MELLANIUM: VIRTUAL ARCHITECTURE

Architecture, in the main, is a collaborative process where engaged people need to share principles, concepts, impressions, designs and commitment. Architects have toiled relentlessly to render their vision to meld form and function but drawings, models and blueprints are poor substitutes for a real sense of "being there". Do you think they have ever dreamt that they could project themselves and their clients, builders, developers and inspirational colleagues into a replica of a “virtually perfect” construct? Well now it is possible!
MellaniuM brings the emerging capabilities of immersion, visualization, rich media and personal navigation to the individual and shared experience of the architect and stakeholders in the realization of designs. We have technologies that can now be married to elevate the experience to serve all parties in visualizing, communicating and responding.

MellaniuM was originally conceived to complement the technique of the architectural design process by reproducing and importing AUTOCAD 3D renderings into the MMO UNREAL 2 engine. It is ,therefore, quite feasible to render the overall architectural concept and privately import into the MMO platform for easy access by up to 32 participants. The two unique attributes of the technology are both the ability to produce exact dimensional representations of the buildings and objects within them and, in addition, texture them with scaled high resolution surfaces. So now it is technologically possible to reproduce any city, terrain and/or landscape to a high degree of detail and enter it through a dedicated server running the UNREAL 2 platform. With the topographical digital maps which are now available it will be simple to render the exact configuration of most of the Earth's surface and place on it the relevant buildings and natural features. The furnishings and decorative artifacts are equally reproduced in the minutest detail and can sport hyper-realistic surfaces polished or burnished to a high gloss or rendered with a soft matte finish.

In this movie of a MellaniuM concept apartment building the final shot within one of the furnished units shows a female model sat adjacent to a coffee table upon which are placed an odd assortment of artifacts. These consist of a large ultramarine marble bust of what appears to be an African inspired art exhibit and a rather macabre polished skull with turquoise teeth. Closer to the door are a couple of potted plants. In some circles this scene would be considered a rather particular example of "conceptual art"

To highlight the viability of the technique the following movie shows the detail achievable using the MellaniuM concept. The shine on the polished marble items is somewhat hypnotic and the imperfections on the potted plants illustrate the breathtaking exactness of the textures. The free ranging camera movement gives some subtle hints to the potential for exquisite machinima
productions in the future.

The “Holy Grail” for architects has been realized, the passive becomes interactive, the hitherto limited 2D experience becomes the rich 3D experience. Indeed with a simple extrapolation it is no difficult task to imagine that this concept will be rapidly accepted by manufacturing. Virtual manufacturing is expanding daily and porting AUTOCAD 3D files into an effective interactive environment will be the key to increased productivity.

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If you wish to engage in a demonstration over SKYPE please do not hesitate to call me at joe133952

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