Colored Architecture 2024
Here you can see a reconstruction of the anteroom of the Gropius Room at the Bauhaus University Weimar in Colored Architecture. It was used for augmented reality visualization on site in a user study.
The new version Colored Architecture 2024 now also supports artificial IES light sources, which can be designed and placed interactively with path tracing visualization. In the German tutorial video above I give a short introduction.
In the video above you can see Colored Architecture 2018 and the use of nVidia Optix GPU Pathtracing and Denoising to calculate global illumination without time-consuming precalculation. For very dark rooms, however, the “Precomputed Radiosity” function still appears to be useful after a one-time precalculation for color design. However, GPU pathtracing is very helpful for an initial quick color evaluation.
Here you can see the demo of the new OculusRiftViewer (CA2017) and the new “What’s new?” video (CA2017) from Colored Architecture.
Colored Architecture is a software for the interactive design and evaluation of color schemes. It is aimed at architects as well as normal users who might want to design their home in color. The special feature of Colored Architecture is the interactive, realistic visualization using “precomputed radiosity”, in which the sky lighting, the colour and material properties of all surfaces can be freely varied and the radiosity light calculation of the model is updated in real time. nVidia Optix Raytracing is also available for fast visualization without precalculation.
Colored Architecture is freely available under the Creative Commons 3.0 license. Under the following links you can download the current version (5.0.2.1502) of Colored Architecture. It runs under Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10, 11.
- latest 64-bit version: CA2024.exe (latest version 5.0.2.1502) (182 MByte)
Older versions:
- old 64-bit version: CA2018.exe (old version 4.0.1.1304) (345 MByte)
- old 64-bit version: CA2017.exe (old version 3.0.0.1218) (190 MByte)
- old 64-bit version: CA2015.exe (old version 2.0.0.786) (54,5 MByte)
- old 32-bit version: CA2015_x86.exe (old version 2.0.0.786) (48,4 MByte)
Colored Architecture uses OpenGL and optionally OpenCL. It has been successfully tested on various graphics systems from NVidia, ATI/Amd and Intel (from HD 4000).
If you would like to support the development of Colored Architecture or just want to say “thank you”, simply donate a small amount. Thank you very much! Of course I am equally grateful for criticism and suggestions.
Change log
02.06.2024 - v5.0.2.1502 | Radiosity precomputation bug fixes, added playback of year or time of day |
07.04.2024 - v5.0.1.1488 | bug fixes |
27.03.2024 - v5.0.0.1480 | artificial IES light sources added, many small improvements, bug fixes |
21.10.2018 - v4.0.1.1304 | nVidia Optix raytracing for light visualization without precalculation added - menu item "Display / Optix raytracing", bugfixes |
29.01.2018 - v4.0.0.1269 | New version 2018 - code signing certificate added, OculusRiftViewer menu and X-Box control aid added, bug fixes |
12.11.2017 - v3.0.0.1218 | ServerFive start message added on unsuccessful "@" connect click, OpenGL compatibility updates, parallelization improvements, bug fixes |
29.05.2017 - v3.0.0.1195 | new version 2017 - Oculus Rift Viewer added for color design in VR, borders and images punching on surfaces, iterative equation solver added, analytical form factor calculation, bugfixes |
02.03.2015 - v2.0.0.786 | Bugfix Compatibility with Windows XP restored |
12.01.2015 - v2.0.0.785 | new version 2015 - transparent materials for Radiosity, SketchUp Collada import improved, automatic surface separation at model edges works, selection switched to hardware-accelerated occlusion queries, setup simplified, bug fixes |
28.05.2014 - v1.0.2.784 | Bugfix FBO for new NVidia graphics card drivers |
14.05.2014 - v1.0.2.783 | Mirroring, ColorID and HardShadows bugfixes |
24.04.2014 - v1.0.2.782 | "Undo" bugfixes, radiosity dialog improved |
06.02.2014 - v1.0.2.781 | Localization English - menu line "? / Language / English" |
23.01.2014 - v1.0.1.780 | hard shadows and hard sunlight added as shader option |
6.01.2014 - v1.0.0.779 | first publication on www.freac-x.de |