How to Make a Building Appear Photorealistic
Make photorealistic scenes quickly with these tools!
Turn a drab and dark architectural scene in a bright and lively one in just 8 steps!
Scene before brush up:
Scene after brush up:
1. High Quality Graphics
Make sure your graphics are set to the highest and best looking quality level! Use the top-left graphics menu to switch quality levels.
HQ Graphics Off:
HQ Graphics On:
2. Trees and Rocks
Beautify the environment around your building by adding trees and rocks around it. Being able to look out a window at natural objects helps create a deeper level of immersion!
3. Scene Settings
The best place to start to make a scene look realistic is the scene settings themselves. In particular, pay attention to the Daytime slider, as it adjusts the color and direction of the light coming from the sun! Experiment with other settings like Clouds or a Background to make the environment more interesting.
4. Material Customization
Achieve photorealism with your scene by using custom materials on objects! Apply a material first, and then choose a custom color, zoom, and reflection level to make it appear exactly as you wish.
5. Room Lights
Brighten up your scene, literally, with lights! Add lights from the Assets tab and place them in your scene. Do not add too many or you may experience performance problems. Use point lights for light-bulbs and
spot lights for recessed lights. Customize the light's brightness and color by experimenting with its settings! Then amp up glow on another object and place it over each light's recessed hole to make it appear like all of the lights are on!
6. Character Positions
The position of your character (or characters if making a multiplayer scene) is very important! The character's location is their spawn point, or where the player will be placed when entering the scene. A good rule is to move the players to a nice open area in the house, or just outside the front door so they are in a good position to start a tour.
7. Vertical Position of the Building
Avoid a floating house! Make sure the building is placed firmly on the ground by lowering the blue vertical arrows, until the bottom of the house sits firmly on the ground.
8. Door Colliders
Currently the best way to enter or exit a building is to disable the colliders on its doors. Just zoom in close, and select the door in the model. Then in the right settings panel, uncheck the box next to Collidable in the Advanced Options area. You can then teleport right through the door in virtual reality.