How can you optimize 3D graphics for architectural walkthroughs and flyovers?

Usually, CAD software produces the cleanest geometry possible for 3D walkthroughs or visualization as they are optimized to use geometry for Architecture, other softwares are more generic and produce geometry that can be used for other purposes as well, such as character creation or vehicle design which are usually much more complex and detailed.

True this ??. I use Blender3D and I have achieved most of my 3D models and animation with a Laptop with no dedicated graphics storage. Asides being an optimized option for architectural visualization, Blender3D has a very large community of developers and supporters that assist with making 3D a fun, easy and accessible adventure. There are several online servers willing and ready to help me render my works (some with comparably little pay). I, most time, just bother on making my models, animations and simulations on my laptop and leave my rendering to these online platforms. 3D is fun ?? and I love it

Rightly said ??, Modifiers and instancing, and geometry nodes. They have proven effective and making procedural geometry adjustments without directly adding up to the poly-count. These can be effectively used to optimize workflow with complex geometry in 3D.

Sometimes it is necessary to work on each part or object to reduce the geometry manually, for example in a door with panels, entering into geometry edit mode it may be possible to merge polygons at the panels and frames, letting the borders and decorative elements still have more geometry.

Textures help sell realism. However, heavy textures will slow down the work flow. Here is how I ease my workflow on Blender3D; - avoid using high quality texture if the final render won't take a close-up shot on the model. - lower image resolutions are sufficient when the higher resolutions are not necessary. - it is usually okay to have a single image texture with every model parts UV- layered on the single image. That way, you have a uniform texture resolution and just one image to be bothered about in terms of storage.

Be it an interior rendering or exterior one, always start with one light and add more only as required. Sometimes 3 lights is more than enough. Using global illumination sometimes even 1 light is more than enough, example: exterior renderings. Another tip for exterior renderings is to keep the bounces number to 2. No more are required in a typical exterior situation.

Always check the rendering engine manual and tutorials on internet. For example when using Vray there are a couple of settings that can reduce the rendering speed by 80% without affceting the quality, same for other renderers. Also it is good to use low resolutions for test renderings and high resolutions only for final renderings.

Using a PC with low graphics storage, I have learnt a few tricks to speed up my rendering process up to about 80%. Using cycles render engine in Blender, the default number of samples is 4096 which is way too high. I have found that taking the screen resolution to 2*(1080x1920) with rendering samples as low as 150 and the denoiser set-up in the compositor gives my lesser rendering time and more time saved when rendering a lot of scenes for my animation. However, I usually stick to rendering on online render farms to optimize my time and PC usage.