Arguably Autodesk’s biggest announcement at this year’s AU 2018 was its partnership with game engine platform developer, Unity. The two companies already collaborate on solutions for mutual customers working with Autodesk products Maya and 3ds max.
AR and VR and Real-Time Can Change Design
As a design software company, Autodesk naturally has a high vested interest in absorbing new technologies that transform the design process. That is precisely what is happening in just about every 3D design field due to the emergence of virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and real-time immersive realities.
01 – Unity CEO John Riccitiello discusses and shows how the new Autodesk + Unity partnership will work with Autodesk’s key AEC application, Revit.
Virtual and Augmented Realities both offer the chance to design and present new creations at 1:1 human scale, something that was rarely achieved in the field of architecture, for example, before without the use of 1:1 scale mockup models. While 1:2 and 1:4 detailed architectural models have donned the palaces of kings and princes for centuries throughout Europe and Asia, such efforts were herculean and today completely outmoded. With BIM models in architecture already par for the course, it only makes sense that we seek out to “inhabit” them.
There are 7-8 million potential consumers of Unity technologies in the construction industry alone. So AEC is massive compared to just about any of these other industries.
Autodesk and Unity are officially teaming up to bring such an experience to the center of their toolchains in architecture, engineering and beyond. Automotive, Architecture, Engineering, Construction and other Media & Entertainment fields will soon have access to processes like the ones shown in these videos on this page from the AU 2018 keynote. (Take a look at what’s coming above and below.)
The Unity game engine environment will enable designers to immerse their clients and themselves in a human-scaled world that only exists inside a computer and a designer’s mind. With life-like photorealism and the ability for dynamic physics to change the overall environment, architects, for example, can showcase the way light will pass through a room while the client can experience the sense of this reality themselves at human scale.
02 – Unity CEO John Riccitiello shows how a Revit model flows through the Unity game engine environment and works for integrative workflows.
Autodesk promises to enable Revit models to enter immersive experiences with one-click simplicity. The VRED and Unity connection will enable automotive design professionals to accelerate time-to-market products and produce downstream POS, marketing and immersive training tools. And Shotgun and Unity integration will further integrate asset solutions and management.
Getting Deeper Into Autodesk + Unity Details
Autodesk says the fall of 2019 will be when the full maturity of initial integrations will hit the market. However, in our in-depth interview with Dave Rhodes of Unity, we learn much more about what is happening behind the scenes as the two companies work on these integrations.
MORE: Autodesk + Unity—Dave Rhodes of Unity Talks About New Partnership
We also learn about the motivations behind this new partnership and the size of markets. “There are about 750,000 creators in the film and TV production industry,” says David Rhodes of Unity. “There are 7-8 million potential consumers of Unity technologies in the construction industry alone. So AEC is massive compared to just about any of these other industries.”
Our feature interview article asks and answers questions such as how Unity itself will change? How a developer-centric tool will make peace with end-users like Architects? And how multiple open and proprietary Autodesk CAD formats will work through the integration?
To Learn More
Hop on over to the feature interview here. (link goes live in 10 minutes past the publish time of this article.)