The coolest use for the Vision Pro • Hacker News Board

Re: The coolest use for the Vision Pro

#271

Post by DonHopkins » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 9:16 AM UTC

JSR_FDED wrote: post #175

jasonfarnon wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I don't know any other way at this point. Showing a novice a 2D elevation" I think 2D prints aren't the baseline, and since at least the late 2000s even run of the mill architecture firms have been using 3d studio-type renderings with clients. Maybe I don't understand how the visionpro works. Your clients arent actually physically moving their body, right? What's the advantage of looking around the space in a vision…

I’ve been through this (but with different software than the author used). The level of immersion, the sense of being there, is dramatically better with the Vision Pro. It was the biggest unlock when it came to choosing a staircase design. Hard to picture ahead of time and expensive to change later.

I worked with DUS Architects in Amsterdam on a staircase designer / visualizer for their enormous fused deposition modelling (FDM) 3D house printers, using Rhino + Grasshopper + Unity3D.

"Complexity is free when you are drawing with a nozzle."

One thing about their use of plant-based bioplastic is that if you didn't like your staircase or house after printing it, you could shred it, melt it back down, redesign it, and print out a different one again.

>On a plot in Amsterdam-Noord, DUS Architects turned a six-metre FDM printer called the KamerMaker into a research laboratory disguised as a house — extruding honeycomb rooms from plant-based bioplastic to ask whether a building can be downloaded, printed on site, and shredded back into feedstock when it is done.

https://houseofdus.com/

https://web.archive.org/web/20180509103603/http://3dprintcan...

https://www.studiomatrx.org/guides/3d-print-canal-house

>The KamerMaker: a desktop printer, grown enormous

>The instrument at the centre of the project is a machine called the KamerMaker — Dutch for "room maker" — installed on the site from September 2012. Conceptually it is disarmingly simple: it is a fused deposition modelling (FDM) printer, the same layer-by-layer, melt-and-extrude technology found in a hobbyist desktop machine, scaled up until it stands roughly six metres tall inside a movable, container-sized pavilion. It was developed by DUS in dialogue with the desktop-printing world — the Ultimaker community was part of that lineage — and it can print single elements up to about 2.2 × 2.2 × 3.5 metres.

Much earlier (1997-2000) I worked on The Sims architectural editing tools for walls, floors, windows, doors, swimming pools, ladders, diving boards, object placement, etc, including the staircase placement tool, which was extra tricky because it spanned two stories, punched holes in the floor, and reserved two contiguous floor landing tiles upstairs and downstairs. Orchestrating the undo/redo edit records in the right order was diabolical. ;)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-exdu4ETscs

The Anti-Heisenberg Teleporter added by House Party was not actually classified as a staircase although it spanned two floors and had landing tiles. But it worked since the staircase tool (and other specialized tools like windows, doors, pool ladders and diving boards, etc) were actually just special modes of the generic universal object placement tool.

Stairs Aesthetics In Every Sims - Sims 1, Sims 2, Sims 3, Sims 4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43IwecyTHYU

The modular clown themed roller coaster construction kit in Makin' Magic was amazing!

The Sims 1 Was Made in 2000...and it's still amazing:

https://youtu.be/x00rH9eIJgo?t=216

LGR - The Sims 1 & 2 Legacy Collection Review

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUDt4BoMg-s

Re: The coolest use for the Vision Pro

#272

Post by rolfus » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 9:29 AM UTC

papercruncher wrote: post #168

jondiggsit wrote: post #68

My team uses this technology on a daily basis at my company. I run a design / build firm in the Hamptons, USA. We start all of our design projects with a 3d-first approach. Schematic design starts in 3D using Rhino3D or Revit. We use visualization plugins, like Enscape, to render the models and stream to a Quest 3 headset. So when clients come in, and feels adventurous, we'll setup the headset, set the display height…

I did this circa 2021 (with SketchUp, Enscape, Quest 2) during our house remodel. It was very successful in reducing the number of walls my wife wanted to move around after they had been finished

Me and my partner did this as well, only using a HTC Vive. We modeled our bathroom in two different versions and could toggle between the two while "standing inside" the bathroom. The VR simulation was the deciding factor between the two layouts, as one just "felt" better in person.

Re: The coolest use for the Vision Pro

#273

Post by ChrisMarshallNY » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 9:35 AM UTC

jondiggsit wrote: post #68

My team uses this technology on a daily basis at my company. I run a design / build firm in the Hamptons, USA. We start all of our design projects with a 3d-first approach. Schematic design starts in 3D using Rhino3D or Revit. We use visualization plugins, like Enscape, to render the models and stream to a Quest 3 headset. So when clients come in, and feels adventurous, we'll setup the headset, set the display height…

For those that don’t know, the Hamptons are full of very nice places. The uber-rich have second homes, there, that are bigger than Gold Coast first homes.

This company probably makes a lot of money, but they also have serious competition, so they need things like the 3D walkthroughs.

Summer traffic in the Hamptons is a nightmare, though. Many uber-rich have helipads.

Re: The coolest use for the Vision Pro

#274

Post by bejd » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 10:07 AM UTC

The BBC had a programme "Your Home Made Perfect" where they would give people a VR demo of two potential home renovations, then they'd build the one they chose. This was a few years back though, so they're using Oculus Gos [0]

[0] https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0g7glgm

Re: The coolest use for the Vision Pro

#275

Post by torginus » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 10:10 AM UTC

Using VR for archviz has been a thing for quite a while, but my friend who works as a (building) architect told me that clients prefer 3d printed scale models, now that 3d printing got cheap and good.

Re: The coolest use for the Vision Pro

#276

Post by kmfrk » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 10:23 AM UTC

I forget the name, but there's also a company that does physical mockup of your house's floor plan that you can walk through, kind of like Von Trier's Dogville, but at least with some walls.

There's definitely a perception gap that needs to be closed for these things, whether through VR or something slightly less digital. That's probably also a big part of the appeal of prefabs.

Re: The coolest use for the Vision Pro

#277

Post by mlrtime » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 10:29 AM UTC

artisinal wrote: post #232

simonjgreen wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This comment got me curious, as it felt attainable/more commonplace to me. I did some searching, and according to gov.uk stats 7-10% of homes in UK are custom/self-build homes. That is actually surprisingly high!

Impressive. Where I live you get a flat assigned and you put your old furniture in. Maybe you paint the walls, but they have to be white when you move out. If you are doing well for yourself you buy a house from a project. It will be 150 identical homes next to each other. If you pay extra you get to decide the color of the kitchen and what tiles you want in the pre-designed bathroom. Designing your own home is some…

It's quite common in the USA ... but since we have massive sprawl they will build whole neighborhoods at once, give you a choice of 5-10 different model homes and then you can customize on top of that. Sometimes a customization can be a whole floor.

If the builder does it correctly you really have to squint to tell which homes are the exact same since they are all slightly different.

Re: The coolest use for the Vision Pro

#278

Post by mlrtime » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 10:32 AM UTC

rickdeckard wrote: post #248

simonjgreen wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This comment got me curious, as it felt attainable/more commonplace to me. I did some searching, and according to gov.uk stats 7-10% of homes in UK are custom/self-build homes. That is actually surprisingly high!

> 7-10% of homes in UK are custom/self-build homes Worth to note that there is a huge practical difference between a "custom" and a "self-build" home. - On "self-build" you take full personal responsibility for finding land, securing planning permission, managing the budget, and hiring architects or builders. - On "custom" you buy from a developer who already has pre-approved planning permissions, often for a huge se…

Agreed, and from the people I know who fully self-build say they will never do it again. The amount of decisions and time it takes can be very stressful.

But when you go to very high end neighborhoods where you essentially pick a plot and a architect, no 2 homes are close to the same, all completely custom.

Re: The coolest use for the Vision Pro

#279

Post by jamesbuiltreal » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 10:32 AM UTC

jondiggsit wrote: post #68

My team uses this technology on a daily basis at my company. I run a design / build firm in the Hamptons, USA. We start all of our design projects with a 3d-first approach. Schematic design starts in 3D using Rhino3D or Revit. We use visualization plugins, like Enscape, to render the models and stream to a Quest 3 headset. So when clients come in, and feels adventurous, we'll setup the headset, set the display height…

Hey mate, I'm a builder in Sydney, Australia and I'm currently trying to implement something very similar in my business. I'd love to connect and have a chat about the ins and outs if you'd be open to it? If you could reach out that would be awesome. My email is in my bio. Or reply to this comment if you need another form of contact.

Re: The coolest use for the Vision Pro

#280

Post by Mawr » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 11:01 AM UTC

NuclearPM wrote: post #209

papercruncher wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did this circa 2021 (with SketchUp, Enscape, Quest 2) during our house remodel. It was very successful in reducing the number of walls my wife wanted to move around after they had been finished

Reducing?

Never get married, man...