Next, a design concept for a cozy patio home. Though the project never kicked off, I decided to experiment with some ideas in my free time.
On a 15x15m plot, I aimed to create a small but comfortable patio residence. The arrangement of spaces is geared towards an open feel. The architectural structure is deliberately showcased, lending an interesting focal point and rhythm to the space.
The SketchUp 3d model is pretty straightforward. The end result was created by jamming with the design in Unreal Engine and VR, then fine-tuning bits and pieces in SketchUp.
The thick outer walls in the 3d model were needed to prevent light leaking by the real-time lights in Unreal Engine. Utilizing real-time lighting significantly enhances the workflow efficiency while maintaining high-quality results.
Thanks @anon91144253 I think its not a coincidence. I get inspired by designs by John Lautner, FL Wright, Eichler Homes (several architects) and Olson Kundig and find it interesting to play with structure, patterns and bare materials. Most of the time, clients want all those hidden (behind plasterboard).
Your thread is a top search in Google for VR + sketchup ! I’m just starting down the road of adding VR to my work and presentation pipeline. Any thoughts on Sketchup, Unreal, Twinmotion, VR etc here in 2025?
In short; Twinmotion is the easy start for doing real-time graphics but, its VR implementation isn’t very good imho. But, you should definitely test it and see if it does work for you.
Longer version; I still use SketchUp & Unreal almost every day. Every year I test Twinmotion but I dont like its VR implementation. It uses teleportation and the last time I tried it didn’t recognize the Oculus controllers. Maybe that has changed in the last version?!
I prefer to use Unreal because you can use real-time lights while developing / refining your design and switch to baked lights when presenting in VR. Depending on your project, baked lights have twice or more frame-rate in VR compared to real-time lights which prevents motion sickness (preferable for clients who don’t use VR daily). Baking lights take time so when designing, I prefer to use the real-time ligths.
Twinmotion is a ‘black-box’ that delivers lots of libraries for objects, foliage, materials etc. But, you can’t do any programming or step out of its standard options. When using Unreal, you have the full power of the Engine and can customize everything to your needs. Unreal doesn’t have all these libraries but you can migrate some of them from Twinmotion if you need those.
I hope this helps. If you have any specific questions, feel free to ask
