Good evening everyone,
My problem in brief:
I am looking for “THE” 3D home design software that allows creating as photo-realistic house plans as possible. The program should also enable realistic furnishing of interior spaces and the design of the outdoor area. If possible, I want to be able to virtually fly around and through the design with virtual cameras, similar to a drone.
Ultimately, I want designs comparable to those published by various home builders in their catalogs. Unfortunately, it’s probably not allowed to mention names here.
The reason why (for those interested):
I would like to build a house, or rather my wife and daughter have been pushing me for a long time.
However, I have zero visual imagination when looking at drawings. The architects I met during initial contacts with building companies either did not understand or did not have the (financial) motivation to create a custom design with me. It was basically just house designs A through X from a drawer. They might generously move a wall or a window... “Try design No. 3, it’s very fashionable and popular…” That was all I was offered. A proper architect, if I could even find one, would cost me a large five-digit sum, because I’d have to engage them full-time for months.
To overcome these hurdles, I want to take on this task myself, working on the design evening by evening, virtually walking through and exploring the design, identifying needed changes, and adjusting until everything fits perfectly. Many years ago, I had the chance to create designs with the program Arcon, which worked reasonably well. But this program did not offer the current possibilities for photo-realistic rendering of designs.
What I don’t need...:
are pessimistic comments about how I wouldn’t be able to do it anyway. I’m not aiming to win an architecture award, and my lack of experience, feasibility, structural engineering, etc. is a different matter. I also don’t need any CAD or structural analysis modules, etc.
Let’s say others build model railways as a hobby, and my wife and I would like to design our tailor-made dream house.
Many thanks in advance for all serious advice!
Best regards,
MiHoe
My problem in brief:
I am looking for “THE” 3D home design software that allows creating as photo-realistic house plans as possible. The program should also enable realistic furnishing of interior spaces and the design of the outdoor area. If possible, I want to be able to virtually fly around and through the design with virtual cameras, similar to a drone.
Ultimately, I want designs comparable to those published by various home builders in their catalogs. Unfortunately, it’s probably not allowed to mention names here.
The reason why (for those interested):
I would like to build a house, or rather my wife and daughter have been pushing me for a long time.
However, I have zero visual imagination when looking at drawings. The architects I met during initial contacts with building companies either did not understand or did not have the (financial) motivation to create a custom design with me. It was basically just house designs A through X from a drawer. They might generously move a wall or a window... “Try design No. 3, it’s very fashionable and popular…” That was all I was offered. A proper architect, if I could even find one, would cost me a large five-digit sum, because I’d have to engage them full-time for months.
To overcome these hurdles, I want to take on this task myself, working on the design evening by evening, virtually walking through and exploring the design, identifying needed changes, and adjusting until everything fits perfectly. Many years ago, I had the chance to create designs with the program Arcon, which worked reasonably well. But this program did not offer the current possibilities for photo-realistic rendering of designs.
What I don’t need...:
are pessimistic comments about how I wouldn’t be able to do it anyway. I’m not aiming to win an architecture award, and my lack of experience, feasibility, structural engineering, etc. is a different matter. I also don’t need any CAD or structural analysis modules, etc.
Let’s say others build model railways as a hobby, and my wife and I would like to design our tailor-made dream house.
Many thanks in advance for all serious advice!
Best regards,
MiHoe
If you mention 3ds Max, just to reiterate: you can also use Blender instead, which is free and, like 3ds Max, is used for top blockbuster films. Achieving good results with it requires a huge amount of experience. (For the first week, start by following video tutorials to create two cubes with a light source...)
It’s better to use a much simpler program, focused solely on houses. Feel free to use an old, free one and experiment with it. Once your (design) skills surpass the software’s capabilities, then think about moving on. But first, start with something more straightforward to get familiar with the subject.
It’s better to use a much simpler program, focused solely on houses. Feel free to use an old, free one and experiment with it. Once your (design) skills surpass the software’s capabilities, then think about moving on. But first, start with something more straightforward to get familiar with the subject.
@ypg Ok, I’m convinced and I’m withdrawing my statements. What the original poster is looking for simply doesn’t exist [emoji4]
To the original poster: especially in homebuilding, it’s important to balance your wishes with reality – or in other words, see how much of your wish list actually remains once you face reality [emoji6]
Seriously: You say there are countless options for facade designs and that you’d be disappointed if your builder didn’t offer you one of those many options?!?
That sounds quite unrealistic to me. You should have at least a rough idea of what you like and don’t like. Getting inspiration or advice is fine. But basically expecting someone to just read your mind and know your preferences ... well, how exactly??? ... that’s wishful thinking, far from reality. You should have some kind of vision before building a house. Even if it’s just picking appealing pictures on Pinterest to show your planner. That is your responsibility. If I misunderstood you, please correct me.
I can’t make sense of your questions to me, I don’t understand them...
To the original poster: especially in homebuilding, it’s important to balance your wishes with reality – or in other words, see how much of your wish list actually remains once you face reality [emoji6]
Seriously: You say there are countless options for facade designs and that you’d be disappointed if your builder didn’t offer you one of those many options?!?
That sounds quite unrealistic to me. You should have at least a rough idea of what you like and don’t like. Getting inspiration or advice is fine. But basically expecting someone to just read your mind and know your preferences ... well, how exactly??? ... that’s wishful thinking, far from reality. You should have some kind of vision before building a house. Even if it’s just picking appealing pictures on Pinterest to show your planner. That is your responsibility. If I misunderstood you, please correct me.
I can’t make sense of your questions to me, I don’t understand them...
Mihoe schrieb:
Then I’ll take these two pictures of a staircase from Massa Haus. Here, a virtual stair railing was covered with completely different textures... sometimes light, sometimes dark, and that already creates a totally different feeling.
Something like this I could simulate with the all-in-one program.You’ll get a red glaze from me as well. Sorry for the poor editing, but image editing is done on high-resolution photos, not on these small pictures. You also invest several hours, not just 5 minutes.
ypg schrieb:
You are advertising the product right now No, you misunderstood me.
I don’t mean that you are advertising, but that the photos come from the advertising category.
There is no house planner at work here anymore; this is where products like stairs, glaze, or houses are advertised – these are two different products.
One is creative design of a product, the other is marketing.
Mihoe schrieb:
Photoshop is also such a generic name for me. There are again a countless number of products, modules, filters, etc… What would you need from it to create 3D images?No, Photoshop is an image editing program. It’s used by technical photographers or reprographers who alter (stairs) or enhance (houses) a photo or several photos according to a large client’s wishes, purely for advertising purposes.
It has nothing to do with photorealism, nor with 3D or house building.
Mihoe schrieb:
something like Vi2000 or Villa2000No idea what that is. But I imagine it goes in the professional direction, although the losses in 3D are still visible here as well.
Wait, I just checked YouTube... the 3D images are qualitatively similar to Arcon:
The fact and summary is: You are mixing up two different terms and things. What you imagine a planner to be is not what a planner offers and is not called photorealistic 3D.
A photorealistic 3D would be the last picture, if rendered to the detail level of a real photo.
Edit: I also share the opinion of @ruppsn regarding what (is not) offered to you and what you should know before wanting to build.
@jansens: You're right! Both 3ds Max and Blender belong to the same family of SketchUp-type programs. However, I’m not the type to work on a lump of clay until I’ve sculpted the Golden Gate Bridge out of it. I’m more of a fan of building kits. So just give me as many colorful building blocks in all shapes as possible, and I’ll put together something nice from them.
@kbt09: You didn’t read me correctly—I have indeed designed some houses with Arcon. It was just many years ago. By the way, I didn’t want to start a destructive discussion about high prices. My question was more about how construction companies manage to make their glossy brochures look so stylish and realistic, even though they are purely computer-generated.
@rupson: YPG said in post #08, "More 3D simply doesn’t work unless you spend a five-figure sum on a professional tool," and you responded with "NOPE." I wanted to ask what more affordable solution you would suggest then. And by the way, I’m also interested in YPG’s expensive solution.
@EVERYONE
Personally, I would also like to use Arcon again. But the program had quite a few annoying bugs related to the size and placement of interior elements, and overlapping roof surfaces often didn’t work properly. If I remember correctly, there were also frequent problems with stairs.
Besides that, old furniture modules from the 1990s don't help me with interior design, especially since kitchens are mostly styled in rustic oak with surrounding crown moldings and ornate cutouts. Stairs, windows, and many other things have changed since then. There are solar panels on the roof, smooth aluminum roof shingles instead of red Braas tiles, houses have extra-wide blinds in front of the windows instead of roller shutter boxes mounted on the facade, and so on...
Just as unfortunately you don’t seem to understand me, my architect doesn’t either. Yes, I have a lot of different style elements in mind that I like. But these don’t necessarily go well together. Specifically, I like a city villa, but the plain cube design is personally too boring for me. I really like it when another smaller cube is added to the main cube, like in my post on page 4 / #22. This smaller cube can be extended in length or depth, which dramatically changes the overall external appearance. Another cube on the other side of the house would also be fine, but how would that look in reality?
Of course, I can ask the architect to draw this extension for me. If I then ask for a continuous crown of roof shingles around it, he’ll do that too. But if I then suddenly want to experiment with a terrace on this extension instead of shingles, he might roll his eyes. Then I would like to try a continuous railing made of stainless steel pipe construction, and for comparison, one made of steel wire, and also a solution with glass panels. By then, they’d probably throw me to the dogs. And even if not... I have yet to meet a designer who can create a virtual representation so that I can "SEE" how it might feel before construction starts.
I once found a really great house online and contacted the creator. He also offered for me to visit his house and reproduce it for a fee. However, the price was quite high, and especially the living area at 280 m² (3,014 sq ft) was way too large. I asked if it could be made smaller. The answer: no, because the house wouldn’t have the same impact, and he was definitely right about that. If I shrink a cool American cruiser in length, I end up with a really ugly car.
Considering all these thoughts and problems, I can only take on the sweaty and time-consuming planning work all by myself. Of course, if you want a "normal house" with a red hipped roof, you just have to look around and pick one—but that’s not what we want.
I believe you misunderstand me. My goal would be to change textures at the push of a button in the finished design once everything else fits. The tiny pictures of stairs were just an example. This is surely possible nowadays... or not!?!?
And just to ask again, which version of Arcon do you mean? The current 3.5 or one of the outdated versions from over 10 years ago?
@kbt09: You didn’t read me correctly—I have indeed designed some houses with Arcon. It was just many years ago. By the way, I didn’t want to start a destructive discussion about high prices. My question was more about how construction companies manage to make their glossy brochures look so stylish and realistic, even though they are purely computer-generated.
@rupson: YPG said in post #08, "More 3D simply doesn’t work unless you spend a five-figure sum on a professional tool," and you responded with "NOPE." I wanted to ask what more affordable solution you would suggest then. And by the way, I’m also interested in YPG’s expensive solution.
@EVERYONE
Personally, I would also like to use Arcon again. But the program had quite a few annoying bugs related to the size and placement of interior elements, and overlapping roof surfaces often didn’t work properly. If I remember correctly, there were also frequent problems with stairs.
Besides that, old furniture modules from the 1990s don't help me with interior design, especially since kitchens are mostly styled in rustic oak with surrounding crown moldings and ornate cutouts. Stairs, windows, and many other things have changed since then. There are solar panels on the roof, smooth aluminum roof shingles instead of red Braas tiles, houses have extra-wide blinds in front of the windows instead of roller shutter boxes mounted on the facade, and so on...
Just as unfortunately you don’t seem to understand me, my architect doesn’t either. Yes, I have a lot of different style elements in mind that I like. But these don’t necessarily go well together. Specifically, I like a city villa, but the plain cube design is personally too boring for me. I really like it when another smaller cube is added to the main cube, like in my post on page 4 / #22. This smaller cube can be extended in length or depth, which dramatically changes the overall external appearance. Another cube on the other side of the house would also be fine, but how would that look in reality?
Of course, I can ask the architect to draw this extension for me. If I then ask for a continuous crown of roof shingles around it, he’ll do that too. But if I then suddenly want to experiment with a terrace on this extension instead of shingles, he might roll his eyes. Then I would like to try a continuous railing made of stainless steel pipe construction, and for comparison, one made of steel wire, and also a solution with glass panels. By then, they’d probably throw me to the dogs. And even if not... I have yet to meet a designer who can create a virtual representation so that I can "SEE" how it might feel before construction starts.
I once found a really great house online and contacted the creator. He also offered for me to visit his house and reproduce it for a fee. However, the price was quite high, and especially the living area at 280 m² (3,014 sq ft) was way too large. I asked if it could be made smaller. The answer: no, because the house wouldn’t have the same impact, and he was definitely right about that. If I shrink a cool American cruiser in length, I end up with a really ugly car.
Considering all these thoughts and problems, I can only take on the sweaty and time-consuming planning work all by myself. Of course, if you want a "normal house" with a red hipped roof, you just have to look around and pick one—but that’s not what we want.
ypg schrieb:
You’ll get another red stain from me.
I believe you misunderstand me. My goal would be to change textures at the push of a button in the finished design once everything else fits. The tiny pictures of stairs were just an example. This is surely possible nowadays... or not!?!?
ypg schrieb:
Wait, I just checked YouTube... the 3D photos are the same quality as Arcon:
And just to ask again, which version of Arcon do you mean? The current 3.5 or one of the outdated versions from over 10 years ago?
Mihoe schrieb:
to plan a continuous band of roof shingles around Haha, finally someone calls the Toast Hawaii (uh, Tuscany) by its real name
Mihoe schrieb:
I think you misunderstood me. My goal would be to change the textures at the push of a button in the finished design where everything else fits. Oh yes, if that’s what you meant, then you definitely expressed yourself unclearly. Until now, I thought you were looking for a design program to create house plans. But if you’re actually looking for software that digitizes existing designs to simulate, for example, different hair colors, that’s quite a different thing.
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