The basic of 3d rendering
Lighting plays a key role in two effects that give the appearance of weight and solidity to objects: shading and shadows. The first, shading, takes place when the light shining on an object is stronger on one side than on the other. This shading is what makes a ball look round, high cheekbones seem striking and the folds in a blanket appear deep and soft. These differences in light intensity work with shape to reinforce the illusion that an object has depth as well as height and width. The illusion of weight comes from the second effect -- shadows. You can see an obvious difference in lighting, color and texture between the 3D virtual reality building and the plants around them it is because of this technique and it's inability to truly combine with the architectural scene.
Photographic landscaping on 3D faces was introduced a long time ago, back when computers were much less powerful than today's. They render faster and use less memory, and were the only way last decade to get half decent landscaping in an architectural rendering. Our architectural 3D models were born from an inspiration in design.
In the early 1990s CAD (Computer Aided Design) was growing popularity and as computers increased in speed we rapidly saw more and more portions of architectural drawing being done electronically. The process was more or less an electronic version of a drawing board. But we also noticed a new field in CAD emerge - 3D modelling. To this date many architects and designers still see 3D CAD and 3D models as too hard, but this perception is borne from ignorance and an ability to look beyond that day's work.
Today's computers still have some way to go to make 3D Rendering an effortless, fast process, but they are on their way. We are now able to link many computers together to create a "Render Farm" that splits the load of generating artwork into smaller pieces across many CPUs.