Architecture Firm Licenses Epic’s Unreal Engine

After exploring the crossover of design professionals entering the gaming world, it was inevitable that gaming technology would enter the design profession. I naively assumed it already had. So the news that HKS, one of largest architectural firms in the US, announced they have licensed the Unreal Gaming Engine, the 3D engine used in games like Unreal Tournament from Epic games. It didn’t seem like big news until I read the press release and learned that they were the first. By the way, whatever happened to the promise of Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML)? I imagine using the Unreal Engine is great fun. From my experience with 3D, the walkthrough tools found in most 3D software do not react the same as if you were in a first person shooter - no collision detection as you passed through walls, nor did it recognize walking up a set of stairs or a ramp - so the experience is limited. I haven’t had a chance to use the latest 3D software, so maybe this has changed a bit. If HKS is going through the trouble of licensing this technology, I doubt it has. In a recent Business Week article, HKS explains the benefits of the new technology. Here is an excerpt from the article:

“Adopting the new technology is also helping HKS address long-standing challenges. The firm had found that clients often have trouble translating two-dimensional images—let alone architectural plans—into accurate ideas of what a building or interior space might look like in reality. "The worst is when a client sees a finished building and says: 'That's not what I expected,'" says Pat Carmichael, the company's advanced technology manager and visualization guru.

Traditionally, projects were presented to clients in the form of a series of still images (which took hours to render) or as more sophisticated animations (which could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to produce).”

HKS’ press release states that the cost of this technology to their clients runs between $65K-150K, so it is not cheap. I am sure there will be third-party developers that will offer this to smaller firms as with most technologies it will only get cheaper. I look forward to the day when it is common place. I realize Unreal’s engine is far more advanced than Second Life, but I wonder if technologies like Second Life will accelerate this adoption and provide a place for people to explore the latest condo or public project? The future is always interesting.