LUMION 9 VS TWINMOTION 2019

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CLASH OF THE REAL-TIME TITANS

Twinmotion 2019 and Lumion 9 are both real-time rendering software. Both aim to make high-quality rendering tools more intuitive and accessible to architects, landscape architects, and urban designers, freeing time and resources for actual design work.
This article looks at what each software has to offer for 3D artists and designers.

 

ARTICLE CONTENT

1. Software

2. Cost and License

3. Compatibility and Interoperability

4. Interface

5. Materials

6. 3D Content

7. Viewport 3D Interaction Tools

8. Environment and Context Options

9. Animation

10. Lighting and Shadow Effects

11. Reflections

12. Design Presentation

13. Post-processing Effects

14. Media Output

15. Other Features

 

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NOTE: ♦ = Lumion  | ♦ = Twinmotion  |  ♦♦ = Both Lumion and Twinmotion

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(1) SOFTWARE

Lumion 9

♦ Lumion is developed by Act-3D, and is also a GPU-driven software.

 

Twinmotion 2019

♦ Twinmotion 2019 is developed by KA-RA, with its earliest version released in 2005. Twinmotion is a GPU-driven software powered by Unreal Engine (mostly used as a game engine)

 

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(2) COST AND LICENSE

Lumion 9      

♦ Lumion 9 license versions include:

[a] Lumion  – Single floating license | 33% of content library | Limited rendering effects | 1499 Euros*

[b] Lumion Pro – Single floating license | Full library content | Advanced rendering effects | 2999 Euros*

 

Twinmotion 2019   

♦ Twinmotion 2019 license versions include:

[a] Twinmotion 2019 – Single license | Library included | 1650 Euros*

[b] Twinmotion Team 2019 – Network license | Shared library | 2950 Euros* per seat.

*Sales taxes are not included in the prices

 

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(3) COMPATIBILITY AND INTEROPERABILITY

Lumion 9

PC Hardware Requirements
♦ Lumion’s system hardware requirements can be found here: https://lumion.com/system-requirements.html

VR Hardware Support
♦  Lumion is compatible with the following VR headsets: Oculus Rift and Samsung Gear VR.

Compatible Software
♦ Lumion supports 3D files from the following software: Revit, 3DS Max, SketchUp, AutoCAD, Rhino, ArchiCAD, Vectorworks, Allplan, Bentley, Cinema 4D, and Maya.

Supported Formats
♦ Lumion import formats: Collada (.DAE), Sketchup (.SKP), Autodesk® (.FBX), Autodesk® (.DWG), Autodesk® (.DXF), 3DS Max® (.MAX), 3DS Max® (.3DS), Wavefront (.OBJ)

Real-time Sync Feature
♦ Lumion enables real-time synchronization (simultaneous modelling and rendering; synced camera views and materials) with Revit, ArchiCAD, SketchUp, and Rhino.

 

Twinmotion 2019

Operating System Support
♦ Twinmotion is the first real-time visualization software that officially supports the Mac PC platform.

PC Hardware Requirements
♦ Twinmotion’s system hardware requirements can be found here: https://twinmotion.abvent.com/en/configurations-2/

Hardware Adapting Feature
♦ Twinmotion 2019’s Automatic Hardware Detection feature can lower the viewport graphics quality to allow low-end hardware run smoothly. Rendering quality is unaffected by this feature.

VR Hardware Support
♦ Twinmotion is compatible with the following VR headsets: HTC Vive, HTC Vive Pro, Oculus Rift, Oculus Touch, HP Windows Mixed Reality Headset, and Gear VR.

Compatible Software
♦ Twinmotion supports 3D files from the following software: Allplan, Vectorworks, Autodesk Infrastructure Design Suite, Cinema 4D, Bentley, MODO, SketchUp, Maya, AutoCAD, 3DS Max, ZWCAD, CATIA, Rhino, ArCon, ArCon Evo, ViCaDo, Spirit, and Artlantis.

Supported Formats
♦ Twinmotion supports these formats: FBX, DWG, DAE, SKP, C4D, LI3, TMA.

Synchronization Feature
♦ Twinmotion supports scene synchronization (simultaneous modelling and rendering; synced camera views and materials) with Revit and ArchiCAD. However, unlike Lumion, the synchronization is not real-time; Twinmotion’s sync needs to be refreshed each time.

 

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(4.1) INTERFACE

Both Software

Organization
♦ Generally, Lumion displays most of its basic options/menus right from the viewport.
♦ In Twinmotion, basic options are hidden in docks and pop-out menus.
♦♦ Nevertheless, they each have their respective advantages i.e. accessibility and logical organization, respectively.
♦♦ When it comes to accessing their more advanced effects (such as lighting, shadow, post-processing), both software are logically organized in a hierarchy of menus.
♦ Lumion has a simpler menu hierarchy (2 layers) ♦ while Twinmotion’s hierarchy is a bit more complex.

 

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(4.2) INTERFACE

Lumion 9

♦ Lumion 9 Interface

 

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(4.3) INTERFACE

Twinmotion 2019

♦ Twinmotion Interface

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(5.1) MATERIALS

Both Software

Material Library
♦♦ Both software come with a large library of materials of up to 2K in resolution.

♦ Lumion Material Library and Interface

 

♦ Twinmotion Material Library and Interface

PBR Materials  
♦♦ Lumion and Twinmotion contain PBR (Physically-Based Rendering) materials that react to light and the environment as they would in real life.
♦♦ Both software have material editors which allow creation of PBR materials with the use of maps, and material property sliders.
♦ Twinmotion uses Diffuse/Albedo map, Normal map, Roughness map, Metallic map and Glow map to create PBR materials.
♦ Lumion uses Color/Diffuse map & it’s “alpha-channel” (used for glossiness mask); and a Normal map & it’s alpha-channel (used for transparency, reflectivity, or emissiveness mask).

♦ Lumion PBR Material Editing

♦ Twinmotion PBR Material Editing

Material Preview
♦♦ In both software, objects can be dragged from the library and moved around in the 3D scene as a preview, before placing them in the desired position.

Grass and Tree Color Modification
♦♦ It is easier to change the colour of grass and trees in Lumion than it is in Twinmotion.
♦♦ In Lumion, the default colors can be tweaked, ♦ while in Twinmotion, they can’t.

 

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(5.2) MATERIALS

Lumion 9

3D Materials
♦ Lumion 9 (Pro) comes with 3-dimensional materials such as fur, grass, foliage and glass which can be applied to surfaces, just like 2D texture-based materials. This is a huge time-saver compared to laboriously importing the 3D model of, for example, grass or fur from third-party software.

Glass Feature
♦ Lumion 9’s (Pro) “Pure Glass” feature generates realistic 3-dimensional glass materials which include transparent, translucent and frosted glass. These 3-dimensional materials can be assigned to flat surfaces.

Foliage Feature
♦ Lumion 9 allows users add 3-dimensional foliage onto existing materials. There are sliders to tweak the intensity and pattern of foliage growth.

Weathering Feature
♦ Lumion‘s weathering feature gives materials a weathered look that depicts age and imperfection.  

Soften Edges Feature
♦ The “soften hard edges” feature automatically chamfers and softens straight edges of the material, giving them a natural, imperfect look.

Wet Asphalt Material
♦ Lumion has a “wet asphalt” material similar to the standard asphalt material but with water puddles automatically generated on top of it.

 

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(5.3) MATERIALS

Twinmotion 2019

Material Preview
♦ In both software, objects can be dragged from the library and moved around in the 3D scene as a preview, before placing them in the desired position.

3D Grass
♦ Twinmotion users can create the 3D grass as well. However, unlike Lumion’s which is an assignable material, in Twinmotion, 3D grass can be achieved by manually placing a grass object onto the model.

 

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(6.1) 3D CONTENT

Both Software

Content Library
♦♦ Both software have robust content libraries made up of indoor and outdoor items, characters, vehicles, aircrafts, landscape items, preset terrain, etc.

♦ Lumion Content Library

♦ Twinmotion Content Library

Characters in Vehicles
♦♦ Both software provide the option to add passengers inside vehicles.

Object Placement
♦♦ In both software, objects can be dragged from the library and moved around in the 3D scene as a preview, before placing them in their final position.

 

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(6.2) 3D CONTENT

Lumion 9

Content Library
♦ Here’s an overview of Lumion’s library – https://lumion.com/lumion-pro-content.html

Transparency for Trees and Plants
♦ Lumion tree and plant objects come with transparency settings. Making trees transparent can help direct more focus to the architecture.

Intuitive Object Placement
♦ In Lumion, object placement is taken a step further, where immediately after placement, intuitive mouse/keyboard controls allow users to instantly adjust the object (e.g. size, rotation, height, colour).

Placement on Nodes
♦ Lumion supports placing library objects on imported nodes (nodes can be created in and imported from 3D modelling software).

Mass and Cluster Placement
♦ Also, Lumion speeds up the placing process with its mass placement and cluster placement.

 

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(6.2) 3D CONTENT

Twinmotion 2019

Content Library – BIMobject
♦ Twinmotion’s content library is further expanded thanks to the integration of the cloud-based BIMobject library. With a BIMobject account, Twinmotion users get access to a large library of manufacture-specific objects all within the Twinmotion interface.

Diversified and Randomized Object Placement
♦ Twinmotion comes with features that can ensure diversity and randomness when placing multiple objects.
♦ When placing objects, Twinmotion allows users to select more than one library object for placement; Twinmotion will randomly decide which of those object(s) gets placed.

 

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(7.1) VIEWPORT 3D INTERACTION TOOLS

Both Software

Object Groups
♦♦ Both software allow the creation of object groups and they work in different ways.
♦ In Lumion, groups can be saved to a file and loaded for later use. Groups can also be locked and made unmoveable.

♦ Lumion Object Groups

♦ Twinmotion Object Groups (“Containers”)

Measuring Tool
♦♦ Both Lumion and Twinmotion have distance-measuring tools.
♦ Lumion comes with additional 3-dimensional angle measuring capability.

♦ Lumion Measuring Tool

♦ Twinmotion Measuring Tool

 

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(7.2) VIEWPORT 3D INTERACTION TOOLS

Lumion 9

XYZ Translation Input
♦ In Lumion 9, objects can be positioned precisely in the scene by inputting x, y, and z coordinates.

Advanced Shortcut Tools
♦ Lumion features a collection of simple “Advance Options” tools that serve as automated shortcuts for performing important viewport actions.

 

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(7.3) VIEWPORT 3D INTERACTION TOOLS

Twinmotion 2019

Scene Manager
♦ Twinmotion comes with a scene manager located in the viewport. It appears as a list of all the objects in the scene, and serves as a useful tool for selecting, finding, organizing, and more.

Isolate Objects
♦ Twinmotion’s scene manager can be used to create an isolated view of an object(s).

Single-Axis Translation Input
♦ The Twinmotion object gizmo supports object translation via numerical input, but only along a single-axis at a time.

Intuitive Shortcuts
♦ Twinmotion’s “F” key can zoom-in focus on an object just like in Lumion.

 

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(8.1) ENVIRONMENT AND CONTEXT OPTIONS

Both Software

Sun, Weather and Season Simulation
♦♦ Both software are capable of simulating various sun, weather and seasonal conditions. They come with features to create and modify elements such as sky, rain, volume clouds, fog, and snow.

Users can configure the weather to match real geographical locations and times.
♦♦ Both Lumion and Twinmotion further achieve this with their PBR materials and landscape objects, which both realistically react to weather and seasons.

♦ Lumion Sun, Weather and Seasons

♦ Twinmotion Sun, Weather and Seasons

Terrain Creation
♦♦ In both software, terrain can be created from a preset template, an imported height map, or sculpted from scratch.

♦ Twinmotion Preset Terrain

Terrain Sculpting and Painting
♦♦ In both software, the terrain can be further modified by sculpting its geometry and painting on it with terrain materials such as water, grass, and sand.  
♦ Lumion Terrain Sculpting and Painting

♦ Twinmotion Terrain Sculpting and Painting

 

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(8.2) ENVIRONMENT AND CONTEXT OPTIONS

Lumion 9

Real Skies
♦ Lumion takes its skies to another level with its High-dynamic-range imaging (HDRI) “real skies”.

3D Urban Map
♦ In Lumion 9, users can add true-life 3D urban context to their scene using the “Open Street Map” feature. Using this feature, users can pick any location on a map, and Lumion will generate a corresponding 3D map (done by importing data from the OpenStreetMap database).

 

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(8.3) ENVIRONMENT AND CONTEXT OPTIONS

Twinmotion 2019

Object Placement – Brush-Paint Vegetation Tool
♦ Twinmotion’s Vegetation tool allows vegetation objects such as grasses and trees to be painted or erased – like in Photoshop – using a 3D brush.

Furthermore, users can select not just one but multiple vegetation items, for example, 3 different species of grass, to be randomly painted.

Nature Settings Limitation
♦ Twinmotion has a questionable issue: viewport nature settings (i.e. not assigned to a particular image slot) such as lighting and weather settings, are disabled once one or more image view slots have been captured and saved.

Localization
♦ A Twinmotion scene can be set to a geographical location, hence, adopting the sun, weather and seasonal properties of that location.

Add Background Image
♦ Twinmotion has a set of background images for users to choose from. The image forms an infinite background setting that gives the impression of existing context.

 

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(9.1) ANIMATION

Both Software

Animated Content
♦♦ The 3D content libraries of both software houses several animated characters, animals, and items such as animated water bodies, water fountains, vegetation, birds, characters, cars, fire, etc.
♦♦ Both software come with scripted animation (e.g. vegetation, water bodies, water fountains, and fire), as well as user-created, path-driven animations.

♦ Lumion Animation

♦ Twinmotion Animation

Animated Water-based and Particle-based Objects
♦♦ Both software have provided special water and particle objects (falling leaves, water fountains, water walls, various smoke, dust, fog, and steam effects) which can be placed anywhere in the scene.

♦ Lumion’s Animated Water-based and Particle-based Objects

♦ Twinmotion’s Animated Water-based and Particle-based Objects

Keyframe Animation
♦♦ Both Lumion and Twinmotion support keyframe animation of effects such as lighting and weather.
♦♦ Twinmotion’s process of keyframe animation seems less intuitive compared to Lumion, due to having to click through multiple menus.
♦ In Lumion, keyframe animation is done on a single page.

♦ Lumion Keyframe Animation

♦ Twinmotion Keyframe Animation

Animated Atmosphere
♦♦ Weather and seasonal conditions such as rain, snow, sky sunlight, and fog are animated in both software.

 

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(9.2) ANIMATION

Lumion 9

Animated Materials
♦ Aside from animated objects, Lumion also has animated materials such as 3D foliage and 3D grass.

 

 

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(9.3) ANIMATION

Twinmotion 2019

Animation Along Paths
♦ Twinmotion is capable of basic object animation along user-created paths. These can be used to animate crowds and vehicular traffic.

 

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(10.1) LIGHTING AND SHADOW EFFECTS

Both Software

Overview
♦♦ Both software have very comprehensive lighting and shadow effect options.

♦ Lumion Lighting and Shadow Effects

♦ Twinmotion Illumination and Shadow Effects

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(11.1) REFLECTIONS

Both Software

Reflections Overview
♦♦ Reflections are a tricky thing to achieve in real-time rendering software, so it’s not surprising that both Lumion 9 and Twinmotion 2019 come with decent but less-than ideal default “screen space reflections”.
♦ While both software offer reflection-enhancement features, Lumion’s solutions seem more convenient.

Improving the Default Screen-Space Reflection (SSR)
♦♦ Both software’s default screen space reflection method means that reflections are generated for only those surfaces which are visible within the viewport camera.
♦♦ In Lumion, activating either of its two reflection-enhancing effects automatically fixes this.
♦ In Twinmotion this issue can be fixed with a render output option called “Max Reflection”.

♦ Twinmotion Improving the Default Screen-Space Reflection (SSR)

 

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(11.2) REFLECTIONS

Lumion 9

Lumion’s Reflection Enhancers
♦ Lumion’s default reflection renders very quickly but isn’t accurate. However, with a flick of a switch to activate the “SpeedRay Reflections” feature (Lumion Pro only), all reflections are automatically improved at the cost of longer render time.
♦ The other solution, “planar reflection”, offers more accurate reflection than SpeedRay but is only effective on planar surfaces (which have to be individually selected by the user), and renders even slower than SpeedRay reflections.

 

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(11.3) REFLECTIONS

Twinmotion 2019

Twinmotion’s Reflection Enhancer
♦ Enhancing reflections in Twinmotion requires placing and fiddling with one or more “Reflection Probe” objects (non-renderable library objects). Although an improvement on the default reflection, reflection probes have limitations (users have to place multiple reflection probes in order to improve surfaces in a large scene, and it does not support real-time reflection in the viewport, nor in animations).

 

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(12.1) DESIGN PRESENTATION

Both Software

Phasing and Time-lapse
♦♦ Phases can be created in both Lumion 9 and Twinmotion 2019. Layer visibility filters are used to hide and show scene objects. The phases can be used to create construction time-lapse animations.

♦ Lumion Phasing and Time-lapse

♦ Twinmotion Phasing and Time-lapse

Monochromatic Models
♦♦ Both software come with a feature that transforms the entire scene to a monochromatic model. These features, when activated, automatically assign a smooth, plain-coloured, clay-like material to all objects in the scene. In Twinmotion this feature is called “Clay Render” and in Lumion, “Styrofoam Effect”.
♦ Twinmotion has the bonus of providing a category filter for the effect.

♦ Lumion Monochromatic Model

♦ Twinmotion Monochromatic Model

 

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(12.2) DESIGN PRESENTATION

Lumion 9

Viewing Multiple Design Options
♦ Lumion’s “Model and Material Variation” feature allows users to load one or more previously saved scene files into the active Lumion project. Then user can switch between the various scenes in just a click. This allows designers to quickly view and compare various design options.

 

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(12.3) DESIGN PRESENTATION

Twinmotion 2019

Orthographic and Axonometric Views
♦ In Twinmotion, users can switch between perspective, axonometric, and orthographic views (front, back, left, right, top, bottom). It’s perfect for allowing designers to quickly place objects and organize their scene.
♦ Furthermore, while in an orthographic view, the depth of the view’s clipping plane (cut plane) can be adjusted.

 

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(13.1) POST-PROCESSING EFFECTS

Both Software

Overview
♦♦ Twinmotion 2019 and Lumion 9’s post-processing effects help reduce the need for additional graphics editing software.
♦ Though overall, it appears Lumion has a wider array of visual tricks than Twinmotion.

Color Adjustments and Filters
♦♦ Both software have various color adjustments (e.g. saturation) and stylized filters (e.g. sketchy and mechanical drawing).
♦ Lumion’s post-processing effects come with sliders for fine-tuning them, ♦ whereas, Twinmotion’s simply come as fixed presets.

♦ Lumion Color Adjustments and Filters

♦ Twinmotion Color Adjustments and Filters

 

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(13.2) POST-PROCESSING EFFECTS

Lumion 9

Silhouettes
♦ Lumion has 2D and 3D silhouette characters in its content library, saving users the stress of creating them in third-party software.

 

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(14.1) MEDIA OUTPUT

Both Software

Supported Media
♦♦ Both software can export the same types of media – still image, video, 360° video, 360° stereoscopic video, 360° panorama, and 360° stereoscopic panorama.

Online Sharing Platform
♦♦ Lumion 9 and Twinmotion 2019 each have their online sharing platform, namely MyLumion and Twinkler, respectively. Images, videos or 360 panoramas from Twinmotion/Lumion can be uploaded to Twinkler/MyLumion to be shared with others.

♦ Lumion Online Sharing Platform

♦ Twinmotion Online Sharing Platform

 

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(14.2) MEDIA OUTPUT

Lumion 9

♦ Media Output

360 Panorama in MyLumion
♦ The MyLumion app supports 360 panoramic images but not free camera navigation and other extra features that Twinmotion’s BIMmotion does. MyLumion is cloud-based so access to a file is via a URL link.

Render Specific 3D Information
♦ Lumion 9 can render specific outputs containing 3D information, such as Depth, Material ID and Lighting maps.

 

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(14.3) MEDIA OUTPUT

Twinmotion 2019

♦ Media Outputs

360 Panorama and Much More in BIMmotion
♦ Twinmotion can export BIMmotion files. BIMmotion is a stand-alone software where users can view and navigate their 3D projects.

BIMmotion has the added benefit of free camera navigation (“free ride” feature), object physics, media attachment, time, season and weather adjustment, and phasing.

However, as a result, the BIMmotion file size is relatively large. BIMmotion files are also VR-capable.

Batch Rendering
♦ With Twinmotion, it is possible to set batch rendering for the four different media types.

 

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(15.1) OTHER FEATURES

Both Software

Lights
♦♦ Both libraries provide various types of light objects (different from light fixtures) which each function in a different way.

♦ Lumion Lights

♦ Twinmotion Lights

Interactive Audio
♦♦ Both software can generate scripted sounds such as birds chirping, rivers flowing, and crowd chattering. They also ship with their native sound libraries containing sounds that can be placed anywhere in the 3D scene.

Export Plugins
♦♦ Both software have their own Revit export plugin.

Synchronization – Auto-replace Content
♦♦ On synchronization, both software automatically replace content objects in the CAD model with Lumion/Twinmotion native objects. Replaceable contents include characters and most vegetation objects.

Synchronization – Re-texture Terrain
♦♦ On synchronization, both software automatically re-texture the terrain from the CAD model with Lumion/Twinmotion native terrain materials. Both software use the surface angles of terrain geometry to determine how to apply the textures.

Merging and Collaboration
♦♦ In both software, it is possible to merge content from different scene files into one, serving as a helpful collaboration tool for team projects.

 

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(15.2) OTHER FEATURES

Lumion 9

Camera Effects
♦ Lumion has the following: perspective correction, depth of field, lens flare, motion blur, and bloom.

Import Edges
♦ Lumion 9 can import edges from models in .DAE and .SKP file formats, as well as  2D lines from .FBX and .MAX formats.

Crash Recovery
♦ Lumion offers scene recovery in the event of a PC crash.

 

(15.3) OTHER FEATURES

Twinmotion 2019

Camera Effects
♦ Twinmotion comes with the following features: perspective correction, depth of field, lens flare, motion blur, bloom, and ambient occlusion.

Material Sounds
♦ In Twinmotion, by activating the “sound” property of a material, the material will influence the scene’s acoustics.

Virtual Reality Features
♦ Twinmotion’s VR mode allows users to interact with a scene in real-time using VR controllers – interactions such as setting the weather, time, media, phasing, and materials.

Game Controller Support
♦ Twinmotion’s BIMmotion software supports Xbox One and PlayStation 4 controller input.

 

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Both software balance on a tightrope between creative control and automation, while offering a greatly intuitive experience.

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