Why would I use a gaming engine when I have ArcGIS Pro?
ArcGIS Pro is cool, when it comes to working with 3D GIS, because there isn’t anything, off the shelf that makes 3D mapping so accessible. If you want to make something shiny, for example a visualization or interactive application, you can’t beat a gaming engine.
If you’ve ever played a huge online game like Fortnite or Grand Theft Auto you can get drawn away from the game into the beautiful visuals and landscapes. Games like Grand Theft Auto 5 render a whole city on your Xbox, Playstation or PC (and even Mobile) without skipping a beat.
There are two major gaming engines (software), one is Unity and the other Unreal, where the essence in both are 3D modelling and animation studios. The most impressive thing is that they are multiplatform, which means you can make an application, VR, AR or game and then export to a multitude of different platforms. In the past I’ve created AR applications and then just ticked a box to say that I wanted to create an APK (Android) or another box to save to PC, where Apple, Xbox and other devices are supported.
In my experience, one of the biggest challenges in building 3D, AR and VR applications in Unity and Unreal is getting in the geospatial data, because they mostly prefer standard 3D formats like Collada, FBX, Sketchup and other non-spatial types. There is a learning curve in using the gaming engine as you find that certain formats work better than others and larger backdrop data requires tiling. Keeping scales correct and respecting map space, game space and screen space requires a lot of practice.
Also Read: What is ArcGIS GeoBIM?
Why is ArcGIS SDK for gaming engines, so exciting?
An SDK, Software Development Kit, is a plugin for the software, not complicated than adding a new toolset in Esri, which is a similar process of adding a key and plugin. Once that is set up, then you have the ability to bring in your Esri data directly into the gaming engine, using this method ensures you maintain scale. Furthermore, when you switch to using this data in AR, it is easy to size objects because dimensions are based on real-world dimensions from GIS.
Once you have your scene created, there are LOTS of tools and visual effects that remain unutilized in GIS. Things like realistic rain, fire, reflective windows, realistic water, all the (particle) effects, which turn a 3D scene into a visualization and you can pick up your Xbox controller, plug it into your PC and walk around your creation to check it, before exporting it.
When I first saw this announcement during the plenary session, I thought of the high resolution rendering which architects do, the more I look at what I have done in the past, I realize this opens up a whole new area of AR, VR, mobile applications and even interactive environments and simulation. This opens up a whole new capability of not just being able to make a map online and sharing it or creating an Esri application, this enables companies like EPIC games to use a Digital Twin of any city in the world, or EA Games, the ability to use Esri mapping for their F1 games. Best of all it allows people like you and I to be able to take mapping into a whole new dimension.
Also Read: The future of BIM software — what to expect
