3D Model Importer App Reference
(last updated August 2020, v1.1.0)
Result | Control |
Rotate Model | Left Click and Drag on 2D screen or in Looking Glass |
Move and Refocus | Double Click on model in Looking Glass |
Move and Refocus to center of the model | Double Click on the blank space in Looking Glass |
Pan Scene | Right Click and Drag on the 2D screen or in Looking Glass |
Zoom | Scroll Wheel |
Toggle Menu | Square button on Looking Glass or Tab on Keyboard |
Previous Model | Left button on Looking Glass or Left Arrow on Keyboard |
Next Model | Right button on Looking Glass or Right Arrow on Keyboard |
Load Model | Ctrl and O |
Save Model Settings | Ctrl and S |
- glTF (v2.0 or later)
- OBJ
- glb
Many factors affect model performance, including differences in hardware, model settings, etc. In general, assuming you have one material on your mesh, the recommended maximum polygon count for models is 400k. Additional materials will significantly reduce performance and may need to be offset with a lower poly count.
model settings gltf
Metallic and Specular are two common variations of PBR shaders. Both give a representation of the material of the surface.
Metallic Shader is specifiically for metal and exposes two properties:
- Metallic - Adjusts how metallic (and therefore reflective) the material is
- Roughness - Adjusts how rough or smooth the material is
Specular Shader is for non-metalllic materials and exposes one property:
- Glossiness - Adjusts the glossiness of the object, changing how it is affected by lighting
Vertex Color Shader is useful if the model unexpectedly has no color with the other two material types. If it uses this shader, it means the model itself has some color data stored for each vertex. If the model should have color but is white after loading it into the 3D Model Importer, try using the Vertex Color shader.
Increases or decreases the level of complexity of the mesh on the 3D model. This may take time to process. You can check the status of an ongoing change in the "Decimations" tab in the Options panel.
Note: These settings only appear if your model is a glTF and has animations.
- Play is a toggle that plays and pauses the animation
- Animation Speed changes how fast the animation plays
Note: These settings only appear if your model is an .obj file. If you don't have an .mtl file or the textures don't load correctly, these options can help by allowing you to load in new textures.
- Load Albedo Texture allows you to set a base color map for your model
- Load Specular Map sets the specular channel
- Load Emission Map sets the emission texture
- Load Bump Map sets the bump or normal map
Lighting Settings adjust the overall visual presentation of your scene.
lighting
- Use Backdrop toggles whether or not to show a backdrop
- Backdrop Distance moves the backdrop, where "0" sets it equal to your current focal point and "1" sets it all the way to the back.
- Horizontal Angle changes the direction of the Directional Light horizontally
- Vertical Angle changes the direction of the Directional Light vertically
- Directional Intensity changes the intensity of the directional light in the scene
- Ambient Intensity changes the intensity of the ambient lighting in the scene
- DoF Intensity changes the intensity of the depth of field focus blur in the scene
- AO Intensity changes the intensity of the ambient occlusion in the scene
- Bloom Intensity changes the intensity of bloom in the scene
The bottom buttons "Save Settings", "Reload Settings", and "Set to Default" allow the user to adjust the model's object and lighting settings as well as its framing in the Looking Glass and save these settings.
Save Settings - Save the current settings on the 3D Model
Reload Settings - Reload previously saved settings on the 3D Model
Set to Default - Return 3D model settings to 3D Model Importer's default settings on load
If your computer cannot meet the demands of your 3D model, quality settings will help mitigate some of the render latency.
quality
Sets the quality of the 3D rendering in the Looking Glass. This is the single greatest determinant of both the visual quality and the frame-rate of the scene.
Optimizes the model's performance to the user's preference. No optimization can lead to slower rendering. This is the recommended way to improve performance. This method will create some artifacts but can greatly improve rendering speed.
Turn on or off the post-processing effects that are set in object settings. Turning off post-processing effects will allow object to render faster.
This timeout is the length (in seconds) the app will wait before cancelling a model import. You may need to increase this value for complex models on lower-end computers, or shut it off entirely, though you should be aware that this may lead to the importer getting into a bad state - hence disabling the timeout is not recommended.
All of the settings under the "Quality Settings" tab will be stored by the app and set to your preferences each time you open it up, so if the first time you run the app your frame-rate is too low and you need to drop the quality settings, you won't run into this issue the next time you open the 3D Model Importer.
The Options panel, accessible by pressing the ? button, has some additional functionality and information.
options
There are three buttons to provide helpful information when using the app.
- General Instructions opens the panel that appears at the start, with general information on the various tabs
- Controls covers the various ways of interacting with your scene, including Looking Glass buttons (on non-Portrait devices).
- Leap Controls covers how to manipulate the model with Leap Motion controllers.
There are two buttons to capture your content - this is especially useful if you want to store your scene for playback on the Looking Glass Portrait in Standalone mode. You can capture both video clips (maximum 10 seconds) and screenshots. For models without animations, capturing a screenshot is strongly recommended, as it is much faster. Capturing a video clip can take several minutes!
- Record Clip starts capturing a video of your scene for a maximum of 10 seconds. You can stop the recording by pressing the same button again. You can continue interacting with your scene, but be aware that the frame rate will be very low!
- Screenshot captures a single image of your scene
Once you've exported your scene, open HoloPlay Studio and import as a "Quilt Photo / Video" and you should be able to sync to your device. Note that the end of the file name of your recorded clip provides important quilt setting ("qs") and aspect ratio ("a") information for HoloPlay Studio - altering this text may cause issues when importing your clip.
With your clip added to your playlist, you'll be able to view, edit, and sync your capture for playback in Standalone mode!
This tab provides information on the status of any mesh detail adjustments. From here, you can see the queue of decimations and cancel them by pressing the X button.
Various types of 3D modeling software have various levels of support for the accepted file formats (.obj, .glTF, .glb).
| Source | Software Type | Support |
 | Sketchfab | Model Repository | .glTF download available for all downloadable models |
 | TurboSquid | Model Repository | Search can be filtered to show models that support obj files |
 | Poly | Model Repository | Search must be filtered to only show "Blocks models" that are "Remixable" |
 | Blender | 3D Modelling | Native .obj support |
 | Maya | 3D Modelling | .obj support via Plugin |
 | Cinema 4D | 3D Modelling | Native .obj support |
 | Paint 3D | 3D Modelling (Native to Windows) | Native .obj support |
 | Everything else | N/A | First check to see if it natively exports an accepted format. If not, this list of glTF converters and exporters may be helpful. Of all the tools listed, we've found success using Sketchfab's conversion tools. |
Last modified 1yr ago