Archviz Web App – Realistic Rendering, Website Performance and Photorealism

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Introduction

3D applications are gaining more and more popularity every year as a means of sales. Statistics show that already one in two buyers prefers to view a property comfortably, from their own home, and developers themselves are eager to implement such solutions. However, creating such applications is a huge challenge, as it requires hiring a team of specialists, such as programmers, designers and testers, which can cost up to 200.000 euros.

That’s why we’ve created Vinode, an innovative solution that allows you to create a 3D imitation app at a fraction of the price mentioned above. Our technology leverages existing materials used in traditional 2D visualization, turning them into video clips for each interaction with the property.

But many factors are involved in whether such a web application performs well. This is why, in this article, we will go through some of the technical aspects of this solution.

Vinode’s comprehensive characteristics lead to the need of breaking down the most important of this technology’s technical parts connected to site performance, in order to get to know why our app is so fast, visuals so realistic and renders professional. These concepts comprise the immersive nature of this app. 

Website performance 

It probably took you 2 seconds to read the headline of our article. In fact, it’s also the maximum time expected by a potential user of the site for its content to load. It may not seem like much, but in this day and age, when content is plentiful and time to search the right ones is often limited – that’s quite a long time. Each additional second of delay can be perceived as a hassle and in fact, affects conversion.

With this in mind, we provided our real estate app with an enhancement of Pixel Streaming technology, which is based on the ability to receive 3d content on a website as a live stream. 

The goal of this optimization was for Vinode to run at the highest possible speed, and we were able to achieve a page load time of around 1 second while loading the application thanks to Pixel Streaming is about 10 seconds. 

The rate at which a page loads impacts everything — from user interaction, to how the brand is perceived, to conversion rates, and even revenue. Like almost any solution, Pixel Streaming also has its cons causing some other problems. However, we know that for an industry like real estate, where viewing buildings and interiors from multiple angles is important with 3D views, such technology must be improved. In addition to the loading speed, we can also mention the stream quality. Using offline compression leads to better image quality as we can spend more time on video compression. 

State-of-the-art rendering

The rendering process involves the initial creation of an output image from provided materials (e.g., sketches, photos), which is then rendered in a 3D graphics rendering program (in our case, Unreal Engine), taking into account any physical phenomena, such as refractions or certain shadows.

Thanks to Unreal Engine, we generate state-of-the-art visuals based on high-quality 3D models of buildings. Our use of various textures, advanced exterior and interior lighting techniques, and perspectives further enhances the user journey. 

The really important part is a technique called ray tracing – used to generate an image by following the path of light and simulating how it interacts with virtual objects. It’s very effective in creating photorealistic images because it can simulate the effects of light on different materials and surfaces.

Also, there is no need to compute 3D content, because all 3D is pre-rendered and played on any device – the only element needed from the client’s side is an internet connection. 

Photorealism

Lack of restrictions due to details is priceless when you want to show your buildings and the whole environment around them in the best way.

The visual value of the properties couldn’t be better, especially since the idea is to provide the same perfect quality on every device regardless of its characteristics. We are achieving this by manipulating light sources, adjusting camera angles, and applying textures to surfaces as mentioned above. The role of light is significant while creating 3D visuals. Fortunately, Unreal Engine has amazing lighting tools, which we use to highlight or attract attention to specific details in a 3D image. This is useful when you want the viewer to focus on a particular aspect of the image. 

Three steps of work leading to photorealistic image are:

• 3D building import to Unreal Engine
• 3D building modeling and texturing
• Hand-made modeling – polishing and adding details

Conclusions

Summing up these 3 discussed parts of operation of Vinode, we can state that for real estate agents and other professionals in this branch, such a web app with comprehensively created views can be a powerful marketing tool. 

Perfect performance is achieved considering speed throughout the entire design phase and leads to higher ROI. In the terms of photorealism and rendering, unique features of the properties have the opportunity to be properly web presented in the best way. 

Compared to competing full 3D apps, Vinode offers a more predefined experience without full freedom of movement. However, this apparent compromise has many advantages – including reducing customer confusion and, by ditching interactive 3D, allowing photorealistic graphics and instant loading on any device without the need for a dedicated GPU.

If you are interested in our solution, we will be happy to get in touch with you. For more information, go to our contact section.