An experience-based interactive lighting design approach using BIM and VR: a case study

A lighting condition has a significant influence on humans' concentration, performance, and eye comfort. A well-designed lighting environment is critical for work efficiency and human health. Lighting design is commonly based on designer's previous experience and computational lighting simulation results. Although simulations can provide relatively accurate calculation results, several difficulties exist in terms of measuring actual users' experience and reflecting their feedback into the design. In this traditional approach, users are unable to experience or feel realistic lighting effects until the installation phase. This lack of user experience in the design phase leads to increasing risk of redesign and revision, which are extremely time-consuming and reduce the efficiency of lighting design. Therefore, it is necessary to minimize the gap between the lighting design and users' satisfaction. This research aims to enhance visualization of lighting design and thus improve the design efficiency by developing a real-time interactive lighting design approach using building information modeling (BIM) and virtual reality (VR) technologies. By integrating these technologies, the proposed approach is able to support user interactions, actual activities simulation, and personalized lighting design. In addition, the proposed approach can provide users with immersive and sensory experiences to evaluate their lighting design alternatives. The whole process of the approach includes 3D modeling in Revit, texture mapping in 3ds Max, simulation analysis in DIALux, and interactions development and VR realization in Unity. A case study was conducted to implement and validate the proposed approach. In this case study, users were able to experience realistic lighting effects and provide their feedback for improving the design in a sensory way while lighting simulation was automatically conducted simultaneously. The approach enables better user experience and provides a practical way to apply BIM and VR technologies to improve the efficiency of real-time interactive lighting design.