Virtual Reality is becoming a powerful tool for architects to validate and communicate their designs. Jason Halaby presents recent experimentation and implementation of VR at WRNS Studio. This presentation was given in San Francisco on February 13, 2015 at an AIA event on "Emerging Technology in Architecture" sponsored by the Bay Area Young Architects (BAYA) group. www.wrnsstudio.com

1. Jason Halaby
Simulating Presence: BIM to Virtual Reality

2. Virtual Reality is not a new technology. Next year will be the 30 year anniversary of NASA’s
Virtual Visual Environment Display…

3. 1986 NASA’s prototype Virtual Visual Environment Display (VIVED) was used for tele-robotics.

4. Until recently, VR headsets have mostly been used in aerospace, defense, and academic
research due to the high cost of the hardware. (2015 pricing source: WorldViz website)

5. Oculus Rift Development Kit 2
$350
But now the consumer price point of headsets like the Oculus Rift has allowed the technology to
migrate into many other industries including architecture.

6. +
A consumer-priced headset combined with the prevalence of Building Information Modeling
makes essentially a perfect storm for VR in architecture.

7. +
+
Consumer-priced HMD
BIM ubiquity
Rapidly advancing graphics
processing power
Finally, thanks to the computer gaming industry, we have cheap and powerful GPUs provide the
high frame rates needed for a convincing VR experience.

8. Energy / Lighting /
CFD Simulation
Structural Analysis
Fire / Life Safety
Egress Simulation
Wind Tunnel Simulation
Clash Detection
(Constructability Simulation)
4D & 5D Cost and Scheduling Simulation
Renderings / Walkthrough Animations
Let’s try to contextualize VR among all the other simulations we might do from a BIM. We can
know a great deal about a design from these simulations.

9. So this is great, we live in a 3D world, we have a 3D model, we can view it from any angle and
know what that space feels like, right?...

10. …Well, No.
We are still just looking at the image of a 3D model projected onto a 2D plane. But our brain uses
wide-angle stereoscopic vision to construct the experience of presence in space.

11. Energy / Lighting /
CFD Simulation
Structural Analysis
Fire / Life Safety
Egress Simulation
Wind Tunnel Simulation
Clash Detection
(Constructability Simulation)
4D & 5D Cost and Scheduling Simulation
Renderings / Walkthrough Animations
While similar to renderings and animations (which can be thought of as photography simulation)
Virtual Reality is a simulation of being present in a space. So how do we actually do this?
Virtual Reality
(Presence
Simulation) (Photography Simulation)

12. Head-Mounted Display (HMD)
And Game Controller
A lightweight and inexpensive form of VR using an Oculus Rift headset and a game controller for movement.
Some downsides to this setup are that it can get lonely in the model, and it can cause motion sickness…

13. Potential for Motion Sickness
When the sensory input from the visual system and vestibular system don’t exactly match, there is a
potential for motion sickness.

14. Head-Mounted Display (HMD)
And Wide Area Positional Tracking
position tracking cameras
means lower potential for
motion-sickness
Another setup is to let the user walk around and track their head position through the space. In this case there are
8 cameras around the room track the user’s head position and orientation. This freedom to walk around
minimizes motion sickness because there is a one-to-one correspondence between virtual head movement and
actual head movement.

15. Corner CAVE (Computer Aided Virtual Environment)
• Multi-user
• Least potential for motion
sickness
• Essentially a virtual diorama
A corner CAVE is where two adjacent projectors are used to create a “virtual diorama”. One user’s eye position is
tracked. Others in the room will see some perspective distortion depending on how far they stand from the
tracked user. A joystick or controller can be used to move the “diorama” through space.

16. 360-Degree CAVE
(Computer Aided Virtual Environment)
This is NexCAVE at UC San Diego, made from an array of 17 flat-panel monitors

17. 360-Degree CAVE
(Computer Aided Virtual Environment)
This is not Photoshop.
This is StarCAVE at UC San Diego, made from 34 rear-projection screens and requiring 17 computers to render.
Notice there is even a screen on the floor.

18. UC San Diego
StarCAVE,
exterior view

19. How WRNS Studio got started with VR…
It was on the UCSF Mission Hall project that we first became interested in using VR. It is was a design-build
project with Rudolph & Sletten in 2012.

20. Rendered Images
We had produced a highly detailed Revit model at a fairly early stage in the project, and we were able to use it for
still renderings and flythrough animations.

21. Our model was also used for coordination with the design-build sub-trades such as precast, curtain wall, MEP/FP,
and access floor. So we had many opportunities to visualize the project. Then toward the end of Construction
Documents phase we decided to try a part of the building in Virtual Reality and present our findings at a
conference.
Clash detection with fabrication models

22. September 4, 2013 The pivotal VR session at WorldViz in Redwood City
So a small group of us on the design team went to WorldViz in Redwood City.
And there, I noticed the team was having new observations about proportions, sight-lines, scale, materials, and
details that had never been discussed in all the prior 12 months. This was huge. It was giving us insights into our
project that other methods of representation were not, and I decided we should try to incorporate this into our
design process.

23. Software Workflow (BIM to VR)
•Design authoring
•Building Information Modeling
•Model optimization
•Bake Lighting (for vizard)
•Materials
•Optimization
•Bake Lighting (in Unity)
•Interactivity Scripting
•Occlusion Bake
•Stereoscopic Integration
export .FBX
export .FBX or .OSGB
Now, how do we get to Virtual Reality from our Building Information Model?
Right now the workflow is not ideal…

24. Inuit New Office Building, Mountain View – Atrium Model
WRNS VR Examples

25. Leap Transit – Bus Interior Design
WRNS VR Examples

26. Cal State Chico – Recital Hall
WRNS VR Examples

27. Virtual Exterior Wall Mockups
San Francisco State University – Recreation & Wellness Center
WRNS VR Examples

28. Virtual Section Model (Schematic Design)
UC Berkeley – Public Health Department, Classrooms & Offices
WRNS VR Examples

29. Where is this going?
Presentation tool Design validation tool
So where are we heading with all this?
It is already clear that VR is a really powerful presentation tool. But there is too much work in converting the BIM
to VR, we need better software integration. We need to be able to seamlessly jump into our model at a moments
notice to make it a really good design validation tool.

30. Applications throughout design
Massing / Site
Studies
Schematic
Design
Detail
Design
Coordination
Once we can do that, it opens up so many possibilities for engaging our models in this way throughout the entire
design process.

31. Eventually…
• BIM authoring / geometry manipulation in VR
• Networked multi-user VR interface
• BIM objects with built-in interactivity
• VR with acoustic environment simulation
• VR with haptic simulation
• Etc…