Using a saved camera for walkthrough camera duties...


chomper
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Hi all.

 

I'm just getting into Chief Architect (X8 Premier) and whilst I can record a walkthrough video via a path, I'm finding it's taking ages to render a one minute walkthrough.

The walkthrough camera defaults to daylight and I can't seem to find a way to change this.
 

However I've saved a camera with sunlight toggled off and shadows toggled off. Is there a way to use this saved camera for walkthrough duties?

 

System specs are:

 

- 2x Xeon X5650

- 32GB RAM

- 1TB HDD (RAID 0)

- Quadro 600 video card

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3 hours ago, chomper said:

However I've saved a camera with sunlight toggled off and shadows toggled off. Is there a way to use this saved camera for walkthrough duties?

 

I believe that work continues on this problem but this is where we are at currently :

 

 

It would not hurt to send your thoughts in as a suggestion as we are all waiting for improvements to this function.

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7 hours ago, DRAWZILLA said:

Zeon's and Quadro cards are not the best items for Chief.   i7 and NVidia is the way to go for the best gaming machine experience and what Chief recommends. X10 will do it better than X8.

 

The Xeon's in my system are faster than any i7 bar the latest Coffee Lake CPU's (six core each).

Quadro is the nVidia workstation video card, however my one is admittedly an older one, I do have a Geforce 750 Ti I can whack in there, which is much faster.

 

6 hours ago, Chopsaw said:

 

I believe that work continues on this problem but this is where we are at currently :

 

 

It would not hurt to send your thoughts in as a suggestion as we are all waiting for improvements to this function.

 

A suggestion, a completely customisable camera for walk through would be great, as would the ability to export the project to a standalone executable where the client/stakeholders can freely roam around the project; a bit like they are playing a first person shooter. A few firms I deal with resort to using the Unreal game engine system to create client walkthroughs.

 

Also the ability to set the resolution of walkthrough videos would be great, the current method of resolution being dependent on the size of the viewport is a bit silly.

 

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2 minutes ago, glennw said:

Are you aware of the Chief 3D Viewer?

 

I wasn't until you mentioned it :D

 

I've just had a cursory look at it, it's not quite what I was thinking. Being able to walk through a design and free roam would be fantastic.

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32 minutes ago, chomper said:

A suggestion, a completely customisable camera for walk through would be great, as would the ability to export the project to a standalone executable where the client/stakeholders can freely roam around the project; a bit like they are playing a first person shooter. A few firms I deal with resort to using the Unreal game engine system to create client walkthroughs.

 

Also the ability to set the resolution of walkthrough videos would be great, the current method of resolution being dependent on the size of the viewport is a bit silly.

 

 

I see that you are new to the forum but it is obvious you have valuable background knowledge.  Please be sure to post this in Suggestions and or send it in to tech support.

 

I also use a completely different set of camera presets for walkthroughs so this is the only practical solution. 

 

You can roam with the 3D view but the image quality is not as good as standard view and certainly a long way from what Unreal is doing.

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1 minute ago, Chopsaw said:

 

I see that you are new to the forum but it is obvious you have valuable background knowledge.  Please be sure to post this in Suggestions and or send it in to tech support.

 

I also use a completely different set of camera presets for walkthroughs so this is the only practical solution. 

 

You can roam with the 3D view but the image quality is not as good as standard view and certainly a log way from what Unreal is doing.

 

I've made a post in the "Suggestions" section :D

Unreal is a game engine first and foremost, but it lends itself extremely well to architectural design. I "built" the house we currently live in a much earlier version of Unreal (essentially a custom level in UT2004). I used very high resolution textures and as a result, it still looks good today.

 

How do you define a set of presets for walkthroughs?

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49 minutes ago, chomper said:

 

The Xeon's in my system are faster than any i7 bar the latest Coffee Lake CPU's (six core each).

Quadro is the nVidia workstation video card, however my one is admittedly an older one, I do have a Geforce 750 Ti I can whack in there, which is much faster.

I'm not saying they aren't,  they just don't work as well with Chief, over the years I've seen lots of people have problems using them. Search the forum.

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5 minutes ago, DRAWZILLA said:

I'm not saying they aren't,  they just don't work as well with Chief, over the years I've seen lots of people have problems using them. Search the forum.

 

I just did a search on Xeon and the only two results are my posts! Unless everyone has incorrectly spelled them "Zeon" :D

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On 4/17/2018 at 7:48 PM, chomper said:

How do you define a set of presets for walkthroughs?

 

I think the key thing here is that we need to be able to save our walkthrough camera setups because I often like to use the walkthrough at several key stages of the build and to document revisions.  But generally I would use a wider field of view for an interior walkthrough than my normal working camera. However I also do exterior walkarounds and would use typically a wider field of view than my working Perspective View camera.  Also I do flyovers and use a much narrower field of view to reduce distortion.  This all leads up to my problem of being able to combine these paths and ultimately these field of view controls should be within the walkthrough DBX so that it could be adjusted depending on the size of the room or if you are inside or outside or just for creative reasons.  I also usually eliminate the Clip and reduce the Move Distance and Rotate Angle.

 

 

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Same requirements here.  But I would prefer having the ability to specify a saved camera Id in the walkthrough dbx. Those camera settings would then be used use for the walkthrough.  To me, specifying parameters in the walkthrough dbx without being able to visually check the outcome is risky.  Using the parameters of a saved camera means you've already viewed the result.

 

The other important piece for me, as mentioned by Chopsaw, is adjusting sunlight.  I just discovered that the sunlight settings are saved along with the saved camera.  So I'd be happy simply with the ability to specify a saved camera Id in the walkthrough dbx.

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25 minutes ago, cv2702 said:

To me, specifying parameters in the walkthrough dbx without being able to visually check the outcome is risky.  Using the parameters of a saved camera means you've already viewed the result.

 

Yes this is an issue but maybe a better idea that I think I have heard suggested before would be the ability to open the walkthrough camera in a static view, possibly even at each key frame to assist with the setup angles, before recording.  Or even the ability to setup the walkthrough path in camera view by just selecting key frames along the path.

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23 hours ago, Chopsaw said:

 

... the ability to open the walkthrough camera in a static view, possibly even at each key frame to assist with the setup angles, before recording ...

That I REALLY like.  Suggestion bin?

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