In this short blog post I would like to share with you why I’m convinced that VR Tours created from 360 Images add more value to your business than full 3D walkthroughs.

I think it’s pretty clear for most of us that VR already has a huge role in the architecture industry and will only be moving forward!

So it’s not really a question of should we show our design in VR, but rather -

How to do it properly so it’s adding the most amount of value to our business today?

Now what do I mean by “properly”?

In order to answer this question we should take a step back and think: What are we actually trying to achieve?

The goals are:

Making the customer see our vision

Everyone knows that communicating a vision for a project can be very difficult. VR can go a long way at solving this issue, however realistic representation is a key requirement. We don’t want clients to focus on the imperfection of the VR experience and we want the best available picture quality to show them our vision.

Everyone knows that communicating a vision for a project can be very difficult. VR can go a long way at solving this issue, however realistic representation is a key requirement. We don’t want clients to focus on the imperfection of the VR experience and we want the best available picture quality to show them our vision. Stand out from the crowd

We don’t want to be just like others, use the same set of tools and present in exactly the same way. We want to blow them away not only with our design but also with the way we present!

We don’t want to be just like others, use the same set of tools and present in exactly the same way. We want to blow them away not only with our design but also with the way we present! Encourage word of mouth

We want them to be so happy and excited about our work that they will talk about it with their friends and family! Not only that, but ideally we would like them to be able to show the same demo, so everyone can join the excitement.

If those three points are something that you would like to achieve there is only one way to do it today — VR tours from 360 Images.

And here is why.

Image quality of a 360 render is way better than any real time rendering engine available on the market

Of course there are many great videos on the internet showing beautiful samples in VR which look really great! The problem is that those are manually prepared scenes, for example in Unreal Engine and it takes quite a bit of time to prepare it — time that is very scarce and expensive!

That’s why those manually prepared samples are not something that we consider.

By contrast, to prepare a 360 render we use exactly the same tools that we used for many years in order to prepare 2D renders for presentations..

It’s the same set of tools, we just use different options!

The existing tools for preparing full 3D walkthroughs can only handle primitive models, not looking any more realistic than what you see in Revit, Sketchup or other CAD software.

Tours based on 360 images however, look just as good as the photorealistic 2D images that we are used to publishing on our websites to impress potential customers

Here you can see a comparison

CAD vs Render

As you can see it’s pretty obvious which one looks better and what will impress your customer.

This simple observation lets us conclude that today 360 renders provide much higher quality at lower costs, which fits our goals better, even at the cost of having a partial walkthrough.

You should be able to achieve superior image quality on your own in a short amount of time

Just like I described in the previous chapter — there are amazing videos on the internet with beautiful VR samples prepared manually!

Those things are great for special events but it’s not really a solution that we can use on a daily basis. In order for VR in architecture to really become mainstream it has to be accessible to everyone and it has to be super easy to use.

When I say easy to use, I don’t mean easy to create a mediocre 3D scene in VR, but easy to create photorealistic experience that will astonish your clients!

360 renderings are perfect for the job because pretty much everyone who ever made a 2D rendering of a 3D scene knows how to do it!

What you have to do is start the same tool that you have been using in the past and use new options!

Here is a short post, explaining how to use existing software, to render 360 images for VR.

Few options and thats it

With 360 renderings you don’t have to learn anything new in order to use VR in architecture!

You want your work to be visible to more clients

Nobody will argue against the fact that advanced VR headsets such as the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive are spectacular. However, today these devices are quite rare and expensive, and let’s be honest — VR is not moving as fast as a lot of us thought it will.

Therefore, instead of putting high hopes on future trends, we should focus on how VR technology can have wide reach and add value today.

Now we all have at least one mobile device so why not use those?

Most high-end mobile devices these days have huge screens and can comfortably present photo-realistic 360 images in VR with better resolution and quality than Rift or Vive, as these advanced headsets actually have quite small screens.

Believe it or not — your phone is better equipped for the job than a high end VR headset!

Here are two quotes from Techtimes.com article

The Oculus Rift sports an OLED display with 1,080 x 1,200 pixels resolution per eye.

Owners of the Google Daydream can enjoy resolution of 1,440 x 1,280 per eye on the Pixel XL

Not only can 360 VR tours be viewed on practically every mobile phone, but your excited customer can take your tour home and show it to his friends, and this is the most powerful marketing tool you can get!

Doesn’t matter how much money you will spend on PR, it will never be as powerful as your client showing off with your design at his next dinner party!

Conclusions

Those are the main reasons why, after almost 10 years working as a consultant in the Engineering world and more than 2 years working on VR for Architecture, I’m convinced that VR tours based on 360 images have the highest business potential for architects and interior designers alike.

There is one idea that has stuck in my mind since I saw an OC3 presentation with John Carmack. He was referring to the early days of 3D Shooters and he said something along the lines of:…

It doesn’t matter if it’s full 3D or not (…) what matters the most is what actually generates value for the end user!

Piotr Juchnowicz