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Development of Virtual Reality Tool for Creative Learning in Architectural Education

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Development of Virtual Reality Tool for Creative Learning in Architectural Education

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Aims Of Research

One reason that it is hard for students to understand and visualize space is the traditional graphic media used to represent and manipulate space throughout the design process is limited. The two-dimensional (2D) static image produced by traditional graphic methods is inadequate in representation. The simulations give people the opportunity to experience mistakes before they are constructed and to learn from the mistakes. Computer hardware and software developed are capable of creating a virtual reality that will allow designers to model, articulate, and animate movement through the design process (Deyin et al., 2007).

VR is of great significance in providing better understanding and visualization capabilities as an effective tool for education in an architectural context, as it allows students to discover fundamental architectural concepts and basic ideas through complete immersion and interaction in virtual environments (Dvorak et al., 2005; Magnenat et al., 2006). Students can perceive different architectural spaces, rather than viewing traditional drawings. VR can assist young architects for:

Motivation

VR is currently used to present a range of computer-based systems in which a user can explore hardware and software generated 'microworld' that bears some resemblance to reality. Learners must use their imaginations in order to make VR activities effective and stimulate the necessary imaginative processes in a number of ways that do not necessarily require hi-tech devices. Architectural students can benefit a lot from this system for creative learning (Hamada, 2008). Traditional 2D architectural representation is capable only of depicting planar concepts. Virtual reality 3D visualization can easily convey spatial concepts of architecture.

VR offers both opportunities and challenges for the educational sector. VR is a technology that is attractive to student community (Patlakas & Peng, 2012). Computer hardware and software development has made it more feasible to incorporate this technology into teaching strategies. With the increasing demand for innovative in higher education, and with the advancement in 3D visualization technologies, a growing range of teaching and training material can be utilized in virtual environments (Hosny & Kader, 2004). VR technologies can be used as educational and training tool with the advantages of being safe, cost-effective and fully controllable. In addition, virtual environments significantly enhance the learning experience as they provide the virtual learner with realism and interactivity.

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development of virtual reality tool for creative learning in architectural education: science & engineering

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Development of Virtual Reality Tool for Creative Learning in Architectural Education

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One reason that it is hard for students to understand and visualize space is the traditional graphic media used to represent and manipulate space throughout the design process is limited. The two-dimensional (2D) static image produced by traditional graphic methods is inadequate in representation.

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Download and try it free.

Download for iOS and Android, today.

Walk around your BIM models with augmented reality

Easily inspect details in 3D with virtual reality

"We primarily build schools and the time portal created by Smart Reality allows for anxious parents and students that will be attending the new school to visualize everything about their classroom, front desk, kitchen, cafeteria and media center before we complete the construction. We are able to capture the attention of audiences who historically were unable to comprehend two-dimensional plans."

Greg Hughes, President
Contract Construction, Inc.

"This app has tremendous potential for communicating design intent."

Larry Payne, AIA, LEED AP BD+C
WTW Architects

"It could be classified as a paradigm shift in the Architectural, Construction, and Project Management profession which meets the ultimate BIM interface. This app will bring a whole new realm of tools at my fingertips to interact with clients, engineers, contractors, and other professionals in the building industry."

Phil Standish
Standish Design

Hoar Construction used SmartReality to help superintendents visualize complicated parapet details.
READ THE CASE STUDY

A TURIS client used SmartReality to show the planned interior design for student dorms to potential buyers with augmented reality BIM.
READ THE CASE STUDY

SmartReality is not currently accepting new submissions. We are hard at work on the future of SmartReality.

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Download and try it free. Download for iOS and Android, today. "We primarily build schools and the time portal created by Smart Reality allows for anxious parents and students that will be attending the new school to visualize everything about their classroom, front desk, kitchen, cafeteria and media center before we complete the construction.

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Download a free tool to prototype VR ideas

Storyboard VR helps creators imagine and visualize VR experiences, in VR.

We believe that VR as a medium will transform the way we communicate, create and experience content. As we dove into VR projects, however, we found that experimenting with this new form of storytelling and engagement posed a brand new set of challenges. Rapid iteration and refinement, a cornerstone of any human-centered design process, was even more essential in VR. Yet we found no tools to help us envision and plan VR experiences without first investing time and resources into development.

That is why we created Storyboard VR, a prototyping and visualization tool that helps content creators, artists and designers use their existing skills to imagine and visualize VR experiences, in VR.

"[T]he most compelling possibility of Storyboard VR isn't Storyboard VR itself, but that many content creators like Artefact may be actively building such tools for their own use. And whether or not these studios even release that software, it means the experiences we all have in VR, as consumers, will be getting better, fast."

Mark Wilson

FastCo Design

For designers, by designers

Storyboard VR is the result of the wizardry of our UX director Paul Hoover and prototyping developer Sam Baker. It is also an example of Artefact's commitment to eliminating obstacles to creativity and making the impossible real.

Who is Storyboard VR for?

Storyboard VR is the ideal tool for designers, artists and content creators across industries who want to experiment and create VR experiences - from games and education programs, to movies and marketing campaigns - without investing in development software or skills.

How Storyboard VR works

Designed for ease of use, Storyboard VR includes pre-loaded 3D sphere maps and planes and allows you to upload transparent images, like .png files. These assets appear in the Storyboard VR menu, which gives you complete control and lets you "storyboard" story progression and changes.

Why Storyboard VR?

VR is exploding, but there are very few tools that let designers and content creators experiment, visualize and prototype experiences in VR. Storyboard VR was created to bridge the gap between designing and developing a VR experience, saving time and resources early in the creation process.

"That's where Storyboard VR is useful. The tool is essentially a virtual reality sketchbook. Designers can test initial concepts before investing in higher-level development."

Liz Stinson

WIRED

Storyboard VR is free and open to use as you wish, but the flip side is that it is an unsupported alpha application. As with any alpha release, bugs and issues are to be expected.

If you experience any issues, feel free to let us know. However, although we use Storyboard VR in our daily work at Artefact, we have no immediate plans to continue to update and develop the software. As the saying goes, don't look gift software in the code.

So, dive in! Give your ideas shape and form with Storyboard VR. It will help you work faster and collaborate more easily. Tag your creations on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter with #SBVR to share what you make.

Resources
To get started using Storyboard VR, checkout the Storyboard VR User Manual for information on downloading, installing, and creating projects with Storyboard VR.

If you need additional guidance or want to see Storyboard VR in action, watch our video series below that shows how to create and manage Storyboard VR projects.

Happy prototyping!

FYI: Storyboard VR is only supported on HTC Vive and requires Windows to run (PC only.) For full requirements, check the Storyboard VR User Manual.

Download

Thanks! Click here to download Storyboard VR. It's a large file so make sure you are connected to WiFi.

Storyboard VR in the news

Tangerine Forward Banking

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Storyboard VR | Download a free tool to prototype VR ideas | Artefact

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Download a free tool to prototype VR ideas Storyboard VR helps creators imagine and visualize VR experiences, in VR. We believe that VR as a medium will transform the way we communicate, create and experience content. As we dove into VR projects, however, we found that experimenting with this new form of storytelling and engagement posed a brand new set of challenges.

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2018 should prove to be a pivotal moment in how the design community uses virtual reality to deliver work. With leading firms exploring the introduction of mult capabilities, the technology will experience a breakthrough shift from purely enabling new modes of consumption to one that empowers design.

Today, VR essentially allows designers, clients, and stakeholders to consume models in dynamic new virtual environments. One by one, individuals can put on VR goggles and experience spaces that only exist digitally as others watch, listen to their reactions, and wait their turn. This implementation of VR technology has already strengthened design outcomes by enhancing strong communication throughout the design process, translating to less risk and stronger confidence in the eventual built product for clients.

Soon, however, with multi-user VR being rapidly developed, VR will do more than just ensure dynamic consumption. If successfully leveraged, multi-user VR will allow multiple people from around the world to all enter the same virtual spaces together at the same time. In these multi-user environments, users will not be limited to just viewing models and asking questions. They won't have to take off the goggles, remember their thoughts, and then go sketch new ideas elsewhere. Instead, multi-user VR environments enable true collaborative design; people can discuss, draw, scale, break sections apart and advance the design project in real time. This should allow enhanced communication and increased time for design exploration, ultimately leading to more successful built products.

While this shift in VR technology may still sound elemental-multiple people in a VR model at the same time as opposed to one-consider the following changes it will enable for designers, firms, clients and others.

Multi-User VR Truly Creates Firms Without Walls

In architecture design firms, talented staff are what differentiate one firm from another. Recognizing this, design firms have increasingly marketed the accessibility of their best talent as a key value proposition for clients. The ability to assemble design teams composed of the best talent from around the world is critical to ensuring clients' goals are achieved.

While technology to date has limited the need for people to be together for every meeting and conference call, a significant amount of design work still essentially needs to happen in person. This means flights, costs and lost time week-to-week for design firms. However, multi-user VR will allow design teams to assemble from around the globe at a moment's notice to tackle a problem and move forward. If a designer in Boston needs the opinion of a designer in Shanghai, multi-user VR can enable them to connect for an hour without a single cab or flight. If a design team would like to pick the brain of an expert on the other side of the country not directly connected to the project team, they can do so quickly and efficiently. This makes talent constantly accessible, ensures the best ideas are consistently elevated, and can reduce internal costs for design firms. Essentially, the geographic barriers that sometimes delay design work can be erased.

By eliminating these barriers, design firms will also inherently be able to deliver enhanced solutions for the clients. This should translate to even higher quality work, satisfied clients and longstanding client relationships that endure.

Multi-User VR Will Allow Designers to Explore, Test, and Experiment

While multi-user VR will make design work better for everyone, it may spark the most creative potential for designers. The technology will allow designers to test radical ideas and concepts quickly, discarding those that don't work and building upon those that show promise. The tool will create increased time for exploration and experimentation in the design process, something every designer craves.

Multi-user VR will also enhance the virtual artifacts designers can pull from these digital environments. Today, after putting on VR goggles, designers leave with their notes, ideas and a vision in their head. In multi-user VR environments, designers will literally be able to pull up virtual whiteboards, draw in 3 dimensions, take photos, videos and then leverage all of that to enhance the model. This will ensure every idea expressed while in the model is captured and decrease the time between ideation and implementation significantly for design teams.

Multi-User VR Connects Clients to the Design Process in Exciting New Ways

VR has already proved a powerful new client engagement tool for designers. While floor plans and elevations are easily understandable for architects, clients not trained in our profession often experience a communication gap. Even under the consumption model, VR allows to clients to see and experience their future environments in a way our 2D paper files simply can't empower.

The introduction of multi-user VR will only enhance this connectivity between the client and their project. If they desire, they'll be able to virtually step into models with the design team and hear their ideas and strategies as they develop. Even if they lack VR goggles or aren't in the same location, clients can watch and communicate with the design team in the multi-user VR space on their laptops or mobile devices as their project develops. Multi-user VR models will allow designers to quickly scenario-test for clients and reveal how changes would affect the project at large.

By empowering this new level of collaboration between client organization and design team, multi-user VR will only build on the technology's ability to enhance communication, reduce risk, shorten project timelines and deliver a stronger built product each time.

At its core, multi-user VR will empower stronger design outcomes for everyone invested in a project. The technology will impact designers, firms, and clients in different ways, but essentially forge exciting new connectivity for everyone. By spurring stronger communication, increased collaboration and new levels of design exploration, multi-user VR will lead to an enriched built and virtual environment for the future.
Jimmy Rotella is CannonDesign's Digital Practice Director, focused on helping designers and clients leverage cutting-edge technology to create the most valuable built projects every time.

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3 Ways Multi-User VR Will Enhance the Design Work of the Future

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2018 should prove to be a pivotal moment in how the design community uses virtual reality to deliver work. With leading firms exploring the introduction of mult capabilities, the technology will experience a breakthrough shift from purely enabling new modes of consumption to one that empowers design.

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Start Free Prospect Trial - Immersive VR for AEC

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Start a free trial of Prospect, which brings Revit, Navisworks, Rhino, SketchUp 3D models to immersive VR walkthroughs. Great for the Architecture/Construction industries.

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Presenting designs to third parties can be a challenging task. Architects may find it difficult to describe spaces to their clients, therefore more firms are incorporating virtual reality into their workflows and project presentations.

Below are 5 architecture offices using SentioVR to present their designs. To see the content in 360º, click on the image and move the mouse.

Utile stated that they use VR "to collect comments during the planning phase and show [or allow visits to] the apartments during the lease phase."

The office explained that the technology "allows our clients to visualize a project before it is built. This is a great design tool for the construction industry because it allows you to find and correct problems before the project is built, and also save on the cost of construction by providing a virtual representation of the floor plans and exteriors without having to build the models."

DG-LA commented that "The 360 experience has communicated perfectly with our philosophy of good design and attention to detail, allowing our clients to visualize their projects in a closer and more intimate way".

Designhaaus stated that "it helps us to visualize a space in a better way that, in turn, results in aesthetically pleasing and efficient spaces, and helps the client to better understand the design and make faster decisions. [It also helps] the construction team on the site during the execution phase."

Gashu Arquitectos, Argentina
3ds Max

For the project 'Double Tree by Hilton Iquitos,' the architects stated that "the virtual reality experience surpasses any other technology developed so far for the interpretation of a space that [has not yet been built], and also communicating the project to clients. It has been an enormous contribution to the design process."
With SentioVR and programs like Sketchup, 3ds Max, Revit, Lumion, and Vray, you can improve the quality and efficiency of your presentations for future clients. Start your free trial by clicking here.

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5 Architecture Offices Using VR to Present Their Designs

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Presenting designs to third parties can be a challenging task. Architects may find it difficult to describe spaces to their clients, therefore more firms are incorporating virtual reality into their workflows and project presentations. Below are 5 architecture offices using SentioVR to present their designs.

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REinVR, Real Estate in Virtual Reality, is a Canadian company that uses advanced video game technology to create photo-realistic visuals and animation to beautifully showcase real estate projects that have not yet been built. REinVR is an industry leader in the Virtual Reality industry and is regarded as having the highest quality visuals of any company working in Virtual Reality. We spoke to founder Nathan Nasseri about the success of his firm and his unique background in video game design and new home sales.

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Established in 2016, REinVR creates stunning visuals and interactive animations for architects. Using cutting-edge technology developed for the video game industry, REinVR develops life-like photo experiences and immersive visual environments that help architects with permit approvals, design, marketing, and sales. REinVR's team consists of many talented designers who have spent their careers making some of the most innovative video games ever created. This gives REinVR a huge technological advantage over its competition due to the speed at which changes can be made. With the simple click of a button, a floor plan layout or interior design palette can be completely changed - instantly. This provides incredible value, to see different color palette combinations at lightning speed.

Nasseri's talented team of designers has enabled REinVR to offer a wide-range of visual experiences and has attracted a diverse client base of architects, marketing agencies, governments and real estate developers.

"Our approach to creating visuals is very different from the traditional rendering market. For example, when we create an apartment or home, we make the entire floor plan, floor plate or the entire building. Once we have created this holistic environment, we can do whatever we want with it, including creating high quality, photo-realistic renders, videos, Virtual Reality experiences, and 3D walk-through tours. We can also instantly change color palettes to showcase different options and get instant feedback from project stakeholders or customize a commercial space with a logo for a specific client like Amazon, Nike, or Tesla. With our advanced technology, pre-construction real estate projects can be showcased with life-like quality that you've never seen before. It's an innovative game changer for the industries of architecture, engineering, construction and real estate."

Operating within the competitive technology industry, it is vital that REinVR is able to differentiate itself from its competitors. Nasseri strongly believes in his team's technological and design capabilities, not to mention his own unique bi-level background and work experience. "My family has been building homes since before I was born, so I had a lot of exposure to the construction and new home industry. I'm formally educated in video game design, but after graduating I found my true passion was in real estate, and helping people design and build a new home. After spending four years in the industry, I identified certain areas that could be improved with the assistance of a state-of-the-art sales tool using video game technology as its foundation," said Nasseri.

However, Nasseri's unique background is just part of the equation, and he's keen to praise the incredible skill set and knowledge of his colleague and business partner. He's adamant that his business partner is a major contributor to the success of the company. "Aaryn Flynn, who worked at BioWare for 17 years and was the General Manager for nine years, joined REinVR as my business partner. For those who don't know, BioWare is arguably the best video game studio in the world. Together, we wanted to take a new approach to innovate how the real estate industry showcases pre-construction projects," said Nasseri.

"Based on my experience, we set out to create a system that saves architects time and money. This is the biggest difference between us and our competition. Typically, our competitors make traditional static renders, not critically-acclaimed video games. For us, this is a cakewalk compared to the industry-leading video games created at BioWare. However, many of the same skill sets are used when we transform our clients' specifications and drawings into a compelling life-like visual scene.

"The technology we use has existed for years in the video game industry. It's called Real Time Rendering (RTR), and it's radically different from how traditional rendering companies create their work. The old way is called offline rendering, and it can take days, weeks or even months to render a video or photo, and these become very expensive, very quickly. RTR, however, can reduce rendering time from months down to mere minutes. Our competitors have to charge for rendering time - we don't. We can do it almost instantly.
More information: https://reinvr.com

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A Game Changer for Architectural Visualization

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REinVR, Real Estate in Virtual Reality, is a Canadian company that uses advanced video game technology to create photo-realistic visuals and animation to beautifully showcase real estate projects that have not yet been built. REinVR is an industry leader in the Virtual Reality industry and is regarded as having the highest quality visuals of any company working in Virtual Reality.

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Virtual Reality Uses in Architecture and Design

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Virtual Reality Uses in Architecture and Design

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VR is going to be "more powerful than cocaine"

The emergence of virtual reality applications for architecture has been one of the big stories of the past few years - in the future, we've been told, VR will become an integral part not just of presenting a project, but of the design process as well.

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Virtual Reality Uses in Architecture and Design

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VR is going to be "more powerful than cocaine" The emergence of virtual reality applications for architecture has been one of the big stories of the past few years - in the future, we've been told, VR will become an integral part not just of presenting a project, but of the design process as well.

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Virtual reality and mixed reality for virtual learning environments

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Virtual reality and mixed reality for virtual learning environments

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1999

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Thesis by Anisha Sankar

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Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3G1
519 888 4883

All items in UWSpace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved.

DSpace software

Service outages

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UWSpace University of Waterloo Library 200 University Avenue West Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3G1 519 888 4883 All items in UWSpace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved. DSpace software Service outages

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10 Reasons to use Virtual Reality in the Classroom

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10 Reasons to use Virtual Reality in the Classroom

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10 Reasons To Use Virtual Reality In The Classroom

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Virtual reality in the classroom can be used to facilitate student interactions or environments to create experiences not otherwise possible.