Hi There,
I will get straight to the topic.
I wanted to make a mobile app, which will show progress statistics and other updates about projects (Building Construction in this case). I also wanted to show the runtime rendered 3D model of the building in the app like we find in 3D model websites like SketchFab.
I am pretty sure that, it is possible. But I was wondering whether it will be overkill for a mobile application or is there better options available.
Having done something of a similar thing in Unreal for iOS, I can say that it is certainly possible. Depending on what you want, and having someone that knows what they are doing, you could have this app done in a day as long as you are fine with something bare-bones.
It is certainly harder to have professional apps with lots of functionality on mobile because of the smaller screen and touch interface. But just viewing a CG model on mobile is certainly not “overkill” So it’ll really depend on what other functionality you want to offer.
So some general things to consider that impact the time/effort to make such an app:
iOS or Android? I think Android is going to be easier in Unreal. iOS is certainly possible but Epic seems to give iOS less love (see all the law suits) and the App Store is a pain.
Can you control/limit the mobile devices you want to support? All mobile devices have more limitations then desktop, but newer devices are a lot easier to deal with when it comes to performance and memory. We limit our app to >= iOS16 and >= 2020 devices.
Who is the intended audience? is this just for internal or a small group of users or are you trying to build an app to sell on the app store? The smaller the group the easier it’ll be.
Do you need to allow users to load their own models or can you build the app with the models that you want to view? Loading models at runtime on mobile is possible but comes with challenges.
What functionality do you need other than “looking” at the model? There are plugins on the Marketplace to help with some of the touch based movements and things but you’ll certainly need to build out anything more than simple functionality.
There are certainly mobile apps out there that already do this.
This is a really broad question, so it’s hard to answer with specifics. My advice is to grab a copy of the engine and set up the Blank project from the Games section. Set the Target Platform to Mobile, Quality to Scalable. Import in your model. then follow the tutorials for iOS or Android to build your app.
-e
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Thanks a lot mate
I was able to get a general idea of this matter from your answer
My main target system is android and also planning to implement for windows if it seems better than implementing in android.
But I still wonder whether there are better software than unreal engine for the same job. Because I feel like unreal engine is too heavy sometimes
These details are for better understanding of app :
Audience is small group of people
software needs to be light weighted
functionalities are basic like simple rotate around, zoom and movements. other than 3D model part I need to implement live statistical representation of data like graphs and tables, normal string for description and links.
You could certainly do it in Unity.
I’m sure there are other App Development platforms that will do what you want, but I’m not familiar enough with any of them to say for sure.
I like UE because you can build an app like what you are describing without writing any code thanks to Blueprints.
-e