Help: Creating 3D building walkthroughs?

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23 Oct 2003
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In this semester of my degree (Civil Engineering) I basically have an ATC, car park, office space and restoration of a sports pavilion to design and present.

In the past I have used AutoCAD a lot (very adept at 2D, but not too hot on 3D) and have working knowledge of SolidEdge.

I have developed the ATC on SolidEdge but it’s very slow and is not really suited to architecture in my opinion. Also producing a walkthrough and render for even a flyby is insanely difficult and long process. Plus having ‘academic version’ stamped on the outputs is not particularly pleasing!

I was thinking along the lines of using one of the game engines such as UnrealEd to produce a simple/crude version of these designs. Then produce a walkthrough, flyby etc like all these clan videos on the net. All the real detail such as beam-column connections, shear bracings, truss structures etc will be hidden.

However, as I have no experience of this sort of stuff I would like any input from you guys. What engine would you recommend and video tools? Also any good tutorial sites out there to do such things?

However, if you think I am barking up the wrong tree and should use something else such as Bryce? Or Maya? Then please let me know. I have access to a very wide range of programs at the various uni departments.

Ideally, in the long run, I would like to start with 3D graphics, animations etc but with time constraints and learning curve I may have to stick with a rough, ready and restricted at the mo.

I am quite happy to do all the elevations and detail using AutoCAD and some parts using SolidEdge.

So can you guys and gals point me in the right direction please?
 
Chaos: thanks for that - I hadn't even thought about the CryEngine (to be honest I didn't really know about it all). That architecture mod looks amazing! I'll have a closer look into it.

LazyManc: thanks for the suggestion, but I have used SketchUp in the past and I simply abhor it. Good if you don't have access to anything better, but it's quite frankly rubbish.
 
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