The folks over at irisVR have been busy—including a Bloomberg TV interview of CEO and co-founder Shane Scranton who discussed on TV virtual reality and the architectural market. You can watch the interview here.
Identifying Winners
irisVR was an AIA Architosh BEST of SHOW Innovation Category winner in both 2016 and in 2015 when they first arrived on the scene three years ago. In the Bloomberg video, Scranton discusses some of the risks the company knew they were taking on three years ago when they got started. We noted some of these risks as well (like the one about larger rivals entering the market that Scranton mentions in the Bloomberg interview) when we wrote:
“…while there are many rival offerings, we felt irisVR had the right formula in providing BIM and CAD programs with a plugin route.”
Scranton notes that VR is very hard to do and their approach is “agnostic” to use his words in the interview. This agnostic path is one of the reasons why we awarded irisVR the BEST of SHOW nod originally. While bigger rivals like Autodesk have jumped into the VR game as well, irisVR’s tools work with a host of other offerings besides Revit, like SketchUp, OBJ, Rhino and Grasshopper. We think this is really good because most firms use a variety of tools and having a common VR solution is streamlining.
New in Prospect 1.4—Scale Model Mode and More
The new Scale Model Mode in Prospect 1.4 lets the viewer experience a virtual reality model in the same way as an architectural scale model, meaning the VR user will see the model at a scale model size and be able to lift the model up and down, rotate the model, etc, as if in their hands like a real architectural (physical) scale model.
01 – irisVR’s new Prospect 1.4 offers new Scale Model Mode plus new living sectioning in both X-Y axes.
The user can also zoom into the virtual scale model as if teleporting yourself into this tiny virtual world. Additionally, the latest release now supports sectioning of the model from new perspectives and again being able to teleport oneself directly into the interior spaces.
The sectioning works in both horizontal and vertical formats.
Architosh Insights
irisVR raised US $8 million in series A funding in 2017 bringing its total funding to US $10 million in total. When we last spoke with Scranton directly in this Architosh interview (see, Architosh, “irisVR CEO and Co-Founder Talks About Pro VR Industry—Oculus versus Vive and More,” 25 Feb 2016) he said a few key things of note important to readers here at Architosh. Within that context let’s look at some key takeaways in this latest news.
The Key Takeaways
- irisVR is by far the best VR software solution sitting at the middle of a wide range of software offerings in the AEC industry. Yes, they noted they were pulling away temporarily from direct app support for tools like Vectorworks as noted in the interview from early 2016, we can see them eventually widening their BIM software supports in particular once they are firmly in a larger adoption upswing in the adoption cycle
- irisVR supports both Rhino and Grasshopper formats today, a clear sign that this company is aiming to stay at the forefront. This is key because Rhino and Grasshopper are the dominant algorithmic design tools in the market and the current software darlings of marquee design firms.
- In Scranton notes in the Bloomberg vide that irisVR is faster than its competitors in getting VR content ready for consumption. Rival solutions often push this process to the cloud which adds an added step and cycle of time.
irisVR has two product offerings, one in Prospect and the other in Scope. To learn more about irisVR go here.
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