Article review

The Importance of Virtual Environments in the Design of Electronic Games and Their Relevance to Architecture.
Ahmad Rafi Mohamed Eshaq, Peter Karboulonis.

The journal outlines how virtual environments that has been pioneered and developed by the gaming industry is able to enhance the design process of in architecture. The journal compares designing a game to designing a building and states that the process of designing a game is not that different to the process of designing a building.
There are 4 stages to designing a game:
- Pre -Planning.
- Detailed Planning.
- Project Implementation.
- Project Close - Down.
These stages are similar to those in architecture, the brief which is similar to the pre planning, the design concept phase is similar to the detail planning, the construction phase is the same as the project implementation.

The journal states that using virtual environments in architecture enhances better decision making, improve communication and collaboration, error reduction, spatial awareness, interactive design and real time visualization. In the creative and dynamic process of architecture design deals with conceptualization, visualization and expression of alternative ideas through 2D and 3D models and that virtual reality allows designers or architects to create richer content, get a sense of awareness and appreciation to scale and proportion.

Architectural design has become more dynamic and complex, it requires more interactivity to address a new form of story telling. Virtual Environments can offer new values in prototyping design concepts and creates a new ability to create variable visualizing alternatives during the production stage and also reduces the abstraction between the virtual world and the real world.