Cyclops : Real-Time Urban Environmental Simulation with Foster + Partners (Virtual Access)

Abstract

Learn GPU-accelerated techniques for near–real-time analysis of solar obstruction, daylight autonomy, and cumulative radiation at façade, building, and urban-district scales.

Description

Advancements in GPU-accelerated ray tracing have transformed our ability to conduct city-scale environmental analyses in near real time. This hands-on workshop presents reproducible workflows for GPU-based evaluation of solar obstruction, daylight autonomy, and cumulative radiation at three hierarchical levels of the built environment—façades, individual buildings, and urban districts.

The workshop is structured into two modules:

(1) Foundations of Environmental Analysis, illustrated with industry case studies; and

(2) Analysis Methodologies for near real time, Performance-Driven Design. 

By the end of the workshop, attendees will be equipped with scalable workflows for rapid environmental assessment, ready to integrate into architectural, urban or research projects.

Keywords:

Environmental Simulation; Grasshopper; Performance-Driven Design

Software:

Rhino 8, Grasshopper, Cyclops (1.2) plugin

Prerequisites:

Intermediary Grasshopper proficiency

Cyclops is an environmental analysis plugin for Grasshopper in Rhino 3D developed by Foster + Partners. It significantly accelerates raytracing-based simulations by leveraging state-of-the-art GPU computing.

Cyclops is compatible with Rhino 7 and 8 on Windows.

It requires an NVIDIA GPU of compute capability 5.0 (Maxwell) or higher. This means most modern NVIDIA GPUs will work, for a complete list of supported GPUs see the NVIDIA CUDA GPUs page.

Cyclops also requires an NVIDIA driver of version 536.25 or higher. The driver version can be checked in the NVIDIA Control Panel and updates can be downloaded from the NVIDIA website.