Show HN: ReRender AI - Realistic Architectural Renders for AutoCAD/Blender Users | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: ReRender AI - Realistic Architectural Renders for AutoCAD/Blender Users

rerenderai.com

50 pointseddieweng19 comments

None of the renders from their examples look "photorealistic" to me, rather "sci-fi/cyberpunk themed, high contrasted, high-quality videogame renderer".

(I mean, their title is "Photorealistic Renders for Buildings")

Sure, hello! I'm in the process of enhancing the image's realism. Kindly allow me some additional time to achieve a more photorealistic result.

What additional benefit do you bring over just running ControlNet myself?

It looks like it uses a neat custom model and it’s probably easier to setup.

Different but the same problem: "Generate a heat sink heat exchanger with maximum efficiency, shaped like a passive solar home"

TIL from off-gridders and homesteaders about passive solar design so that the air moves through the home without HVAC (compared with high rise buildings where it is necessary to pump water up like a gravitational potential water tower.)

Does ReRender AI have features for sustainable architecture?

Prompt: "Design a passive solar high-rise building with maximal energy storage and production"

Notes from "Zero energy ready homes are coming" (2023) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35064493

ReRender AI focuses on rendering, not sustainable design features. Architects must incorporate sustainability themselves. However, the AI can visually represent a passive solar high-rise if provided with the necessary design elements.

What's the use case here? I assume a render with entirely different materials than will be present in the actual building is near useless for architects, but maybe I'm missing something?

Agree.Maybe users with sketch in their hand are more interested in using this tool. I'm not a designer but I suppose people using Blender/AutoCAD already know what material/style they want.

There's bigger problems than just materials, the renders invent whole architectural features that don't exist in the source material. Windows and doors appear out of nothing, ambiguous features are guessed arbitrarily, and some features that do exist in the source are ignored and smoothed over.

It's the usual story with AI image generation where it's easy to get something vaguely presentable with a loose set of vibes, but the more specific you want the details to be the more of an uphill struggle it becomes to get what you want. And in this case the user probably already has a 3D model they can feed into a conventional renderer with the exact parameters they want.

Another issue is that the user will probably want to produce multiple renders of the same building, but with AI it's extremely difficult to get consistent results. Again, not an issue with conventional approaches to rendering.

Really cool.

Many years ago at university I got to play with a system built by a former student that took wood blocks (children's toys) to build structures on top of a table monitored by kinect cameras. It would then identify features and generate a floor plan. Now imagine combining this! It would allow for a whole new level of exploration of ideas.

Can you share a bit what setup you use to generate the images? Do you run your own GPUs?

Hi there!

That university project sounds fascinating! Combining it with ReRender AI would indeed open up new possibilities for exploring ideas.

As for my setup, I generate images using my own GPUs hosted on LambdaLabs, which I've found to be the most cost-effective solution.

Can I take floor plans and get renders from just that?

I'm just trying to design a home right now actually. Played with sketchup to assist, but I'm prly going to try and so sketches and use ai to render for me if that's viable.

But being able to get realistic renders from just floor plans is the holy grail. Please let me know if this is viable at all with rerednerai

Looks great tho, congrats

I'd recommend Sweethome3D to trace the floorplan and then you can export it as a .obj to a program like Twinmotion to do visualisation and lighting with pathtracing etc.

That's a really awesome recommendation, thank you! I'll give that a go

We're actively working on developing the ability for users to upload floor plans and have our system generate realistic renders. This feature is definitely part of our vision for the future of ReRender AI. Stay tuned for updates as we make progress in this direction!

FreeCAD is in dire need of a UI overhaul.

Either merge into blender or take up some RTX rendering chops from them!

Can we get this as an autocad addon?

Perhaps later on. At the moment, we're focused on enhancing the product.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com