Revit to game
engine
How hard is it to take assets from Revit and get them into a game engine? I took a quick look and it's pretty easy thanks to FBX export.
REvit to Unreal
The first thing I explored was importing a FBX file directly into unreal. I didn't adjust scale in the proof of concept, but otherwise the models work perfectly as a block out. They require processing to be ready for textures. Onto Maya.
Revit to Maya
In Maya I quickly found out that the model's silhouette information is pretty much perfect as is. However its poly count is dense compared to it's complexity. This lead to further exploration into where the polygon budget is going.
Toposlab is the culprit
Almost the entirety of the object's polycount density is in the toposolid and slab. This is a fortunate place for excess geometry to be. Replacing it with a height map can get the same precise elevations while looking clean.
Dense Floors
In Revit, the floor is mindful of the wall's geometry. In a game, there's no penalty for overlapping objects. A tillable floor could save computing resources.
Walls are solid
Walls are constructed as whole polygons. Though they aren't very taxing on a computer, there's still room for improvement.
A closer look
This unedited wall segment has 106 UVs. Because it appears multiple times in this building, any further optimization is multiplied across all instances.
optimizing walls
This identical wall is down to 58 UVs just by getting it ready for texturing. When taken a step further and leaving only exposed exterior planes, it goes down to 31!
Initial thoughts
It's easy to integrate Revit into a game development workflow. However, Revit has a walk mode which provides similar utility as a game engine. This might make compatibility with a game dev workflow moot. It could still be valuable if an end user lacked the computing power to view unoptimized assets, or if presenting the building preview in an artistic light is desirable. On the other hand, Revit could be valuable for game development presuming the Revit file is complete. An entire accurate building can be rapidly blocked out by importing it. Within a modeling program, imported objects from Revit can be refined or set as reference to quickly rebuild with optimal topology.