77 | APWA Presentation April 2019 | The Future of 3D Visualization

77 | APWA Presentation April 2019 | The Future of 3D Visualization

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A presentation given by Sam at the local APWA conference in Laughlin, NV April 2019. Sam talks about the future of 3D visualization and how his team has successfully brought Vissim data into interactive design visualization.

TRANSCRIPT:

all right so like I said I think most of
you know me I’ll give a short brief
background for those that don’t I was
born and raised in Alamo Nevada and went
to UNLV graduated in 2010 interviewed
for the rotator position
luckily Eric was there and he found the
within his good graces to recommend me
for that position and I think there’s a
quota you have to have like one UNLV
grad per 500 you at our grads they
selected me engineer and dot this is
circa 2010 2011 2012 like some of the
project managers Adam seriously Nick
Johnson they knew I kind of like 3d
modeling and so they started having me
do some fly throughs for them it’s
attainable we backed them their current
River the Kern River gas line project I
did an animation and they seem to really
like what I was doing I like what I was
doing and so I made the plan that
someday I would start a visualization
company so in 2014 after I left and I
worked for Kim Lee horn for a year and
then 2014 started civil FX so been doing
it the past five years in 2015 we were
asked to be part of the project neon
pursuit the design-builder with Atkins
and cuit we were selected and so we got
to be the Design Lead or the the
visualization lead as part of the
design-build team on project neon and a
my time in a 10 dot I had to kind of had
the vision that someday visualization
didn’t just happen have to be image in
videos but it could be interactive like
a video like a racing game that you’ve
played on a video game and the the
budget on project neon was big enough
that I felt that we could pull this off
we could make it interactive use the
video game talent and technology to to
bring project neon kind of to life
interactively and to their credit they
thought I was crazy but they let me do
it and we pulled it off the result I
think was a good product everyone was
happy about it looking back we had no
idea what we’re doing but thanks to the
good people that we worked with we were
able to pull it off so since then we’ve
been able to work on a lot of projects
luckily there have been a lot of day end
off projects we’ve been able to work on
continually push the technology also
we’ve been able to work for other local
agencies and started to branch out into
some other states so so that leads us to
today and what I want to talk about is
visualization where it’s been where it
currently is and where may be in the
future and how we’re trying to kind of
push it into that future of
visualization I have my TV like those of
you that know me you probably don’t see
me without my TV it’s just kind of the
way that I did I like to show this kind
of stuff but I want to talk about
interactivity the accessibility the
quality uh-huh the the phasing aspect
and and mostly I’m going to be talking
about interactive visualization but the
visualization as a whole in the civil
engineering and transportation
industries
I’m going to talk about traffic that’s
gonna be an important part of this
presentation and then kind of the
overall purpose of why we do this sort
of thing so interactivity in the past if
you had ever dealt with visualization
we’re talking that the 90s maybe even
twenty years ago 15 years ago you’d be
looking at an image or a video render it
take a long time to get there or if
you’re looking at something
interactively a big wireframe nowadays
the stuff we’re talking about on Project
neon it’s a lot more realistic we can
navigate it in real time on a on a PC
using your mouse in the future it will
be multi-touch real-time navigation on
any device and the graphics will be
realistic this multi-touch navigation on
suck in to Debbie
about this she was part of the neon team
and it was to go back and add it to
project neon would be so easy now it’s
just the line of code we add it and it’s
done but when we first added it was such
a paradigm shift for us to be able to
just zoom around the project at any time
I’m gonna talk about how to train a
dragon 3 so if you like this if you
haven’t seen this movie and you’re
worried about me spoiling it leave the
room or cover your ears because I’m
gonna spoil this movie it’s gonna it’s
gonna make sense so I’m watching How to
Train Your Dragon 3 it’s pretty cool
movie we took the team there a couple
months ago for like an activity and and
so at the end of the movie the spoiler
alert again but they let the dragons go
and they stopped flying him because
that’s not nice to fly on the Dragons
they need to go to their own home and
and so this this guy hiccup
he’s the main character at the end he
shows him with his family and he’s
sailing in a boat because he doesn’t
have dragons to fly anymore anymore he’s
on his boat and it’s this touching
moment with his kids and and then he
sees the dragon and it’s this touching
moment and and I loved it but but then I
just was caught with this thing I was
like how lame would that be to ride a
boat after flying on dragons your whole
life so so navigating on with the mouse
like we used to own project neon when I
go back and do that it feels like
writing in a boat and like once we did
multi-touch it’s just so much easier so
this is the Reno Street an evil project
for those that can see it and it’s the
whole city and so we went to the public
meeting we wanted to be able to show a
lot of different aspects of it
over here to downtown and show this when
we’re talking about that and someone
would come talk about that that blessed
airport flyover over at plum so we would
jump over over here to plum and talk
about that and we have cameras set up
and such but but being able to use
multi-touch be able to use as many
different forms of navigation as
possible and having those available is
very valuable and I think in the future
you’ll just be able to jump around even
more than we realized today all right so
accessibility in the past the way you
would access these visualization was an
image render or video render like we
talked about before those are still
super valuable and we do those today and
that’s something that we we try and talk
about when we’re talking about a project
like not every project is reno’s we get
Ebola is going to be this whole
interactive thing like someone was just
an image render and some of it is just a
simple fly through there’s this whole
spectrum of visuals that you can do for
a project but so the image of videos are
valuable but now we’re kind of moved
into the present over here which is like
we’re talking about the kiosks the PC
application and then even the virtual
reality and the driving simulators which
we’ve done for various projects as they
make sense once we once we make it our
focus and when we build our budget
budget and we manage the projects we’re
always focusing on building a realistic
interactive 3d environment and then from
that we can get any imagery under any
video in the virtual reality anything
that we want and so we always focus on
that realistic 3d environment and what
we do is very similar to to making video
games I mean it’s it’s the same
technology it’s the same kind of team
the difference is we use engineering
data when we focus on transportation
projects so
did it great and this is great you know
being able to go to a public meeting and
show this is nice but it’s it’s really
hard to move this this is our condensed
version of the kiosk our old version
I bought a trailer because the stand and
the TV and the case and everything was
so big this one now fits in the back of
my truck and a quick story
so I’m from Alamo which is a really
small town and I moved to Vegas which is
to me is like a big city you know like
Vegas it’s it’s big there’s buildings
and stuff and so and and there’s traffic
signals which is another thing that we
don’t have known so three weeks ago I
got invited to go down to talk to w SP
and H mtv2 there L at downtown LA
offices and give them a presentation
they’ve kind of seen what we’ve been
doing and they they wanted to give a
presentation I was like oh easy I do
this all the time I’m gonna pack up my
equipment I’m gonna drive down to
downtown LA I checked the Google Maps I
was like okay I need to right there
right there at 11:45 so that I can show
up with my pickup truck unload the
equipment set it up and give a
presentation and if any of you that have
been to downtown LA or probably like
laughing at me at this point so I get
there at 11:45 and I was gonna get
sandwiches for the Lunch and Learn and
so I realized they couldn’t park next to
the sandwich shop I had to go to a
parking garage across the street go up
to the top floor where I could fit my
pickup truck because the compact spots
weren’t big enough walk down get the
sandwiches go find another parking lot
garage close to the the place that we
were going to which was like two blocks
away and then it’s uphill to this
high-rise building and so I’m like 15
minutes late already dragging this cart
full of this TV all my equipment I had
this friend I don’t know if you guys
know David whoo he used to work for
Louis burgers so he’s helping me so
we’re like dragging this equipment
through downtown LA with like the
homeless people wondering what we’re
doing with like this ten thousand
dollars worth of equipment and I there’s
this person with a walker I see him up
in front of me
and there there’s just this little
sidewalk there’s all these tall
buildings and this person is on a walker
like coming towards us on the sidewalk
and I have this cart with the TV turn
this way because I couldn’t figure out
how to turn it this way and I was like
what am I to do about this guy on the
Walker probably homeless and they jumped
the curb the like barrier al to get out
of the way so I’m like getting this
thing through we’re covered in sweat and
so long story short word like 30 minutes
late we’re covered in sweat and I
learned the logistics at Downtown oh
they are different than the logistics of
Las Vegas and especially Illinois so
long story short the accessibility of
this is getting better but we need to
improve on that so what we’re doing is
we’re the future hopefully will be
something like this so this is a this is
a web build so this is just a link that
we can send to anyone you can put it on
a project website you can email it to
someone and it’s just like it’s just
like the other one that I was showing
and you can show all the different
alternatives the quality and the speed
are a little bit slower than the full PC
version but it’s all here and it’s all
on Chrome browser and I think in the
future we’ll have even more more
applications like this we can’t do this
with Reno spaghetti bowl and Centennial
Bowl because they’re these huge systems
assessment interchanges but for these
small ped bridges or Complete Streets or
great separations at this point we can
do this and in the future I think we’ll
be able to do this on even the biggest
projects the technology will get better
our processes will get better and you’ll
be able to view project neon by just
sending a link and anyone can view it
hopefully that’s what the future looks
like but even today on those projects
that you can’t do that what we can do is
we we set up cameras we take pictures
along the corridor in our 3d model and
then we can set up send it kind of a
Google Streetview and so this is what
we’re currently doing on our project
this is Boulder State Parkway so you
have the same benefits of the
interactive one obviously the cars
aren’t going because these are pre
rendered images but you can you can put
these markers so that you can talk about
different points on the project so the
accessibility is just moving more and
more to work something that we can give
out to the general public rather than
having the 200 people at the public
meeting interact with with the
touchscreens
the quality continues to improve
obviously as we approach if you guys
have seen video games the quality is is
photorealistic and we’re 10 or 20 years
behind there but you can see where we’re
going and the the projects that we’re
working on now we’re able to spend as we
focus on certain assets that are close
to the project and we know that will
give a lot of visibility we kind of
spend more time and budget on those and
we worry less about the ones in the
distance so the quality of the buildings
the context will continue to improve
until it feels like you are actually in
that that context phasing is another
another element that’s super important
to those involved in the project and
then it also impacts the public the the
traveling public gets impacted by the
trafficking traffic closures they also
want to know when certain portions of
the project are going to open to them
and so being able to phase out the
project is very valuable in this this is
one we’ve been working on northwest of
Las Vegas and this one has a lot of
phasing elements and so we’re able to
build out the project by different
phases what we do is we first build out
the existing existing ground work using
the aerials and train we clean it all up
we fill the existing bridges and then we
start adding proposed elements using in
routes or other data and then we have a
phasing script where we assigned each
phase to that element and then it turns
on and off as
touch these buttons and so we can show
this is the one in the construction
right now and this is phase 3b which
will be the final build-out and then in
this one we were able to add some
they’re called shaders to kind of show
which elements are under construction or
which are part of which each of the
phases and so this is this is very
valuable as it is today but I think in
the future there will be even more
trafficking closures and those things
that will really bring the value to the
public because those are the things that
affect them the most yeah so what we’ve
been doing again back to my
accessibility problem what we’ve been
doing is we buy this is a good question
so we have been buying laptops for the
project managers so the project manager
can run the interactive version because
it’s just kind of like a video game and
then the public what we do is we make
image and video renders that we can put
on the project website or give to the
news or whatever one thing that we’re
testing and I think will be a nice stop
gap before we get to the point where
this is just on you know every phone and
every browser is there is called GPU
rendering so it’s like cloud gaming is
what they call it so basically all the
processing is done in the cloud and the
project manager or anyone that wanted to
see the project would just log in and
then be able to access the project via
any device with the rendering stun
somewhere else and so that’s something
that we’re testing probably in the near
future we’ll be adding instead of
getting the laptops for the project
managers but but we can give this to you
want a flash drive you just have to have
a computer with the good GPU to actually
run the thing that makes sense yeah be
super useful for our designers that
currently going through stages right now
I’m trying to figure how they put
together right in this project we worked
a lot with the designers with Dennis and
those involved in the project Kim deagle
and they helped us build that and by
building it we also helped kind of the
design and construct ability along the
way especially with like the landscaping
and those types of individuals as well
so we’re trying to get it into as many
hands as possible but there are some
technology technological hurdles that
stop us at this point all right so so
traffic I think is the most exciting
part of where we’re at right now
and in the past traffic would just be
sometimes you wouldn’t even have it or
you just have cars you know stuck on the
road like it was a freeze frame or
something and project neon we developed
a system that was just free-flowing
because when you’re doing interactive
you can’t keyframe animated like you
would on a movie because then after the
let’s say you keyframe animate three
minutes after that three minutes it
would have to reset or stop or something
and so we had to have a free-flowing
system that we developed for project
neon and and that’s and we’ve kind of
improved that as we’ve gone along
free-flowing is nice but then there are
things like ramp mert merging off ramps
or exiting or heaven forbid you get to a
traffic signal those sorts of things are
much more complicated than what our
original system could have and so we’ve
continued to improve that to what we see
today
one thing that squalls show it here
because our pedestrian system uses the
same one the same system as our traffic
system go to a public meeting where you
talk to a project manager and you never
have the right amount of traffic so
again I’m going to show you what the
pedestrians but imagine that this is
traffic flow you know that the project
the public will come and there’s only a
few cars and they’ll say that’s
unrealistic we know that it’s gonna be
back-to-back bumper-to-bumper traffic
and then you’ll bump it up and then the
project manager will say why are you
showing a traffic jam you know this
project is gonna solve all the problems
never were never in the right spot so we
developed a system where we can
automatically adjust the density of the
traffic or the pedestrians on the slide
and so that’s that’s very valuable
you know it’s adjust it and it’s
actually valuable from a performance
standpoint if we’re running one of these
projects on a less powerful device we
can turn down the traffic so that it
will run more smoothly so that’s having
that that flexibility is very valuable
for a variety of reasons
so this unsustainable again this is just
in the past couple of months we started
developing our own smart traffic system
try and get out of the way for yeah so
so now that the cars are actually that
they’re thinking they’re watching out
for traffic signals they’re watching out
for other vehicles we’ve even noticed
some suicidal pedestrians that just like
start walking across the road and so the
cars will actually watch out for those
and they’ll stop and it’ll create a kind
of traffic jam which I don’t know which
is more realistic running over the
pedestrian or the but if you watch long
enough the cars will will back up and
cue and then they’ll go through the
traffic stream line and it will just go
forever and this is dot this is
important for our interactive
visualization because sometimes our
public meetings can go on for hours and
so we need a system that will just you
know go on indefinitely but then as I go
to conferences and as I talk to
individuals about what we do the most
common question I get when they see the
cars as they say is that this in traffic
is that actually simulated traffic and
we I’ve known that it was possible to
bring in simulated traffic for a long
time but and with SPX last year we kind
of did it but we know it was a problem
that was gonna have to be solved and so
on this is the tropicana i 15 project we
have the public meeting next week this
is Jeff’s project so come out and
support this project next week
and so the the problem with greens well
there are a lot of problems with
bringing in the visum data one is we use
unity3d which is a game engine and to
our knowledge no one had ever brought
that FCB fzp file into unity at least
not directly there was a way through
civil view which is a 3ds max plug-in
and you can bring it in and and finally
get it into here with a lot of steps it
was a huge file and so we put our Delta
and developer to work to make a direct
connection into unity and so again this
is the first project and willing to
continue to improve it but this traffic
you see here is actually the aim some
traffic which is exported as a visum ftp
file and this is this is very valuable
if you are talking about the project not
only to show which areas are may have
issues and again this is existing but
also we have the no action 2014 here and
you can show what might happen if the
project isn’t built the backups both
here on this ramp also on Tropicana get
pretty bad and so you show the proposal
you show that it’s more free-flowing do
this you slow down the traffic or you
can just turn it up super fast so it’s
it’s kind of cool to be able to see how
quickly it moves through you can watch
all the movements without spending 15
minutes watching watching that same
amount of time so this is gonna be
valuable not only on this project but a
lot of projects moving forward will be
able to integrate that data right now
it’s just these these kind of shapes
their cars they’re not textured but by
our next project we’ll be able to have
actual cars with rotating tires that are
textured and and hopefully it will be
into indistinguishable indistinguishable
from our smart traffic system that we
we’ve kind of developed over the years
so I’m running out of time
just in conclusion I think a lot about
this stuff a lot about not just 3d
visualization but why why do we need to
keep pushing it forward why do you why
do we need to add these new features
why isn’t what we did on Project neon
which is three years ago that would be
just as valuable today it still tells
the story of communicative project which
is the goal and so as as we I think in
we’ve been lucky in Nevada to have a lot
of interesting projects and in my
relationship with many of you many of
the public agencies a lot of the end off
projects it’s allowed us to kind of push
the technology and and we’re not the
only ones that are doing visualization
and transportation we’re not even the
ones that are doing interactive
visualization within transportation
there are a lot of those that are kind
of pushing this technology but I think
we do have a unique opportunity in the
Las Vegas area because we’ve been so
focused on improving this specific type
of interactive visualization on these
major projects where we’re able to be
one of the leaders in the industry and
so I think you know we as much as we
could just push back and say why don’t
we just keep doing things the way that
we’ve been doing it works I think there
are a lot of opportunities moving
forward to push the technology to see
what’s possible in five 10 years where
we’ll be able to communicate these
projects as accurately as possible to as
many people as possible and hopefully
that’s where we’re headed and I just
want to thank all of you that are
involved in these projects that were
able to work with and appreciate you
guys coming and hearing me out and
that’s it thank you
[Applause]