Architects Are Playing With the Future of Design in Video Games (medium.com) 36
Game worlds can be blueprints for the real world, liberating spaces where rules can be reinvented and the invisible made visible. From a report: For architects, the sheer scope of this artificiality means video games can be both playgrounds and testing grounds. "In games, there is the idea that an object has a visual solidity and a material solidity, and it doesn't have to have both," says Luke Pearson, a lecturer at the Bartlett School of Architecture in London. "It takes you right back to the start of having to construct a space. You have to invent your own rules and logic for how things work." Pearson and his colleague Sandra Youkhana run the Videogame Urbanism studio at Bartlett. They investigate the future of cities through video games, teaching students how to use virtual worlds to interrogate the ways they think about materials.
"We want to push beyond the idea that the future of game technology in architecture is only in making photorealistic, VR representations for developers to look at penthouses," Pearson says. At a time when it's perfectly normal to segue from navigating the real-world walls of a city into the fantastical vistas of a game, the realms of architecture and games are arguably closer than ever. There is growing interest in pulling one into the other. Architect and film director Liam Young recently called on young architects to apply their skills to designing digital environments "that a billion people play in every day" instead of cutting their teeth designing "rich houses for rich people."
"We want to push beyond the idea that the future of game technology in architecture is only in making photorealistic, VR representations for developers to look at penthouses," Pearson says. At a time when it's perfectly normal to segue from navigating the real-world walls of a city into the fantastical vistas of a game, the realms of architecture and games are arguably closer than ever. There is growing interest in pulling one into the other. Architect and film director Liam Young recently called on young architects to apply their skills to designing digital environments "that a billion people play in every day" instead of cutting their teeth designing "rich houses for rich people."
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
sounds like meaningless nonsense disguised in jargon or flowery language so as to give the appearance of substance
What I find ridiculous is the idea that a game company, under time and financial pressure to push a product to market, is going to hire professional architects to design structurally sound buildings ... so they can be digitally simulated. That is not going to happen.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: Indeed! (Score:2)
You missed the point of the article entirely. This has nothing to do with filling jobs by training across industries.
Re: (Score:2)
In my experience, videogame environmental artists are probably closer to movie set designers than architects. They're extremely interested in worldbuilding. That is, they want to tell an interesting story with the landscape, props, and architecture of whatever world they're building.
What they don't care about is real-world feasibility, except to the degree that it helps or hinders worldbuilding or advancing the game's primary focus or story. They're crafting an artificial facade that gets broken if someo
Re: (Score:2)
I'm guessing they are referencing the work of Christopher Alexander, an architect who invented the concept of "design patterns," which were subsequently adopted by all manner of other fields, including computer science.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
As an example of "architectural design pattern" take the front porch. Cities where houses commonly have front porches have different use patterns from those that don't. People sit on front porches and stoops, where they see and interact with passers by. People
Re: (Score:2)
Sounds like a lot of architects I've heard talking about their real-world designs.
Re: Indeed! (Score:2)
Theyâ(TM)re using phrasing that has contextual meaning within the field but sounds like buzzwords to you, a layman. Heâ(TM)s referencing complex topics with shorthand. Let me try to translate:
an object has a visual solidity and a material solidity, and it doesn't have to have both
Game worlds are not restricted by real world materials or physics. A wall can be paper thin or more invisible than glass.
"One use of games is to visualize buildings,â Pearson says. âoeBut I think the more in
As an architect (Score:2)
I feel like this is a ruse by game developers to try to get unlicensed architects to work for them cheaply.
Re: (Score:3)
Architects are doing all the talking in this article. How in the world did you turn this into some conspiracy by game developers? Saw the headline and didn't even read TFS, let alone TFA?
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, "architects" such as Liam Young, who as far as I can see is a filmmaker, academic and author, who has taught at several prestigious universities. I cannot find any reference to him in practice, however, so I'm a little wary of calling him an architect.
In any case, it was supposed to be a tongue-in-cheek remark, not sure why you took it so seriously. Perhaps you're in on it?
Re: (Score:2)
It's ray tracing based rendering can generate rather realistic scenes if in the hands of a skilled user, which then serves as a better visual representation for customers.
It might not have seen widespread adoption, since these tools are obviously require some expertise, but in principle these things have been utilized already.
Yes, 3d modelling software like Blender are not video games. But they are still frequently us
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I'm not a fan of their practices and would like people to boycott them as soon as possible. But of course if you have some older licenses or if your office already rents their products, then well, make that invested money worth it.
As far as game engines go the basics of Unreal Engine 4 are rather quick to grasp.
It's free to use unless you make more than $3,000 through the 'applications' you produ
Re: (Score:2)
Nothing new (Score:2)
"We want to push beyond the idea that the future of game technology in architecture is only in making photorealistic, VR representations for developers to look at penthouses,"
Back in the 90s there was software called Virtus Walkthrough. I remember running the demo on a Mac IIci with a 8*24 (not GC) graphics card. The display was an Apple Two-Page Mono display, which I believe had 1152x864 resolution. If I used more than about 1/4 of the display, the frame rate was miserable. Today, the standard is to use VR, right?
If you really want to merge architecting and video games, come up with a way to export from autocad to a common game engine. Unreal or Half-Life, I suppose. But aren't
Re: (Score:2)
With any significantly sized landscape that will not only yield an initial download many, many times current size but it'll throw you right back to that miserable frame rate. Wonderful for fast action scenarios.
Re: (Score:2)
If you download architecturally sound blue prints for the engine to render a friggin' building that you can't enter or even damage, what the hell is the purpose?
They're not suggesting we use architecture to improve games. They're suggesting we use games to improve architecture.
Re: Nothing new (Score:2)
Exporting between CAD packages and game engines has been possible for decades. Thatâ(TM)s not what this article is about. Itâ(TM)s about the design processes and theories shared between game design and architecture.
Dark City (Score:2)
... is what you'll get if you let people keep messing around with urban planning.
Re: (Score:2)
I love being proven right (Score:4, Interesting)
This article was exactly my senior thesis in architecture school over 15 years ago... and I was criticized heavily by the luddite university faculty for arguing it.
Sadly, what was true then is still mostly true today:
1. The general public has a totally unrealistic understanding of what architects do (many other professions can equally make this claim)
2. Architecture as a profession has taken too long to embrace technology, and (with a few notable exceptions) are too scared of being on the bleeding edge where they can push the capabilities of software as a design tool.
3. Architects have missed the boat on impacting the video game or tv/movie industries. The design pipelines have been built and game developers/special-effects houses have far more skillset in those niche areas than architects could ever hope to provide.
Re: (Score:2)
I remember architects using Quake and later Unreal for this kind thing back in the 90s. Obviously it was extremely basic but did give the client an opportunity to get a feel for the space and then play a few deathmatches.
Re: (Score:2)
To be fair, games such as The Witness had an architect on staff to design the structures in the game such that they’d actually be believable and realistic. So, at least in some small ways, architects have managed to become part of the video game development process.
In other words... (Score:2)
...architects discover Quake modding, circa 1997.
You are posting: as Falos (Score:2)
That's great guys, but remember to use Minecraft as a supplement, not as substitute.
Re: (Score:2)
Does your game leak?
No? Then we haven't been there.
Photorealism (Score:1)
I'm trying to escape reality by playing these games to forget about life for awhile and their making it more photo-realistic!
Simply a reminder, (Score:2)
Between what works for purposes of story and action --- particularly in fantasy-themed genres --- and what is practical to build and marketable in the real world.