What are the 3D modeling methods for constructing a 3D virtual world?

"Immersion, 3D world, virtual social, virtual shopping", the concept of "meta universe" has been particularly popular recently. People want to use AR/VR and other Internet technologies to project real-world buildings, streets, weather temperatures, and interpersonal relationships into the virtual world to build a "meta universe" and have a network clone. This scene that often appears in science fiction novels, now Tencent, Bytedance, Facebook (renamed Meta, the prefix of MetaVerse) and other domestic and foreign technology companies have begun to seize the track and invest heavily in layout.

But for now, developers still have a long way to go to realize this idea. After all, behind the "meta universe" is the construction of a huge 3D virtual world, which requires massive and high-quality 3D content support to restore the real world. In this issue, we will discuss and share some common ways to build 3D models with developers.

Mainstream method-3D software manual modeling

3D software manual modeling is one of the mainstream modeling methods. At present, there are a large number of professional 3D modeling software available on the market, such as 3DMax, Maya, Blender, etc. Different software has a variety of modeling methods, including polygons, surfaces, parameters, reverse engineering, etc., which are respectively suitable for 3D model creation in animation, game, interior design and other scenes.

Its advantage is that the built model has high precision and can be used to create arbitrarily. However, the learning cost of modelers is often high, the production is difficult, and the production cycle is long. Mapping to the construction of "meta universe", if you use 3D software to model manually, you need to invest a lot of manpower.

Special needs-professional instrument scanning modeling

With the popularization of 3D modeling knowledge and the rapid development of the industry, scenes such as industry, 3D printing, and e-commerce all need to use professional instruments to scan and model for model reconstruction. The main instrument types of this modeling method are laser scanners, light field scanners, etc.

The so-called laser scanning modeling refers to the distance measurement by the reflected signal of the laser equipment, and the depth data is calculated by the algorithm; the light field scanning code modeling is through the multi-camera array photography, or the professional light field equipment scanning modeling. It can simulate the reflection characteristics consistent with the surface of the object, restore the color, texture and gloss of the material of the real object to the greatest extent, and improve the fidelity of 3D object rendering.

The speed of professional instrument scanning modeling is much faster than manual modeling, the operation difficulty is lower, and high-precision modeling can be achieved. But its shortcomings are that the more sophisticated the equipment, the higher the cost, and it can only be reconstructed based on real objects, not virtual creation. It also has certain restrictions on the size of real objects. After modeling, professional 3D software still needs to be edited before it can be put into use.

With various advantages and disadvantages, although professional instrument scanning modeling requires a modeler to repair, optimize and even create a second time, compared with manual modeling, it has greatly reduced the workload and improved efficiency. It can be said that this is a way to quickly replicate the real world to construct a "meta universe".

Novel and easy to use-photo modeling

Taking pictures = modeling? If we can take photos to generate a 3D site model when we are investigating a certain place, it must be cool!

Photographic modeling is a very novel 3D modeling method. Multiple photos of an object are taken through a mobile phone or camera, and the photos are stitched together using algorithms, then the photos are automatically aligned, point clouds are generated, and textures are added to form a model. It has many advantages, it only takes a few minutes to complete, there is no operating threshold, no need to purchase high-precision instruments, low cost, and the effect can basically be restored to the real object. The disadvantage is that the precision and clarity of photographic modeling needs to be improved. Modeling can only be done based on real objects, and there are certain restrictions on the size of the object, surface texture, and so on.

On the market, there are Epic Game’s Huawei’s 3D modeling service , and Apple’s Object Capture API. Among them, RealityCapture3D modeling software generally needs to copy photos taken in accordance with the format to the computer software, and then upload them for processing and editing, which is mainly used in game development scenarios. Huawei's 3D modeling service is simple and easy to use. You can perform operations such as taking pictures, model previews, and downloading through your mobile phone, which can create more modeling methods for C-end users.

In recent years, photo modeling has gradually become popular. This way, which can quickly and conveniently generate realistic object models with rich surface textures by taking pictures, does not have the threshold of art and instruments, and is more suitable for consumers and individual users to operate. Perhaps, in the future, it will no longer be a dream to realize the concept of "everyone is the creator of the meta-universe" through photographing and modeling.

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