Friday, August 12, 2011

LumenRT: Explore rendered models in real time

Plain ol' SketchUp lets you walk, run or crawl around your model till your fingers fall off, but you’re limited to SketchUp’s selection of non-photorealistic rendering styles. Pushing your model through a fancy rendering engine can make it deliciously photograph-like, but then you’re stuck with a single image or a pre-baked path in the form of an animation.

Now you can have your cake and eat it, too. LumenRT Review for SketchUp (by the good people at e-on Software) is a tool for turning your models into interactive, photo-rendered environments. The output is a stand-alone file — a whole mini application, really — that anyone can open and explore like they’re in a video game. Take a look at this video to see how the navigation works:



The results are really pretty incredible. The LumenRT Downloads page includes a number of sample “LiveCubes” (self-contained 3D environments) that you can download and explore at your own pace. One of my favorites features Tadao Ando’s Church of the Light; here’s a video of the LiveCube on YouTube:



The computer specs necessary for creating and viewing LiveCubes aren’t minor, but serious SketchUp modelers are likely to be alright. The really good news is that LumenRT is available for both Windows and Mac, and it works with both the free and Pro versions of SketchUp 7 and 8. Licenses cost US$295, but they’re only $195 for a limited time.

Posted by Aidan Chopra, SketchUp Evangelist

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6 comments:

  1. Ronen BekermanAugust 15, 2011 at 10:46 AM

    I was amazed by LumenRT and how easy it os to get started with it. I made a real life work case study about using it at my blog - http://www.ronenbekerman.com/lumenrt-review-for-sketchup/

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  2. johncaldwellSeptember 13, 2011 at 3:18 PM

    how come we can't get a simple renderer for sketchup

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownSeptember 14, 2011 at 12:07 PM

    We all should also check out the Lumion Renderer. Its very similar to this and also has options to add trees humans and many other objects, better than in sketchup.

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  4. modulor078@gmail.comSeptember 15, 2011 at 10:35 AM

    I´ve tried Lumion and I can say it´s amazing, so I´m sure LumenRT might be amazing as well as Lumion (even the names are similar)...of course you gotta have a great machine to run these software, but they really worth it.

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  5. MWAlainBSeptember 19, 2011 at 7:50 AM

    I don't understand anything!!! I tried some livecubes and it's completely amazing.
    How long does the preprocessing take time as my actual renderer spends hours to just compute a single image on a i7-940 processor !?!

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  6. UnknownSeptember 29, 2011 at 9:36 AM

    One thing to keep in mind when comparing LumenRT to other products is the price - which is set a level well below that of many real-time solutions out there.

    ReplyDelete

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