Virtual reality is one of those things that still sounds more futuristic than it actually is. It can be hard to wrap your head around a “reality” that isn’t there.Yet many people still see virtual reality as in the domain of special effects or sci-fi.
But virtual reality is very much a part of today’s world, and not just as a novelty, but also as a useful tool with a variety of professional uses. One of the most recent innovations in virtual technology comes from the Atlanta-based company Trick 3D, which has designed a tool that allows housing developers to create virtual models of homes using nothing more than a two-dimensional floor plan, Fast Company reports.
This tool, known as Floorplan Revolution, creates virtual models that can be viewed on a smartphone, tablet, desktop computer, or the Samsung Gear VR in just minutes. Builders simply make selections for options such as furnishing styles, appliances, trim, wall color, flooring, and finishes for countertops and cabinets and then just upload the floor plan of one of their apartment types. Minutes later, the virtual rendering is ready for viewing.
Each rendering has a base price of $950 with an extra $500 tacked on to make the virtual model a virtual reality tour. Creating a virtual reality tour of an apartment with such a high level of detail for $1,500 is pretty cheap when you consider a single image of a single room can cost around $2,000 to $5,000 with existing tools.
Trick 3D has eventual plans to make this tool available for consumers, but for right now they are focusing on housing developers who may want a improved way of giving prospective buyers or renters an easy way to see what their potential home could look like.
So, virtual reality might not be teaching us Kung Fu yet, but it's proving a very useful tool for buyers and builders on a daily basis.
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