THE GRID

Welcome to THE GRID, the architecture thesis of Yuriy Sountsov.

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MISCELLANEOUS PHOTOS OF THE FINAL PRESENTATION

Various photos of the construction and setup of the final presentation. The top four photos show the assembly of the boards in the CFA building and in the Miller Gallery. The next photo is of the presentation setup as it was on Friday during the reception before the reviews. The next two photos are of the poster summary on the wall and the control station. The last two photos are of the live projection and a closeup of the pixels of THE GRID.

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FINAL BOOK ON ISSUU

The final book on ISSUU. There were problems with the PDF decoding, that is why there was a delay.

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VIDEO COMBINING KINECTS, OCULUS RIFT, AND ARCHITECTURE

This video shows an early version of a setup of three first generation Kinects and an Oculus Rift combining real world data with a virtual environment. The developer in this video uses the Kinects to capture his body in real time and stitch it together into a believable 3D model.  He sees the model in the environment (which is poorly lit, but that can be improved) with his Oculus Rift.

He mentions that, even with this rudimentary setup, he experiences presence, which was one of the key goals of THE GRID. This is proof and a step in the right direction of how little is needed to achieve digital immersion.

Early on in the video he shows how he automatically moves to avoid the table leg even though it is not physically there. The visual data alone tells his brain that there is a solid object there and that he must avoid it. Now, imagine that at an architectural scale, and combine it with the ability to design from this responsible vantage point.

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COMPARISON OF VRAY AND THE GRID Comparison video of Vray in Rhinoceros and THE GRID. This video shows a typical small scale model and the pipeline in both methods to make a render. Music: The Chosen Ones by Future World Music

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PATH TRACING USED FOR REAL TIME MOTION CAPTURE

An Engadget article recently featured this video, showing a motion capture studio with live actors rendering in near real time via path tracing as robotic characters on a computer screen. The hardware setup they had uses three NVIDIA workstation graphics cards (a process that could be made virtually identically with much cheaper NVIDIA Titan cards) and the rendering quality is typical of path tracing - grainy in motion but resolves very quickly when paused. The path tracing software they used is from Vray, so, similar to VrayRT’s quality, their motion path tracing has black pixel defects (compared to other path tracers, like Arauna 2 or Brigade 3, where the motion quality is much better).

This represents a very real application of path tracing and can easily be applied to a motion capture studio that simulates walking through a digital version of an architecture project, especially if combined with a virtual reality headset like the Oculus Rift or Project Morpheus.

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OCTANE RENDERS OF MY SPRING 2013 PROJECT

These are some Octane renders of my Spring 2013 project, Riser. The project was a large lab and office building in the Strip district in Pittsburgh.

At the time, in Rhinoceros 4, Vray could not complete a single render from anywhere within the project because the there was too much data and geometric complexity. This meant that each Vray render had to be completed in parts and without any materials  or lighting applied to the model.

Now Rhinoceros 5 is 64 bit and probably the Vray for it can handle the complexity. I tried Octane because of previous tests which showed it was largely superior to Vray and these renders were further proof - each one was a 1000 by 600 pixel image and each was complete (to an acceptable quality) in under 2 minutes, with some being done as soon as 47 seconds. The watermark is there because the version of Octane I have is evaluation only.

The model had about 2,000,000 render triangles. Converting that into a format THE GRID can accept might take a while, though certain techniques I developed while working on the CFA model could come in handy.

THE GRID version coming soon...

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INTERACTIVE SOFTWARE AIDING COGNITIVE DISABILITY

A video showing a real world application of interactive software and hardware. It features a Kinect-powered interactive environment (or several) built on Unreal Engine 4, which is one of the next-gen video game engines I looked at.

Here is a quote from Engadget:

The Forest Project uses the game engine, smart TVs and Microsoft's Kinect 2 tech in an attempt to create a temporary reprieve for those suffering from the cognitive diseases via an interactive, virtual woodland. There's also a virtual dementia simulation that aims to help caregivers understand first-hand how their patients see the world, possibly improving care as a result. Should the dev team reach its crowdfunding goal, the arboreal environment could be just the beginning, with beach or Christmas-themed environments hinted as possible expansions.

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Classic Movie Sets Now In 3-D

Rear Window, Brazil, Gattaca and Dr. Strangelove have their sets re-created in computer models.

A great application of digital technology to recreate filmic worlds in a fully explorable digital world.

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WHAT IS THE GRID?

The second semester of my thesis can be broadly summarized with this:

GRID lines to GRID cells.

The first semester established a broad framework, an outline from which to build and create. The lines of the GRID were simultaneously rigid and flexible - they could stretch and move to accommodate. They were also transparent - open to criticism as issues were addressed with the way the lines were assembled. The GRID lines built upon themselves, creating GRIDs within GRIDs.

Now, it is time to fill those GRIDs with cells, with the meat and substance of the thesis. Now the GRID will take form, and the framework will be bridged. The true GRID will become visible - not just how it is made but why it is. Instead of having to describe the ghostly outline, I will show the GRID as it is, so that anyone interested in advancing architecture could understand it. Instead of GRIDs within GRIDs, there will be GRIDs on top of GRIDs, and a three-dimensional layering will occur.

The GRID is real.

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THE GRID LOOP

This is the looping video that was projected during my presentation speech and during the discussion.

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FINAL REVIEW BOARDS AND PROJECTOR/SPEAKER SETUP

Animated photo of the final review boards and a photo of the projector and speaker setup. The projector projected a looping video and a descriptive video of the thesis during my review.

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THE GRID

The second video for my thesis that was presented at the final review. It takes what I believed was the simplest approach to my thesis - the aspect of rendering - and frames what can be done with current software compared to common practices.

0:30 - 0:36: Footage of Arauna 2. I had recorded my own footage using the demo version, trying out the various features of Arauna 2 in real time, but the quality was low so I elected to use the official demo video of the software released by the developers.

0:42 - 0:44: Footage of UDK, recorded by myself. This and the following videos feature a nonspecific scene that has complex materials and sunlight shading meant to test the basic rendering capabilities of the software I looked at.

0:47 - 0:48: Footage of Unity3D, recorded by myself.

0:48 - 0:49: Footage of UDK again, also recorded by myself.

0:49 - 0:52: Footage of CryEngine, recorded by myself. This is the only software (short of Unity, where such might be possible) where the user's shadow was rendered.

0:55 - 1:03: Footage of Rhinoceros, recorded by myself, with Octane as a render plugin. This was recorded in real time on my desktop (equipped with the new graphics card I bought) and renders images rivaling those of Vray in mere seconds, all under my direct interactive control.

1:05 - 1:07: Footage of Super Mario 64. This is used as an example of what the common conception of video game graphics is, compared to what video game graphics are able to achieve, in other words, this is old, outdated, archaic, and is nowhere near my thesis.

1:07 - 1:08: Footage of Tron. This is likewise used to show what people think of computer graphics, compared to the graphics in the sequel to this movie. Architectural software is, similarly, still stuck in the past.

1:10 - 1:12: Footage of CryEngine. Compare graphics to those of Super Mario 64.

1:12 - 1:14: Footage of Tron: Legacy (audio). Compare to that of Tron.

1:17 - 1:20: Footage of After Image Studios' sizzle reel. This shows high quality real time visualization.

1:22 - 1:25: Footage of Real Visual's sizzle reel. This shows high quality real time visualization used on a mobile device.

1:25 - 1:28: Footage of CryEngine.

1:28 - 1:30: Footage of Unlimited Detail by Euclideon. This is a voxel rendering engine which converts raster geometry into voxels, tiny cubical atoms that can then physically comprise geometry. This is one direction video game engines are headed.

1:33 - 1:39: Footage of Unreal Engine 4. The first half shows the editor, where complex materials and effects are developed without code; the second half shows those effects working in real time.

1:39 - 1:41: Footage of Unlimited Detail by Euclideon. This is from the same video as the first footage.

1:41 - 1:44: Footage of Brigade 3. This is the most cutting edge real time path tracer available (Arauna 2 is on the same level, but it has a preview demo).

1:44 - 1:47: Footage of CryEngine, also from the Vimeo video.

1:48 - 1:49: Footage of Source. This shows Therme Vals modeled in that software with materials and lights.

1:49 - 1:50 - Footage of Brigade 3. 

1:50 - 1:51 - Footage of Luminous Engine. This is a new engine currently in development.

1:52 - 1:53 - Footage of Brigade 2. 

1:53 - 1:53 - Footage of UDK.

1:53 - 1:54 - Footage of Brigade 2. There are 4968 little characters rendered in this scene, all individually material and lighting processed.

1:54 - 1:56 - Footage of Brigade 3.

1:56 - 1:58 - Footage of Unreal Engine 4.

Music was Dirtnap by Brand X Music.

I created some audio for the looping sequence as well as at the beginning and end of this video.

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ISSUU VERSION TWO OF THE FINAL BOOK

Issuu version of the final thesis book, revised after the final review.

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MOVING FORWARD - DEATH

The thesis would also be malicious. As a tool it would contend with orthographics, renders, and physical models. Before construction documents and after things that can be called sketches these tools have come to be standard in the design pipeline.

Death #1 - Orthographics: With orthographics, should the client be enamored with the GRID, they may not be interested in plans or sections, even though those tools still provide valuable insight into the spacial organization of a project and the interaction of the systems within or between the spaces. Likewise, if an architect is using an axonometric diagram to explain the order in a project but the client does not see that order in the GRID, the client may put less faith in the work the architect put into the diagrams, demanding instead, perhaps unrealistically, that the diagrams match the experience found on the GRID. In an in-firm review the orthographics may be quickly cast aside as experiential conversations are brought up only visible on the GRID, raising questions as to why the architect spent time on the orthographics over working on the GRID.

Death #2 - Renders: With renders, the overlap is sharper. Given a regular pretty render and the GRID, the client may wonder why the architect bothered to take one picture when the GRID allows them to move around and take any and all the pictures that they want, from any attainable angle. Back at the firm, the architect is spending many hours working on a few renders while another architect, working on the same project, in the same time finalized the GRID, rapidly creating countless renders and videos of the same project, all at an even high quality.

Death #3 - Physical Models: Even physical models may feel the heat - much as with a render, one architect spends the whole night crafting a model while another has created  the GRID, with full materiality, realistic sun shading, water bodies, and more. The only difference is, the physical model is twirled in the hands while the GRID is controlled by a keyboard and mouse. Even assuming advanced hardware exists, the physical model is 3D printed with full geometric detail...and the GRID architect uses an Oculus Rift to create a virtual 3D display that delivers a near-real experience, complete with depth information.

Sketching too may be impacted, though not killed - imagine a precedent study being not just looking at photos and drawings but exploring the GRID version of that building, perhaps modeled with LiDAR, and documenting the experience. Perhaps one step of design is quickly molding spaces on the GRID and experiencing them for inspiration.

Construction documents can be reinforced by the GRID. An architect can show a polished GRID on the construction site to the team, showing how  the project would look like, materials, shading, landscape elements and all, as one moved from one end of the building to the other. Since the GRID is intuitively understood, the contractor would not need to learn a new means of communication with the architect.

Also during construction, the architect, perhaps if she or he now sends a floor plan to the tenements of a future apartment building so that they can mock up their furniture arrangements, can send the tenements the GRID, which they can use to explore and make their choices in a medium they can understand. No more need for the billboard proclaiming a future building - just go on the website of the firm and download that building’s GRID.

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MOVING FORWARD - BENEFITS

The software package foresees potentially great benefits in the field of architecture. To understand where these benefits come from, it is useful to review in a nutshell. The GRID is a tool meant to preclude the physicality of an architectural design via software and hardware that is currently available and immerse the client or architect in the design before it is built by visual and other means. Since architecture is experienced through both time and space, it is necessary that such a tool exist during some early stage of design before the design is finalized and converted into construction documents. Using construction documents, the architect and contractor collaborate to produce a built space, too late to make many changes. In the current design process, the real space and the real time are only reachable in snapshots or animations generated beforehand (animations could be understood as simply a series of snapshots). The problem with this is that, due to the way one experiences a still image versus a physical space, there will always be experiential differences between what the design was before it was built and what the design becomes after the construction. 

Benefit #1 - Reducing the Gap: The first benefit of the tool is that the experiential gap is narrowed or even removed. With the ability to see a building through the medium of a computer screen with realistic shadows, movement, light, and materiality, both the client and the architect are brought to the same level. The client probably has little experience working with CAD models and renders, or animations, and lacks the preparation that the CAD model, and working with that model, gives the architect. 

What the client lacks is an understanding of the space. This can be done by teaching the client how to understand architectural orthographics, which is arduous and exacerbates the problem (by reducing experience rather than expanding it) or the client can have what they already understand, a visual substitute for the real thing.

Benefit #2 - Personalization: This allows the client to make the project their own. By using computer interfaces they can inhabit and explore the project. The power of the simulation is that it uses the user’s own brain to their advantage by letting it translate the motion within the virtual world to motion of their physical self. The project becomes familiar and understandable.

Benefit #3 - Prototyping: Even before the client uses this tool, the architect her- or himself can use it to rapidly prototype the experience rather than the assembly or the totality alone. Architecture is far to big to be prototyped in full, and prototyping little chunks only goes so far. 

One can approach this by breaking down what architecture is - the memory of time and space. Memory is the passage of experience, time is a series of moments, and space is moment given shape. Space is the easiest to prototype because an architect can build a scale model - this will provide a sense of the space. Time is also easy to prototype, because the architect need only to hold the model for a while. Memory is a little harder because the brain is smart - it knows the model is just a small object. The architect needs to trick her or his brain, to get down near the model and pretend it was big and thus come close to a memory.

The GRID does that and goes further. It also has the architect make a model, and spend time with it, and get down close to it.  But it goes beyond - the architect can walk inside the model, the architect can change the lights and the time of day, the architect can flood a room with water or place other people in the space. True creativity can flower then, when memory is achieved.

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MOVING FORWARD - SOFTWARE PACKAGE

Depending on which software I move forward with, the next steps of my project will be either lightweight coding or heavyweight streamlining or coding. 

The Octane approach assumes that Octane is set up within Rhinoceros and the only thing missing is an interactive control. The range and nature of this control will vary, as simple horizontal camera control by forward impetus and turning is much simpler than also having camera bob, gravity, or collision detection.

The CryEngine approach assumes that it is installed and a Rhinoceros project is available and the only thing in the way is the cumbersome and complex import process. The range and nature of streamlining this process will vary from simply documenting comprehensively and cleanly how to do it with the least mistakes, to attempting to enhance the plug-ins already existing to attempt to automate the process further.

Once one of the above is in place, the next steps are more or less identical. After both real time rendering and interaction are achieved I need to document further features such as material assignment, any way for collaboration or portability, streamlining controls, general use principles or shortcuts, and the like.

After that, I would attempt to compile a software package. With Octane, that would involve everything but the software itself, as it is not free and would need to be purchased. Otherwise, there would be a zip file, or even a small self-installer that will consist of plug-ins, help documents, videos, and so on. With CryEngine, the package will be more robust, as, at least theoretically, it may include all of CryEngine, which is hefty at 1.9 GB. Since there may be licensing issues I may also require that it be downloaded separately, but as it is free that is less of an issue.

The software package, by its very existence, would be the proof of concept for my thesis. However, at this time it is of a very vague nature since there are too many variables in how I would approach developing it. Workload-wise, developing the help files and tutorials alone is a lot of documentation, and if I choose to do some sort of scripting I would need time to familiarize myself with the scripting languages that I would need to use.

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EUCLIDEON ENGINE

This uses a method I did not explore - voxels - as it is more about generating geometry rather than photorealism.