I’m excited to tell you that after a couple months, we once again released a new version of Enscape full of improvements and additions! The last months were unbelievable, we got the chance to meet many of you in person at the RTC North America and RTC Europe. So thanks a lot for the valuable input you gave us, we are trying hard to meet your wishes and even surprise you with things you did not know they were possible 🙂
Again, we fixed many of your reported issues. For example, missing lights or only backside-drawn objects should not be there anymore. We polished almost every existing feature, like the LightView – which is now more accurate, or the fog and various lens effects – which are a lot more realistic and visually appealing. But let me give you a more detailed overview of the biggest additions:
Videorecorder
Enscape now allows you to create MP4 video files within seconds. It works as follows:
- Fly to a start position & view angle
- Fly to a stop position & view angle
- Specify your path duration
- Save it as an MP4!
Easy as that. You can also change the time of day or the camera zoom (field of view) between the two key frames. During the video, the camera is blended between the two. You can also specify how the camera should move from start to stop: For example, you can give it a smooth acceleration at the beginning or you could use the handy cam mode to give it slight shakes as if it was recorded with a camcorder, carried around by a human.
You can press the preview button to get a real time preview of the video without any waiting. Exporting the video can take from a few seconds to a few minutes, depending on which quality you chose. The quality slider affects:
- Anti-Aliasing quality to hide edges and flickering
- Better shadows
- Better motion blur and depth of field quality
For most cases, the medium preset should be totally fine.
ArchVision RPC
In previous versions, we offered the option to replace the RPC entourage in Revit project with high quality 3D models that we ship with Enscape. This is still possible, but of course, we could not offer unique replacement models for the many thousand RPC objects ArchVision offers.
In Enscape 1.7. this has changed! You can now use all the entourage in your ArchVision Dashboard within Enscape. That means, that you can show all the vegetation in its correct appearance. Some of these 2D entourage objects look a little flat – although they are rotating billboards. Therefore, ArchVision has an increasing amount of true 3D models (called 3D+) in their library, which then again renders as truly 3D meshes inside of Enscape. Give it a try, it adds an extra amount of realism and variation to your project – without the need for a special project file beside your Revit project. You can also create your own RPCs using ArchVisions RPC Creator.
Layered Screenshot export
So far, you could already save beautiful rendered images out of Enscape within seconds. However often times, you might want to add one or two things in Photoshop afterwards. No problem! In version 1.7., you can export an alpha mask together with your image. That means that you can separate the foreground from the background in post-production tools like Photoshop to edit it very easily.
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Double click to fly
In Enscape, we offer multiple ways of navigating in your project:
- Keyboard and mouse
- SpaceMouse
- XBox controller
- Chosing a Revit view (which then sets the camera for you)
- Using Enscape’s Live Camera and moving the camera object in your Revit plan
We added a simple but useful tool for mouse navigation: If you want to fly somewhere, just double click there. You’ll then be transitioned there smoothly. This allows you for quick view changes during presentations and is even more useful if you hand the navigation over to someone who never used Enscape or a 3D tool before.
Faster loading and rendering
With Enscape, it is all about saving time and focusing on the things that matter: Your architecture. That is why we constantly tweak on speeding up the loading times and lowering the system requirements. Especially at large projects with many families, Enscape should load in a fraction of the time previously needed. This allows you for spontaneous launches of Enscape to get a quick impression of show someone what you are working on.
Also the frame rate has increased: Enscape runs much smoother now, especially if you run it on high resolutions. A common is misconception that if you make it render faster, it has to look worse: We always try to achieve the opposite. It’s so fast that it now even runs with global illumination enabled on Oculus Rift (at Ultra quality level). The newer version runs a lot faster and looks crisper, has less aliasing and flickering, more correct lighting simulation, sharper shadows, increased view distance and a lot more. I hope you will like it – be sure to have a look!
What’s coming next?
First of all, we hope to meet you at the Autodesk University 2016 in Las Vegas! But after that, it won’t take too long for the next update – please check our Development Agenda, where you can always get an impression of what we’re working on. Send us a mail or write a comment if you want to suggest something!
It has been a great time so far, I hope you enjoy Enscape 1.7.! Have fun and make the best out of your projects, let them shine in a great light 🙂