ARM taking Enlighten tech beyond games development

An Australian firm in the real estate market is using gaming technology to help investors preview new properties.

As part of a partnership with ARM, Yugen will be using Geomerics’ Enlighten tool to simulate the lighting in virtual models for people unable to visit the buildings they are planning to buy or invest in. Enlighten will allow them to show off the lighting conditions of each property during any time of the day or night.

The 3D models of potential buildings are already being built with Unreal Engine 4, another development tool that is making headway in non-gaming markets.

“The biggest challenge in creating life-like 3D visualizations is the time it takes to render out the lighting. The result of changing objects in a scene has historically taken hours to see,” said Jeremy Santi, Director of Yugen. 

“Enlighten’s real-time feedback allows our environments to become a fully dynamic experience for our clients and significantly reduces the time it takes to produce lighting effects.”

Enlighten has already been used in numerous video games, including recent blockbusters such as Star Wars Battlefront.