Last month’s introductory episode kicked off a new series for architecture and construction industry stakeholders where they could learn how to create high quality images, videos and even immersive experiences, based on the Building Information Modeling (BIM) data with the 3DEXCITE applications on the 3DEXPERIENCE® Platform.

Today’s episode is focusing on data preparation. Whatever marketing asset you want to create, if your model is complex, your first step is optimizing it. A BIM model is necessarily very complex because it is complete. However, this complexity can be a handicap, when you are creating your experience, generating raytraced images and during the play of your interactive experience. Everything will be slower, and in some cases, just not workable.

Let’s talk about the importance of product preparation for experience authoring, high-quality images, videos and interactive experiences creation.

Data preparation and experience authoring

The more complex the model, the longer it will take to open and save. In addition, if the model is particularly complex, it can be difficult to navigate around it in 3D or even via the tree. The performance is inadequate, and there is a time lag between the actions you do with your keyboard or mouse and the result of these actions on the screen. Optimizing your model will allow you to have a more efficient workflow, and your interactions (opening, saving, etc.) with the model will be smoother.

Data preparation and high-quality images/video creation

A quick raytraced render of Metal Building

To create a high-quality image, one uses the raytracing technique that consists of physically simulating the path of light, by launching rays from the 3D viewport. The longer this physical simulation runs in our scene, the higher the image quality will be. In this case, optimizing a model will allow you to save rendering time for each generated image.

Data preparation and interactive experiences’ play

An experience with an unprepared product from civil engineering.

The point of an interactive experience is to allow a user to interact with it. Each user action supposes a reaction in the world of experience. To create a seamless experience, the delay between the action of the player, and its consequence in the experience, must be as short as possible. An immersive experience needs to be real-time. For a smooth interactive experience, your machine must be able to display at least 30 images per second. This constraint is always in the experience artist’s mind. Throughout the creation process, the artist has to find a balance between interactivity time cost, visual effect cost and the necessity to render at least 30 images per second. Data preparation is crucial. An optimized model allows the marketing artist to allocate more rendering time between interactivity and visual effect.

It is important to understand these concepts. The whole 3DEXCITE role portfolio on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform is structured around them.

In this article, you have learned that there are two types of 3D rendering:

• Ray trace rendering that physically simulates the path of light to generate an image. The longer this simulation lasts, the better the image is. This technique is used to create high-quality images and videos. Data preparation, in this case, accelerates the simulation.
• Real-time rendering, used for interactive experiences, requires at least 30 images per second, to guarantee the fluidity of the interactions and the consequences of these interactions in the experiment. Data preparation makes your experience smoother.

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Related Resources

Dassault Systemes  Construction, Cities and Territories Solutions
Dassault Systemes 3DEXCITE

Original Source By Marc-Antoine DUPONT in 3DEXCITE User Community, Dassault Systèmes