What is a GLTF?

There are some general things you need to consider when working with 3D on the web to create successful Foveate Scenes. We'll cover what a GLTF is, its benefits, and 3D optimization.

At the core of the 3D visuals of a Foveate Scene is the GLTF scene file. A .gltf/.glb is the JPEG of 3D file formats, designed to contain a host of 3D scene information that can easily be compressed and shared. The .glb is the binary version of GLTF and is generally recommended as it is smaller and requires no extra files or folders.

Foveate tip: The .glb is the binary version of glTF and is generally recommended as it is smaller and requires no extra files or folders.

Why GLTF over FBX or OBJ?

In comparison to the FBX, a GLTF is around 5x smaller and can be loaded and unloaded from the GPU much faster, and can hold PhotoRealistic Based Materials, Animations, Bones, Skinning, Scene Hierarchy, and Lights. It is widely adopted by many industry leaders such as Meta, Google, Nvidia, Microsoft, Adobe, and even Ikea.

GLTF Industry Support

GLTF is the future shareable 3D format. It is already widely supported by almost 100 different apps across industries from games, to architecture, to film, to web. You can check out our export guides to find out how to export GLTF from your favorite app or check out the full list of apps maintained by the Khronos Group/ GLTF Project Explorer.

GLTF feature support in Foveate

Foveate supports the glTF 2.0 specification, read more about it at https://www.khronos.org/gltf/

Type	Features
Geometry	Polygon Meshes, Curves, NURB Curves, Vertices
Materials	Physically Based Rendering (Principled BSDF) and Shadeless (Unlit)
Animations	Transform (Location, Rotation, Scale), Shape Key (Vertex Animation/Point Level Animation/Blend Shapes), Skinning (Armatures/Bones)
Lights	Punctual lights (point, spot, and directional)
Mesh Compression	Draco Compression
UVs	Multiple UV maps can be present but only the first channel is used. UV transforms are supported, with several key limitations. Transforms are applied to a texture using the first UV slot. UV mapping Scale XY is supported and rotation Z.

Supported GLTF Extensions

GLTF extensions are special properties that can be encoded in a GLTF file but require the right decoder in the target app, in this case, Foveate. the KHR extensions are included in most GLTF 2.0 spec apps. Foveate currently supports the following.

• KHR_draco_mesh_compression

• KHR_materials_clearcoat

• KHR_materials_ior

• KHR_materials_specular

• KHR_materials_transmission

• KHR_materials_iridescence

• KHR_materials_unlit

• KHR_materials_volume

• KHR_mesh_quantization

• KHR_lights_punctual

• KHR_texture_basisu

• KHR_texture_transform

• EXT_meshopt_compression