[HN Gopher] ArcGIS Maps SDK brings geospatial data to Unity and ...
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ArcGIS Maps SDK brings geospatial data to Unity and Unreal Engine
Author : noplsbecivil
Score : 46 points
Date : 2022-08-01 19:19 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (spectrum.ieee.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (spectrum.ieee.org)
| spicyusername wrote:
| Nvidia is working on a platform, Omniverse, to do exactly this
| using Pixar's Universal Scene Description format.
| noplsbecivil wrote:
| I visited an architectural firm many years ago, where they had
| started to show prospective customers prototypes of designs via
| an xbox. The customers could walk around, go inside the building
| and the experience helped them win deals. Always wondered why
| more firms didn't try something like that. Its great to see more
| sdks making things like that easier
| madrox wrote:
| I remember visiting AutoCAD in SF once, and they had a driving
| simulator for the newly constructed Presidio Parkway Tunnels,
| which were designed in AutoCAD. Simulation of real spaces is an
| interesting niche that I suspect will get leveraged way, way
| more as the data becomes pervasive.
| andrewxdiamond wrote:
| it sounds cool, but I wonder how much work goes into it.
|
| Is it possible for the firm to produce the walk-around model
| from their actual design tools?
|
| Without that, an Xbox based simulator is pretty expensive
| marketing material and it wouldn't be a perfect match to the
| real plans.
| andrewxdiamond wrote:
| Maybe that's the next startup, pipeline to transform
| architectural designs in whatever-normal-format to a rendered
| videogame-ish sim.
| yrgulation wrote:
| One can easily convert cad into playable meshes and slap an
| fps character controller for walking around. Texturing is
| trivial.
| andrewxdiamond wrote:
| The other thread here explains from the perspective of
| someone who tried why you may be over-trivializing this
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32311254
| yrgulation wrote:
| I bumped into similar issues - most kitbash modes i use
| are detailed down to screws. I remesh them or blender
| simplify them or drop the details. It is somewhat time
| consuming but nowhere near the complexity described in
| there. And for a building you dont need that level of
| detail.
| andrewxdiamond wrote:
| For sure it's achievable, but how much does this actually
| add to the value a firm provides?
|
| Is it more than the cost of a technical person who knows
| how's to make the models?
|
| And if you internally automate it, are the results clean
| enough to show to prospective clients?
|
| And even if the above two concerns are met, is the ROI on
| this higher than any other prospect the company has to
| increase customer satisfaction?
| bshipp wrote:
| We experimented with a similar process in agriculture for
| customer VR tours of facilities that are too remote or
| would result in excessive biosecurity risk for the
| plants/animals inside.
|
| However, we now just use 360 degree video to provide a
| better, more realistic experience. it's not helpful for
| exploring designs, but its a better choice (IMHO) for
| tours of facilities that already exist.
| liveoneggs wrote:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giaBnzuiPF4
| fellowniusmonk wrote:
| Royal Caribbean has an entire old style VR room for the
| executives to examine ships during the design phase, they've been
| doing it for awhile.
| navbaker wrote:
| No word on cost that I could see in the article. I'm assuming it
| will be ludicrously expensive like ArcGIS proper?
| CA0DA wrote:
| There's a free tier, not sure if the Unity/Unreal stuff is
| included in that: https://developers.arcgis.com/pricing/
| cyanydeez wrote:
| All hail QGis
| pugworthy wrote:
| This idea of importing CAD-type content into game engines has
| been around for ages. People used Duke Nukem 3D to model building
| interiors, and not just for workplace deathmatch amongst the IT
| crew.
|
| The core problem of CAD importing in my experience is that CAD
| content is not at all designed for or suitable for direct game
| engine importing. It requires a ton of cleaning to be optimized.
|
| It's one thing to bring in some terrain and an appropriate
| overlay of imagery, but another thing to try and import actual
| CAD content.
|
| As an example, I had the CAD files for a large industrial
| printing press at work, and thought about importing them into
| Valve's latest engine for VR. But the CAD files were TOO
| detailed. I mean literally the threads on each screw were
| modeled, and even the interior of the lock on a cabinet that was
| part of the machine. Every single component on circuit boards was
| modeled. It brought Hammer and the game engine to its knees with
| all the detail.
|
| Another issue with CAD is that not only can things be incredibly
| overly complex, but the model can include details that the end
| user simply has no need to visualize, and hence no need for the
| engine to try and render. Like the interior of that generic key
| hole latch on the cabinet. You don't need to model the interior
| of a pipe let alone some complex interior valve unless there is a
| reason to actually see that detail. 99% of the time a cylinder
| will do just fine.
|
| Then there is kinematics and animation. Want doors to open and
| close? Objects that are moveable by humans to be physics objects?
| You have to do all that yourself. Why would you do that? Well
| because that's part of an immersive environment that creates a
| truly engaging and informative experience for the design you are
| working with.
|
| In the end it was easier to draw on my past experience as a level
| designer. I selectively imported some details that would be
| difficult to reproduce, then hand built other components out of
| simple shapes and apply textures that showed the necessary detail
| without actually modeling it in detail. And if I did need detail,
| I could remodel a specific part at a higher level of detail and
| take advantage of built in level of detail management for models
| to keep the engine happy.
|
| Summary: nice idea, been talked about for ages, not really that
| easy if you actually want to build good interactive content in a
| game engine.
| jayd16 wrote:
| UE5's Nanite might be able to handle all the detail. I'd be
| curious to hear if anyone has tried it.
| [deleted]
| Melatonic wrote:
| Tons of VFX and game content "shortcut" strategies like this
| require lots of cleanup however - even very good 3D
| photogrammetry scans are probably going to need to be
| manipulated (even if they look visually great) from an artistic
| point of view. The whole point is shortcutting and cutting time
| off the artists table. Lidar does not really give you anything
| that you can directly use out of the box but it does give you a
| huge leg up with perspective, sizing, etc etc.
|
| Certainly not a silver bullet but it seems like it could be a
| huge time saver in certain scenarious
| dvisca wrote:
| Importing CAD files into GIS I always encounter the opposite,
| especially if the files are from architects. They can't even
| close their polygons.
| takk309 wrote:
| I was going to say the same thing. Seems like a lot of art
| focused vector programs aren't as rigorous with their
| polygons as a CAD program. But, I suppose it is just a matter
| of the level of detail the end use demands.
| spockz wrote:
| This sounds like a type of problem where on import a pad can be
| done to remove invisible detail. Then if any changes like
| making a door interactive can be remembered and re-applied, or
| perhaps even written declaratively. "All objects with label X
| can be opened". Then it seems like at least the import prices
| can be more repeatable.
|
| (Btw, I'm amazed that invisible details effect rendering, even
| our university toy renderer had a pass on visibility.)
| taeric wrote:
| This feels like it could be part of an import pipeline, though?
| Simplification of the models can't be automated at all?
| jayd16 wrote:
| It can be automated but a deep import pipeline would really
| hurt iteration times. There's also a lot of tuning that goes
| into what is and is not the important part of a model and
| whether the simplification removes detail you expect to see.
| madrox wrote:
| There are many tools that do this, but more often than not
| they still require significant hand tuning to look good. Best
| metaphor I can think of is publishing a translation of a
| novel. You can google translate it to get started, but you
| probably still need to reread the whole thing. In many cases,
| it's probably faster to start from scratch.
| mistrial9 wrote:
| another log on the pyre of tech modernity - prepare to show your
| cell phone number and government issued ID to see it.
| rad_gruchalski wrote:
| I'm sure those in the industry know about it. There's slso Cesium
| for Unreal: https://cesium.com/platform/cesium-for-unreal/.
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