Using game engine for walkthrus

[Dommy2Hotty]

I've been throwing this idea around lately: Using a first person shooter gaming engine (like for Counter-Strike, Half-Life, etc) to import a 3D model of a project into the "game world" in order for our clients to be able to load it up and walk thru the model like they're playing the game, kind of pseudo virtual reality.

Anyone have ANY information I can use to try to accomplish this?

[Dommy2Hotty]

Found this at http://www.twhl.co.za/vault.php?map=3657:
It's a FLW replica of Falling Water:

[James Cannon]

That's one of the most awesome ideas I've ever heard on this board.  For funsies and for practicality that might really wow some clients.  Of course it would require delivering a small .exe file, I suppose, that may be a bit of a downer to some.

But wow that would rock.

I might spend some time looking in to this but the only draw back that I think you'll find is this:

Games use EXTREMELY low poly models and rely upon texture mapping to create the proper effect for Depth, Lighting, and Detail.  CAD models typically rely on ACTUAL DETAIL being modeled in, so that there are all the points required for clash detection and dimension snapping that drawings require.  Plus, most of us are drafters that think "If I'm going to draw it, I'm going to draw it right" probably, so chances are the model is accurate to a fault, for this case.

Have you ever seen some of the models used for popular games?  I remember back in the day, I downloaded the models for Warcraft 3, a popular Realtime Strategy game, to see about using them for some funsies modeling/rendering practice years ago.  Thought I might learn a thing or two about pro modeling.  They were sooooo basic and soooooo plain that it was basically 10-second to make the model, and all time for quality was spend in Photoshop creating textures... not something I cared for learning/doing.

This will all matter because if you DO a walk through of your model for the client, there is a chance that the screen refresh rate will have to go down so low, for their computer to process it, that it might be very off putting and unwieldy.  Thinking that it'd be measured in... SECONDS per FRAME, as opposed to frames-per-second.

Depending on the visual style of course.

Definitely worth a look though, I'm thinking.  Could still be pretty awesome and useful.

[James Cannon]

BTW, how awesome would it be to have a shootout at Falling Water? 

[Dommy2Hotty]

BTW, how awesome would it be to have a shootout at Falling Water? 

LOL  I read in the comments that they're making it a playable map....might get your wish!

[architecture68-raff]

BOOM HEADSHOT

Found this video showing one student's attempt: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8904165222124951049#

I never got into making custom maps or mods on games like CS so I don't know....does the typical game engine allow for importing 3ds or other CAD-friendly models, or would you have to model everything in the game?

[Anti Quark]

cool Idea Dommy, pretty sure this link will get you pointed down hill.

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=711882][url]http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=711882[/url]

[Daniel J. Ellis]

There was an article on this in the Architect's Journal, some five yers ago ( since it was at least that long ago I last got a copy).

From memory they were using the Doom engine.

[Anti Quark]

and you might want to place hands on some Deep Paint 3D

http://www.digitalanimators.com/HTM/Reviews/PamR/Pam_deeppaint1.htm

[Dommy2Hotty]

Thank you all for your comments.  I basically thought about doing this with one project over the winter when I'm stuck inside.  Just a little side project that might never come to reality, but I'm going to give it a whirl! 

That is if I can pull myself away from playing Half Life 2 again...