I’ve recently departed the office life to work for myself. As I rarely use max other than means to use vray I was looking at EIAS as an alternative. I dont want to have to buy max just to use vray as its just too $$$
I’d like to know of any pros and cons if any, from the users here specifically for doing architectural images.
Cheers
Well…without trying to sound too overly biased… I would say that EIAS is a great solution for architectural visualization. But instead of just saying that…why don’t we take a little time to determine what features are good for doing architectural visualization.
If I were to make a list of requirements I would say:
You should realize that although EIAS does not have its own modeling solution anymore, there are a number of solutions that are in place or being put in place to handle your modeling needs. EIAS comes with Silo, a sub-d modeler, that is good with organic shapes. FormZ, a package that has worked with EIAS since the beginning, is known for its architectural modeling tools. With FBX and Transporter, which are included in EIAS, practically any model can be brought into EIAS. So whatever package you decide upon for modeling… you’ll be fine. There are also internal modeling plugins that are available that can meet some of your basic needs.
How about you arch viz guys… (Ian) chime in anytime.
And oh… from the forum leader’s point of view, let’s remember to restrict making comparisons with other software packages and simply focus on what EIAS can provide for this person. (Not that I’ve had any problems with you guys on that) But CG Talk does not particularly appreciate threads that can potentially turn into flame wars. So if you must make a comparison, do it from a purely academic and informational point of view.
Hello!
I work for an Arch Vis firm and we use FormZ and EIAS exclusively for our 3D needs. I’ll just list a few of the pros for you relating to Arch Vis in EIAS.
Now for my two gripes about EI and Arch Viz (I’m going for balance here 
That said, the benefits hugely outweigh those gripes (that are more then made up for by the speed of other areas).
Take a peek at some of our selected work from over the years (including some questionable inclusions 
at http://www.watsonassociates.net
Also take a look here http://3dworks.com/code/frameset_e.htm for some more EIAS Arch Vis images.
Finally, I met an EIAS user in a bar last week, and he had recently been forced to switch to the program and render engine you mentioned by his new job, he said to me that, the image quality they provide is simply not a patch on Camera. He had had a few though
Ian
PS. Plus all the stuff that Brian said!
I appreciate the response so far, and I’ve sent off for the demo to have a play with it.
Since I started 3d back in 87 ( yes I’m an old geezer ) I’ve always used acad for models and then dumped them into max for rendering. A couple of years ago I discovered sketchup and I only use acad for the rare occasion I cant use it. I jumped on the maxwell roller coaster when I saw they were going to support SU but its been far from satisfactory. That said it does produce a beautiful image if you have the time.
I didnt see the file types EIAS will import so I have to ask if it will import dwg or 3ds? Personally I hope it wil take dwg as I find its the best export from SU.
Ian, you have some nice images there mate, any idea how long it takes EIAS to churn out a exterior with GI?
Cheers,
Patrick
ps prepare to be bombarded with more questions once the cd arrives.
ARRGH…just got a email form them saying they’re not sending out the demo anymore…bugger.
No demo!?
That sounds like a strange move on EITGs part…
Times? Well, with full GI I’m currently working on a project that is taking around 15mins to render. However, I have had Images take around 2 hours (every setting turned up to buggery). Of course, if you can see into the buildings you add time because you need internal lights/ shadows/ models etc.
This 15 min render is 4000px wide. It isn’t a horrifically complex scene though. 500k Polys or so. Lots of glass n wood. Not much inside yet. Maybe I’ll share it once it’s done
EI takes in both DXF and 3DS. We run DXFs through FormZ though. I know a couple of people that use SU/ EIAS combination and it works well for them. EIs strongest imports are FACT, 3DS and OBJ.
FACT is EI’s native file format.
Hope that helps!
Ian
cheers mate,
to quote from the email
We are temporarily suspending demo offers to those customers ordering new seats, due to some return issues with previous demos. Some spoil it for all. The link will be disabled soon.
We do plan to have a disabled downloadable demo on site, but I have no date
for this at this time.
[font=Verdana]They did offer me a discount on buying it for $595 but after the aggro with maxwell I’m a bit loathed to splash the dosh out on something I’ve never used.
Your times sound pretty good to me though so maybe I’ll bite the bullet ( after some cheques come in )
[/font]
I just got off the phone with Phil Martin at EITG when I read this. Apparently people aren’t taking the time to return the dongles once they’ve expired. I don’t find this surprising considering that people can be considerably lazy. The dongles are programmed to expire after 30 days. Personally, I kinda thought something like this would happen. It was a good idea, though the complexity of it just made it impractical. So forces are being put into play to do something about this. Matt Hoffman has a recent disabled demo available for the Macintosh for download, but nothing on the PC. Phil and I will be pressing him to get that up and online as soon as possible.
In the meanwhile…if you’re truly interested in purchasing a seat, the CGTalk community will be at your service. I’m sure we can answer your questions and we can provide you with screen shots and other sources to help you out.
Also check out this thread.
There are a couple of links in there to some video tutorials I did for the Revolver plugin. It will at least give you a little exposure to the application.
More video tutorials are planned.
Cheers for the info Brian.
I can understand why it is a problem for them. It’s unusual the issue a dongle on a demo programme imho but that was why I thought they took your credit card details.
Unfortunately at the moment I only run windows but as my equipment is getting old I’m looking at swapping to mactel. I’m currently trying to convince myself to go for the macbook pro as I like the idea of being able to sit outside to keep an eye on the kids while still working. I have a renderboxx sitting here and my current boxx is the same spec so they’ll be put into farm life once I sort out which way I’m heading.
Well true… those individuals not returning the dongle will be charged unfortunately. Well, not to worry. Stick around here for a while and you’ll have plenty of reasons to join the club.
By the way, I’ve put Boot Camp on a Macbook Pro in order to run both OSX and Windows. Sweet! So if you wanted to, you could always get Apple Hardware, buy EITG with the duo dongle, and run it in Windows for the time being. Once the Mactel port is completed, you could always go back to Mac if you wanted to.
I heard today that a local developer (the biggest in Manchester) call us the A-Team I’m sure the fact we use EIAS plays a huge part in that.
With reference to some people spoiling it for everyone, a while ago something similar happened with the education discount, some people abused it (used it for commercial work), so they stopped doing it (you now have to go through 3rd party retailers to get it).
I am curious, I thought they charged people for the dongle if they didn’t return it…??
Ian
And which member of the A-Team are you Ian? “Hannibal”, “B.A. Baracus”, “Faceman”, or Murdock?
The boot camp thing was part of my reasoning behind going mactel. There are some circumstance where I have to run windows so the ability to do both is a huge bonus.
Is it the same price to get a duo dongle ?
As a side note a benchmark image was posted on the vray forum form a macbook pro running windows. The image came out in just over 5 mins which was atucally faster the my old dual opteron setup at my previous employer…
There are lots of arhitectural guys using EIAS. I would say that it is very good for this. I currently use a combination FormZ, ArchiCad and Sketchup depending on the job for modeling and do everything else in EI.
Ei imports lots of file types, 3DS being one of them. DWG is not. When bringing the model into EI it converts it to it’s native FACT format. You will usually see your model file size drop when this happens and there is no degradation. EI happily imports models from most packages with ease.
The thing I love about doing architectural work in EI is the mapped shadow quality is great and the renderer is super fast. Texture support is great as well for standard projections and easy to apply and understand. There are lots of tricks to get your scenes to render fast including cubic projection maps and camera mapping.
You can look to Onyx Tree for true 3d trees (polygon heavy) but they look fantastic and EI can handle just about any amount of polygons you throw at it.
I recommend aFractal for an unlimited number of texture possibilites as well as some of the built-in shaders.
The only thing I’m aware of is older users who wanted duo capability had to upgrade their keys to the duo dongle for $50. I’m not certain if new seats come with the duo dongle automatically or not. I will check on that.
Also…
I now have access to a Macintosh, save disabled, v6.5r1 demo that will allow you to examine the program for free. Unfortunately, there is no PC version available and none of the FBX functions are found in this demo. However, it could provide you with a lot of insite if you have access to a mac.
Email me at brianpohl@comcast.net and I’ll send you the ftp information.
I confirmed with Phil Martin, if you purchase a seat of EIAS, the duo dongle is included. The $50 fee is only for older users wishing to upgrade their dongles to support both platforms. So the choice of operating system is totally up to you.
hi, are you patrick? remember the mies discussion on the maxwell forum?
anyway, i can really recommend EIAS if you need speed, quality and ease of use all together. all the points ian put in his message before are very valid and true. i’m used to work with a lot other 3d applications, too - they all have their advantages and disadvantages, but i would never like to be without EIAS.
apart all the very positive points already outlined (excellent antialiasing, fast rendering, great GI, etc.), the weaker points in my opinion are long scene setup times and no really good solution for area lights. as a bonus, there is implemented an excellent hardcoded light rig (called illuminators) which allows for fast occlusion-like renderings. the setup times tend to be long because test renderings are not using multiprocessing and there is no decent material preview. also, the texturing system is missing the flexibility found in other applications, so sometimes you have to do a lot of workarounds to get the desired results.
to put it simple: it’s a great application for doing exteriors or product design, but more difficult to use for interiors.
my 2 eurocents