When it comes to sharing photorealistic designs, thousands of Architecture & Design firms globally use Lumion to create walkthroughs to share with clients during the design process using images, videos & now 360 panoramas. In the previous post, we talked about how Architects can get started with Virtual Reality. With the launch of Oculus Quest 2 & the increasing need for cloud-based collaboration in the design process between different stakeholders, architects,links and designers are looking at new ways of communicating beyond static renders, videos, and floor plans - with a shift towards the cloud & immersive tools.
In this article, you will find all answers you need creating VR walkthroughs using Lumion - on the web and VR headsets like Oculus Quest 2. First, let us quickly answer the most common question asked by Lumion users.
Is there an official Lumion App for (Oculus) Meta Quest?
No, there is no official Lumion App for (Oculus) Meta Quest as of July 2023. Lumion is primarily a desktop application used for architectural visualization and rendering, and it is typically run on powerful computers that have the following characteristics:
Compatible format: FBX, COLLADA, OBJ
CPU: Intel Core i7 with a clock speed of 4.0 GHz or higher
OS: Up-to-date Windows 10 64-bit (version 2004) or newer
RAM: 16 GB or more
Video Card: GeForce RTX 3060, Quadro RTX 4000, AMD Radeon RX 5700, or better
There is no direct or workaround to connect Lumion to a PC-based VR headset and view 3D walkthroughs immersively.
Is there a workflow to view Lumion designs on wireless VR?
There is no direct integration or workaround to connect Lumion to a PC-based VR headset and view 3D walkthroughs immersively. However, there is a simpler and easier way to create virtual walkthroughs from Lumion designs using 360 panoramas.
How to create a VR walkthrough using Lumion?
They are images. JPG o PNG files that can be rendered as an output file from Lumion in a few clicks. Once you have imported the model, and applied the materials and objects, you can export an image to your desktop by clicking on the ‘360 panorama’ icon. Ideally, you will need to export multiple images for a walkthrough — think of each image as a separate view you would use for your client presentation.
To create a panorama in Lumion, you need to:
1. Set up your Scene & choose effects
2. Click on the "Panorama Rendering” Button
3. Set Your Render Configuration
Output quality: You need to consider the additional time to render the image with higher quality. The difference between a 3-star quality and 5-star quality in time for rendering can be significantly high depending on the configuration of your PC ( minutes to more than an hour )
Monoscopic or stereoscopic: Choose stereoscopic if you plan to provide your clients with a VR experience. For sharing on web browsers, the experience between the two formats is the same.
4. Download 360 renders to the desktop to use a 360 viewer
How to export from Lumion to VR?
The most popular (and easier ) method to get your Lumion content to VR is through 360 panoramas, which we recommend based on our experience with thousands of users. In summary, as of today, 2 options can be used to export from Lumion to VR.
1. The recommended option from Lumion is to use Sketchfab, a 3D model-sharing website. This tutorial from Lumion shares their recommended way in detail. From our own experience, this process needs quite many steps which can be cumbersome - especially if you are looking for a simple 3D to VR workflow.
2. The alternative is to export 360 panoramas from Lumion to your desktop & use virtual tour software to upload panoramas, edit tours & share on web & VR headsets.
Comparison of MyLumion & SENTIO VR
Once you have the 360 panoramas, you are now ready to be shared them on different platforms. If you are looking to just share the panorama on a Facebook page, check this link
Let’s focus on these two options:Multi-user
Features | MyLumion | SENTIO VR |
Sketchup & Revit integration | ✔ | ✔ |
Upload Panoramas to cloud | ✔ | ✔ |
Share link with clients | ✔ | ✔ |
Customize tours (hotspot, floor plan, video, audio, 2D pop-ups) | | ✔ |
VR app on Meta Quest (Quest 2 & pro for presentations) | | ✔ |
Downloadable 360 panoramas offline (Save images locally for offline presentations) | | ✔ |
Multi user VR meetings (Meetings in VR for remote collaboration) | | ✔ |
Design review Collaboration tools (Annotations, notes, Screenshots & Reports) | | ✔ |
As you can see from the above table, for simple requirements like creating a link with the Panos and sharing it with clients, MyLumion is a reliable option. For more advanced features like a powerful 360 tour editor, a 360 VR Viewer to view the walkthrough online like SENTIO VR is required to simplify your team's workflow.
How to view Lumion 360 panoramas using Sentio VR?
1. Export panoramas to your desktop
Panorama created in Enscape can be exported locally to your PC either one or several at a time with adjusted settings such as max lighting, refinement, motion blur, and frame rate. Here is a guide for available file formats, resolutions, and modes for exporting panoramas locally:
File formats: PNG, JPG
Mode: Mono, Stereo
Resolution: 2K (2048 x 1024) to 16K (16384 x 8192)
2. Drag and drop to your SENTIO VR account
Click on "Create Tour", add your panorama images in the right order to create a 360 virtual tour
3. Add hotspots, floor plans, notes, audio, and video
Customize your virtual tour by adding floor plans, hotspots, notes, audio and video to make an interactive experience.
4. View 360 tours in the SENTIOVR app for Meta Quest
Download the SENTIO VR App for Quest and enter your unique 6-digit access code to view your panoramas in VR. Once the virtual tour is created, there is no need to connect the PC to the headset and the experience can be shared via cloud to any client or stakeholder.
5. Join remote collaboration meetings in VR with clients and stakeholders
The VR tours are available not just for individual presentations but also for collaborative meetings where multiple people can remotely join and review the designs together.
Conclusion
From a design perspective, the benefit of using cloud-based solutions for this workflow are:
Save time in creating virtual tours using software
Show information additional to the 360 image using floor plans, hotspots, etc.
Share links to clients for easy viewing on mobile devices & PC
Add VR to your client presentation workflow
Manage design changes to your content using software to save time
Feel free to leave your opinion & reach out if you have questions about your Lumion to VR workflow, If you’re interested in trying out SENTIO VR for efficient and cloud-based collaboration, you can get started here.
