61

Introduction and Theory |Advent and Progression of the Gaming Engine

60

Introduction and Theory |Advent and Progression of the Gaming Engine

A traditional desktop setup with a monitor and various input devices such as mouse and keyboard, game controller, and joysticks

By WeazelBear, “I Built My Own Live Edge Desk out of Teak. I Hope You All like It. Album in Comments,” Reddit, accessed December 19, 2019, https://www.reddit.com/r/battlestations/comments/7wlsp6/i_built_my_own_live_edge_desk_out_of_teak_i_hope/.

Possible VR setup with various trackers for interactive inputs

From “Fully immersive VR Entertainment Solutions,” Cyberith, accessed December 19, 2019, https://www.cyberith.com/entertainment/.

Interactivity

While the time savings from the increased rendering efficiency would be valuable, perhaps what will be more beneficial is the possibility for interactivity within architectural visualization. This opens up a wide range of mediums to communicate design intentions within current architectural pipelines, ranging from simple mouse and keyboard inputs with a monitor screen output to fully tracked virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) headsets and various forms of body tracking.[25] (Fig. 1.3.16 - 17)

Beyond the static image, and even beyond the animated film, one will have the ability to experience these digital environments by directly interacting with them. This turns traditional static architectural renderings into immersive interactive real-world walkthroughs that allow clients and designers to better understand the experiential and spatial qualities of the design, adding further utility and credibility to the visualizations produced for design and presentation.

With all these benefits, the game engine can be thought of as another progression leap in architectural visualization. With so much potential in not only current game engines but also the direction of which these technologies are heading, it becomes evident how the game design industry may benefit the architecture industry. This is already noticed by some architecture firms such as HOK, who are already implementing this technology within their workflows, albeit still skimming the surface of what game engines are capable of.[26] (Fig. 1.3.18) By investigating this overlap of tool utilization, it becomes possible to not only close the gap between architectural visualizations and films, but also to facilitate new modes of visualization and interaction—thus satisfying the increasing expectations of people as a result of the increasing general exposure to both film and game media. With the direction that technology and coincidently both the architecture and game development fields are headed, moving towards the Game Engine for visualization seems to be the appropriate direction.

Architectural Rendering by HOK