3D Models

Studio provides support for incorporating 3D objects into your projects using the Mesh component, allowing you to create immersive and interactive experiences. 3D models today cover Primitives/Geometries that come included as options in Studio, or GLB/GLTF models that can be created externally and imported into Studio. To learn more about using and optimizing 3D Models in GLB/GLTF format please see Your 3D Models on the Web. When you click on a 3D model in the left menu, it will open into the 3D Model viewer. This viewer is a great tool for checking if your model is set up correctly.

A 3D Model can be added to the entity via the Studio interface via the Mesh component, or in code. Adding them in Studio is done via the (+) button on the Hierarchy or adding a "New Component" via the Inspector for a selected entity. The Mesh component features various Geometry, Materials, and GLTF Animations settings.

Primitives

The following geometries (aka Primitives) are supported. For custom objects, GLTF models are a good option. Otherwise it’s technically possible to use raw THREE.js code to do things like custom geometries if you really need to.

They can all be configured the same as any other component, for example:

ecs.SphereGeometry.set(world, eid, {radius: 5})

Geometry	Attributes
BoxGeometry	width, height, depth
CapsuleGeometry	radius, height
CircleGeometry	radius
ConeGeometry	radius, height
CylinderGeometry	radius, height
PlaneGeometry	width, height
PolyhedronGeometry	radius, faces
RingGeometry	innerRadius, outerRadius
SphereGeometry	radius
TorusGeometry	radiud, tubeRadius

GLTF & GLB Models

Studio supports GLTF and GLB files types.

Set a model source

ecs.GltfModel.set(world, eid, {url: 'https://some.example/my-model.gltf'})

Setting model properties

ecs.GltfModel.set(world, eid, {
  url: 'https://some.example/my-model.gltf',
  animationClip: 'clip1',
  loop: true,
  paused: false,
  time: 0,
  timeScale: 1,
})

Notes:

• DRACO compression is supported
• As with other supported components, model assets in the project can be used (for more, see Assets)

Model properties

Property	Data	Required	Description
url	string	true	The source url.
animationClip	string	false	The name of the animationClip attached to the model to play. Setting to '*' will play all animation clips.
loop	Boolean	false	Whether the animation clip restarts after it finishes playing or not
paused	Boolean	false	Whether the animation clip is paused
time	number	false	Time in seconds of animationClip to jump to
timeScale	number	false	Scaling factor for the time. 0 causes the animation to pause. Negative values cause the animation to play backwards.
reverse	Boolean	false	If set, the animation will play in reverse when it finishes playing forward (together counts as one loop iteration)
repetitions	Number	false	If set along with loop, the number of times the loop will be repeated (-1 means loop forever).
crossFadeDuration	Number	false	The time in seconds that will be spent blending between animations when a new animation is started (and an existing animation is playing)

FBX to GLB conversion

Studio supports native FBX to GLB conversion via Facebook-developed FBX2glTF CLI conversion tool. However, Studio does not support FBX conversion with separate texture sources. In your modeling tool's FBX export settings, be sure to embed textures before converting to GLB in Niantic Studio.

Materials

Materials can be configured either in code or as part of the Mesh component in the editor:

The following material types are supported:

• Material (the standard type)
• ShadowMaterial
• UnlitMaterial*
• HiderMaterial*

note

* Unlit and Hider Materials can only be applied to Primitives.

The standard material supports a wide variety of configurations (roughness, metalness, and emissive textures for example). The shadow material makes transparent objects that can still have visible shadows projected on them (if set to receive them). This is useful for AR situations where we want objects to appear to have shadows in the real world. The HiderMaterial (for Primitives) lets you easily obscure or "hide" objects within a scene, within or behind the material. The UnlitMaterial ensures that certain objects remain clear and readable, unaffected by light sources, shadows, or shading effects.

Materials can be set in code:

// Setting the standard material 
ecs.Material.set(world, eid, {r: 255, g: 0, b: 100, roughness: 1})

// Setting the shadow material
ecs.ShadowMaterial.set(world, eid, {r: 255, g: 0, b: 100})

You can also set a texture, and unless you want it to be tinted, make sure the r/g/b are set to 255:

ecs.Material.set(world, eid, {
  r: 255, 
  g: 255, 
  b: 255,
  textureSrc: 'https://placehold.co/800?text=Hello+World&font=roboto'
})

Material properties

Displayed Property	ECS Propertyies	Data	Component	Description
Color	r, g, b Number (uint8), [0...255]	All	Color of the material
Texture	textureSrc	String (URL)	Material	The color map, modulated by color (if set)
Roughness	roughness	Number (float) [0...1]	Material	How rough the material appears
Roughness Texture	roughnessMap	String (URL)	Material	Green channel of this texture maps the roughness, multiplied by the roughness number.
Metalness	metalness	Number (float), [0...1]	Material	How metallic the material appears
Metalness Texture	metalnessMap	String (URL)	Material	Blue channel of this texture affects how metal the material appears.
Normal	normalScale	Number (float) [0...1]	Material	How much the normal map (if set) affects the material.
Normal Texture	normalMap	String (URL)	Material	Normal map of the texture.
Opacity	opacity	Number (float) [0...1]	All	Overall alpha/transparency of the material.
Opacity Texture	opacityMap	String (URL)	Material	Alpha/transparency mapped via a texture.
Emissive	emissiveIntensity	Number (float) [0...1]	Material	Overall intensity of the emissive map.
Emissive Texture	emissiveMap	String (URL)	Material	Emissiveness mapped as a texture. Modulated by emissive color and intensity.
Emissive Color	emissiveR, emissiveG, emissiveB	Number (uint8) [0...255]	Material	Overall emissive color of the material.
Side	side	String (“front”, “back”, “double”)	All	Which sides of faces will be rendered.
Blending	blending	String (“no”, “normal”, “additive”, “subtractive”, “multiply”)	Material	Blending to use when displaying objects with this material.
Repeat (X, Y)	repeatX, repeatY	Number (float)	Material	How many times a texture is repeated across a material.
Offset (X, Y)	offsetX, offsetY	Number (float)	Material	How much a texture is offset across a material.
Depth Test	depthTest	Boolean	All	Whether to test depth when rendering this material (true by default)
Depth Write	depthWrite	Boolean	All	Whether rendering this material impacts the depth buffer (true by default)
Wireframe	wireframe	Boolean	Material	Render geometry as wireframe.