Early Experiments in ArchViz and WebVR

I've become a big fan of A-Frame by the Mozilla VR team recently. A-Frame wraps up three.js in an easy-to-use markup syntax that allows for you to easily create multi-platform VR experiences that run straight out of the web browser. A lot of interesting things have been created with A-Frame but I still haven't seen much in the way of architectural visualization. This is likely due to the heavy rendering requirements of archviz, but I was compelled to try it out anyway.

In this early test, I've taken a model of the Barcelona Pavilion that I created a couple of years ago for testing purposes and used Blender's Cycles render engine to bake the lighting from an hdri environment map. This experience runs on Google Cardboard (although it's a bit slow even on my Samsung S6) as well as HTC Vive and the Oculus Rift using a WebVR compatible browser. Non-VR users: you can follow the link too, but you will not get the stereoscopic effect.

The results are promising but there's a lot of work to be done, especially since I'd like to target Google Cardboard and Day Dream. I'd like to figure out how to separate the light maps from the diffuse textures which should improve quality and performance drastically. Any three.js experts interested in collaborating?

Check it out here! Use the WASD keys to navigate on a computer. Mobile navigation coming soon.

let's get this started

I'm starting a new blog to document (and hopefully help motivate) my experimentation in design and technology.

The first time I can remember thinking about digital environment design was when I was about eight years old playing the PC version of the 1980 video game Battle Zone on my father's 486. In this early 3D game you navigated a tank around a wire-frame environment and fired shells at computer-controlled opponents. I remember spending what must have been hours one afternoon trying to drive my tank to the edge of this virtual world until I reconciled that the mountains I saw in the distance would never in fact get closer. I remember thinking that if I ever got to create my own virtual tank game, players would be free to roam the mountains, perhaps even leave their tank and explore the wilderness. This moment marked the beginning of a preoccupation with digital environments, from how they are created to how they relate to our physical environment.

I'd like this blog to become an informal repository of ideas and experiments related to our digital environment. Some posts may be conceptual thinking or discussion of tech-related news. Some discussions may be more technical in nature - a dumping ground of WebVR experiments and things I've learned along the way. See something you like or have suggestions? Get in touch with my handy contact page!

Cheers,
Mike