We are happy to announce that we now have lots of new support videos online at our You Tube channel for your convenience.

www.youtube.com/myvirtualhome

Please let us know via the comments section of this post if you would like a particular video made and we will see what we can do.

Follow us on Twitter to receive instant notification of each new video we ad. 

Version 2.1 of MyVirtualHome is getting very close to release.  We have finished coding and now its just bug fixes for the new functionality that has been added.  Keep and eye out in the next few weeks or sign up to our newsletter here and we will let you know when it is ready.

Scott Hawkins Homes a long time MyVirtualHome commercial member has just won the Master Builders Accociation Energy efficiency housing open price category excellence award.

Judges comments were

Scott Hawkins Homes has designed and built this home, using passive solar design principles and a combination of environmentally friendly energy and water technologies. The home achieved a BASIX rating of 77 for water efficiency, and 79 for energy efficiency. The home faces north to achieve maximum benefit from the sun’s warming ability during winter, and appropriate shading to reduce thermal exposure during summer. High levels of insulation were used in the walls, ceilings and roof to control heat flow throughout the year. Sustainably managed hardwood flooring and wool carpets have been used because of their high environmentally friendly qualities. Electricity is supplied to the home from a 3 kW tracking Solar Stand Alone Power System and a generator for backup. Fluorescent down lights have been fitted throughout the home, and light / motion sensors have been fitted in high traffic areas to minimize power consumption. The stove and oven is all gas. Hot water is from a gas boosted 40 tube Solar Water Heater. Ceiling fans and cross ventilation provide for summer comfort and two slow combustion wood fires add comfort for winter. 84,000 litres of rainwater is collected and stored, using a Solar Powered Pump to supply water to taps, toilets, showers, dishwasher and clothes washing machine, all of which were chosen for their low water usage. A Biolytix Waste water treatment system accepts all the household waste water for treatment using a complex organism based ecosystem, the outflow being used for sub-surface irrigation of gardens and lawn. The household has become completely self sufficient for power and water, while ongoing costs are kept to a minimum for infrequently replacing LPG cylinders, and some diesel fuel for the backup generator during prolonged overcast weather.

Well done guys.  Keep up the good work.

Version 2.1 is well under way with many new features set for release.

One of the most exciting features will be the introduction of houses directly into the MVH menus.  This will mean you can navigate directly to a house design from a real builder in your area, click to open it and then walk through it in 3D.  We are currently working with our existing builders to offer some exciting fresh new designs for launch. 

If you are a builder and you want to put your designs in front of the growing MVH audiance please contact us to discuss the options available.

MyVirtualHome amazing 3D Home Design Software made easy.

We frequently get asked from both our commercial members and our free users what type of computer to use to get the best out of MyVirtualHome.  I though it was time to share it with everyone via the blog rather than re writing emails.

A computer is made up of several components today we are going to talk about the ones that make a difference when using MyVirtualHome.  That is the CPU, the GPU the HDD, RAM and a screen.

CPU - Central Processing Unit or Processor - How fast MVH can do things..

The first is the CPU or Processor as it is commonly called.  There are basically 2 options here AMD or Intel.  At MVH we prefer Intel and have been doing some great work with them around multi core processor use.
We recommend a processor speed of 1.6Ghz or faster.  Dual core (ie: 2 x 1.6Ghz) is better again and even better again is a quad core (4 x 1.6Ghz) MVH will love you for it.  Currently we support multi core processor use for lightmapping (calculating the shadows and making it look more lifelike as shown in the image).  This will happen twice as fast on a dual and 4 times as fast on a quad core.  In the near future we will be supporting multi core use in all facets of MVH.  So if you want something for the future go with a quad core.
For commercial use we recommend a minimum of dual core at 2Ghz.

Graphics Card (GPU) - How good MVH can look.

The 3D Graphics card is the next piece of the puzzle.  The GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) as it is known is the part that will make MVH look good or make it look amazing.  Older PC's may not have a 3D GPU at all and some business only PC's will not.  Because MVH is built on games technology we love PC's that are setup to play games.  Things to look for when buying a PC are marketing terms like, Ultimate Gaming machine, or great for HD video etc.  These PC's will have good graphics capabilities.  Graphics cards come from 2 main players once again.  They are ATI and nVidia.  They also come in 2 options, on board and dedicated (also known as descrete).  The onboard graphics cards are built into the main motherboard (circuit board) and are designed for light 3D use.  MVH will run with an onboard graphics card but the real video cards come with dedicated RAM on them and are a separate component.  We recommend a minimum of 128Mb RAM on the card but MVH will use as much as you can give it.  At the time of writing this 1Gb (1024Mb) is the biggest dedicated card you can buy.  You can also link them together with technology called SLI from nVidia and Cross Fire from ATI and get twice the bang for twice as much money.
For commercial use we recommend a dedicated GPU with at least 512Mb of RAM.

RAM - How many things you can have open at once.

I like to consider RAM as my desk space.  The bigger my desk the more stuff I can put on it.  If you have lots of RAM things can be accessed far more quickly.  MVH loves to use your RAM and its cheap to buy.  We recommend 2 Gb (2048Mb) or more.
For commercial use we recommend 3Gb or more of RAM  (Note:  Over 3Gb requires 64 Bit OS)

Hard Drive - How fast houses can open.

I see lots of advertiing for hard drives that talk about size (1Tb etc.)  But as we know size is not everything. :)  Speed is what it is all about.  Hard drives come in different speeds.  4800rpm being the slowest.  I always like to go with a smaller faster drive.  7200rpm is currently the fastest drive you can find in a laptop and 10,000rpm in a desktop however the new solid state drives (no moving parts) are faster yet again.  These are however quite expensive at the moment.  If you buy a fast processor and a slow hard drive the processor will not work as fast as it can because the hard drive can not feed the info to it.  Hard drive speed (combined with the CPU) will determine how fast MVH can load a home etc.
For commercial use we recommend a 7200rpm or faster drive.

Screen size - What size is right for you.

Completely up to your preference but as a general rule you won’t find good graphics cards in laptops with anything smaller than a 15” screen.  The big graphics systems have 17” (or bigger) screens.
Note:  The larger your screen resolution the more GPU power you will need to get a good result.

I hope this helps your purchase.  Happy vuilding.

The continued acceleration of MyVirtualHome sign ups marches on with the 20,000 user milestone happening today.  The first 10,000 took 44 days and this lot took just 33.  Can we do the next 10,000 in just 22 days is the big question.

Generation 2 of MyVirtualHome enables it to be easily downloaded by anyone in just a few minutes due its small size.  As a result we have many blogs distributing our home design software.  Thanks to everyone who has helped thus far.