negative cost of destroying landscapes. So, not a good thing.

Re: Cesium for Unreal – Bring the Real World to Unreal Engine

#38
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If people in such places had more immediate access to beautiful nature, then such a need wouldn't exist.

Son, you don’t need to see the desert or the ocean or the rainforest. You have a beautiful Midwest prairie right here at home.

I agree with the sentiment. My point was not exotic nature, but any nature. Some people do not even have that.

Re: Cesium for Unreal – Bring the Real World to Unreal Engine

#39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If people in such places had more immediate access to beautiful nature, then such a need wouldn't exist.

I'm balancing my desire to live near nature with my desire to live near a grocery store, a library, and a rock climbing gym

If cities were better designed, the balancing would be much easier.

Re: Cesium for Unreal – Bring the Real World to Unreal Engine

#40

Why do people strive to create such realistic environments when they're a much more realistic world outside? Although I understand the purpose from a fantastical-escapist perspective, I wonder if this sort of increasingly realistic escapism actually is reflective of how we're making the real world far worse than it ever was before and we're preparing an alternative world to escape into due to our destructive tendenci…

Tourism itself is quite destructive both to local communities and to nature. There’s a reason tourist hotspots are increasingly anti-tourist, and national parks are now forced to ration out visits via a lottery. While I agree that a virtual environment is less impressive than the real thing, it’s not a difficult argument to make that it is actually much better for the world to have digital alternatives.

I agree. I am not referring to tourism, but nature available for locals.
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