Importing Revit models In to Unreal Gaming Engine

[Scott_Bloss]

We are in the process of importing Revit models in to multiple gaming engine applications to create real time walk thrus. Does any one know of a plug in or a file format that works better than dwg or dxf for the Unreal gaming engine? If anyone has experience in this could you please contact me.

Thanks,

Scott

[tomnewsom]

I think you're going to find things rather difficult. Game engines like their geometry to be nice and neat - no open edges, interesecting volumes or co-planar surfaces etc. Revit models contain loads of these things :)

If you do have any success, do let us know!

[Andre Baros]

I started to go down that path using max as the intermediate step but got to busy to finish. Revit models can actually clean up pretty well depending on your process, though they are VERY heavy.

[Paul Andersen]

Scott, You may want to have a look at walkinside (http://www.walkinside.com/). It's a very powerful and easy to use application. You can run around in 1st or 3rd person mode. With gravity on the character will walk up and down stairs and ramps. With gravity off the character will hover or fly for aerial views (it's rather humorous in 3rd person mode, the character hovers cross legged like yoda and assumes the superman pose for flight). We've used this primarily with Bentley products (namely microstation). It even offers collision detection in that you can set your characters height and as you are walking through the model the character will collide and stop if there is not enough headroom.

I have successfully passed Revit models to this software through microstation and since they are now offering autocad support it looks like that would also be a valid option though I have not tested it yet. I believe the link requires autocad to be installed so if you have Revit Series or access to autocad you should be all set. The workflow I used was Revit export to dwg or dgn -> open in microstation and assign materials -> send to walkinside. I may have a look at the workflow through autocad this weekend if I have some time but imagine it to be quite similar. I believe they still offer a functional trial version for download to give it a try.

[Scott_Bloss]

Thanks guys for the input. I will give the walkinside a try.

[JamesVan]

Scott,

You might also try NavisWorks (http://www.navisworks.com). Their JetStream 5 product has direct export from Revit and does pretty much the same thing as what you're describing, but in a manner much like a DWF file. It produces a lightweight 3D file that your clients can view with a free viewer. They can either fly or walk through it or play animation paths you create for them. They can also turn stuff on and off and cut 3D sections.

Also take a look at RTRE at cubicspace.com (http://www.cubicspace.com/). It's a plug-in for 3DS Max. A little more polished and game-like, but you'll have to go through Max.

[ehw]

I'm also very interested in this.

Here is a blog that has a group of fellows trying to use various engines for this purpose:

http://digitalurban.blogspot.com/index.html

They have examples of the now infamous Fallingwater on Half Life 2, and they're now trying to use Oblivion (with some real luck, acctually).

Has there been any update from what you all have tried?

[Scott_Bloss]

We have been very successful using Navisworks Jetstream. I have not tried any additional gaming engines at this point. I have been busy with some other things and will must likely get back in to the gaming engine part of things as the weather starts to go the otherway here in northern New York. I will keep you posted as to my findings.

[Andre Baros]

I recently noticed that a new version of Turn Tool is out, looks promising:
http://www.turntool.com/

And there is a great article about the process in this blog:
http://digitalurban.blogspot.com/search/label/Game%20Engines