How real can the 3D look, and can you build it from my drone photos?
Very real. People mean two things by "real". Matching your actual location: yes, we build the 3D from your plans, and your drone photos and site capture make nearby buildings, terrain and materials true to life. The lived-in look is art direction we tune. The level is a conversation, so contact us.
Two questions hide in one word
When people ask if the 3D can look real, they are usually asking two different things at once. One is about accuracy: does it match my actual place? The other is about the feel: does it look lived-in, not like a clean computer render? We answer them differently, so it helps to keep them apart.
The two meanings of "real"
Match your real place
Photogrammetry and splat capture reconstruct the surroundings from real-world imagery, so existing materials carry their real texture and wear. Your own drone photos or footage feed that capture. They work best combined with your plans and, where the site warrants it, a fuller on-site capture.
The lived-in look
How lived-in the scene feels comes down to art direction, not raw resolution. Weathering, worn materials and natural light are all things we tune. We push the same model toward whatever look you want for your brand, so this part is a conversation.
Capture feeds the build, it does not run on the phone
Whatever we capture is an input. We use it to build and texture the scene, then we pre-render it and stream it as video. That is the same setup as every Vinode project: it loads in about two seconds, runs in any browser with no app, and computes nothing on the visitor's device. Nobody's phone is running a live capture viewer. For the full scope of a build, see what a project includes.
How true to life the capture comes out depends on the source photos and site access: photo quality, flight permissions, angles and coverage. We aim for true to life, not an exact copy of every neighbouring building. More capture and enhancement means a larger scope, so the level is part of the quote.