General guidelines for 3D models
Last updated
Last updated
ENGAGE is a cross platform application that is available on desktop computers, VR systems, and mobile devices. To ensure that ENGAGE runs smoothly on all devices, we optimize our publicly-available content for the lowest supported specification – android and iOS phones and tablets.
If your 3D models will be available to a restricted group of users, and you know what devices they will use, you can tailor your content to the specifications of those devices. However, as a best practice, optimize your 3D models for mobile devices. This ensures that they will run on all devices that ENGAGE supports.
After your files are available in ENGAGE, it’s also important to test them under expected conditions. A model or location may work without any issues when you test it on your own device, but when combined with 50 concurrent users, shared media, and other IFX, it may cause users’ applications to crash.
Ensure that the surfaces in your models are orientated correctly. The reverse side of surfaces – the backface – will not be displayed in ENGAGE and may appear as holes in your model.
Your 3D modelling application may include tools to help you identify incorrect orientation. For example, Blender includes a face orientation option that displays backfaces in red and a backface culling option that hides them completely.
Remove any cameras from your files before you submit them. If you include a camera in an IFX or location, it may interfere with a user’s view. It some cases, it may make the ENGAGEG application unusable, and users will need to leave the session.
In ENGAGE, all polygons are calculated as triangles. If your 3D modelling software provides a count of the number of polygons, then some of those polygons may be “quads”. Each quad has four sides and counts as two triangles in ENGAGE. For information about how to reduce complexity in your models, see Optimizing 3D models.