Interactive Environments with Open-Source Software: 3D Walkthroughs and Augmented Reality for Architects with Blender 2.43, Dart 3.0 and Artoolkit 2.7

Wolfgang Höhl, an architecture software specialist, shows you how to use freeware correctly for architecture visualizations in ‘Interactive Ambient’. The book begins with an overview of real-time visualization possibilities before showing the reader how to work with three free software packages. The guide describes the appropriate hardware and the system requirements.

The reader will learn how to model the "Wolkenbügel" (cloud-iron) of the avant-garde architect Mart Stam (1924/25) step by step with Blender 2.43. Readers will also learn to design surface textures and create their own interactive 3D walk through. Dart 3.0 enables the reader to create an interactive construction mass model. Finally, ARToolKit 2.7.2 shows readers new ways of simulating their interior designs.

Further reading lists, web links and numerous illustrations help the reader get started. ‘Interactive Ambient’ shows readers interactive architecture visualization possibilities and encourages them to experiment successfully.

Wolfgang Höhl studied architecture at the Vienna Universtiy of Technology and received his doctorate from the University of Hannover. He worked at von Gerkan, Marg + Partner Architects in Hamburg as an architect and was a scientific researcher at the TU Munich. Today he is a professor of computer animation at the Macromedia Specialized College for Media in Munich and teaches 3D visualization at other specialized institutions in Germany and Austria. He is also a freelance architect and contributor to numerous computer and architecture magazines.