A Faster SuperSplat with PWA Support
· 2 min read
Today, we are announcing the v0.17.0 release of SuperSplat, the open source tool for editing and optimizing 3D Gaussian Splats.
+A Faster SuperSplat with PWA Support
· 2 min read
Today, we are announcing the latest release of SuperSplat, the open source tool for editing and optimizing 3D Gaussian Splats.
Version 0.17.1 focuses on two key areas: performance and PWA support.
Performance Improvements
diff --git a/a-graph-rendering-library-for-the-web-pcui-graph/index.html b/a-graph-rendering-library-for-the-web-pcui-graph/index.html index 4a2ac97c8..bce98f81c 100644 --- a/a-graph-rendering-library-for-the-web-pcui-graph/index.html +++ b/a-graph-rendering-library-for-the-web-pcui-graph/index.html @@ -5,7 +5,7 @@\\nTo install SuperSplat as a PWA:\\n\\n1. Visit [https://playcanvas.com/supersplat/editor](https://playcanvas.com/supersplat/editor).\\n2. Hit the `Install SuperSplat` button in the address bar.\\n\\n:::tip\\n\\nFor your convenience, pin SuperSplat to the Taskbar (Windows) or add it do the Dock (macOS).\\n\\n:::\\n\\n### PLY File Association\\n\\nWith SuperSplat installed as a PWA, your operating system can now open launch PLY files directly into the tool. Simply right-click on a PLY file and select SuperSplat to open it.\\n\\n
\\nYou can also set SuperSplat as the default tool to open your PLYs. Then, you can simply double-click a PLY file to open it instantly in SuperSplat!\\n\\n## Your Feedback Matters\\n\\nWe hope you love today\'s update! \u2764\ufe0f\\n\\nThe SuperSplat community has grown a lot in recent weeks and we want to get your feedback. What other features would you like the PWA to get? Are you still experiencing any performance problems? What is still missing from SuperSplat? Let us know by heading over to the [forum](https://forum.playcanvas.com) or [ping us on X](https://x.com/playcanvas)!"},{"id":"build-webgpu-apps-today-with-playcanvas","metadata":{"permalink":"/build-webgpu-apps-today-with-playcanvas","editUrl":"https://github.com/playcanvas/blog/tree/main/blog/2024-04-18-build-webgpu-apps-today-with-playcanvas.md","source":"@site/blog/2024-04-18-build-webgpu-apps-today-with-playcanvas.md","title":"Build WebGPU Apps Today with PlayCanvas","description":"It\'s here! \ud83e\udd73 Today, we\'re excited to announce that WebGPU support has officially arrived in the PlayCanvas Editor.","date":"2024-04-18T00:00:00.000Z","tags":[{"label":"webgpu","permalink":"/tags/webgpu"},{"label":"graphics","permalink":"/tags/graphics"},{"label":"editor","permalink":"/tags/editor"}],"readingTime":2.09,"hasTruncateMarker":false,"authors":[{"name":"Will Eastcott","title":"CEO","url":"https://twitter.com/willeastcott","imageURL":"https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/2635146631/edcd8b6dc4a34625770095941519ca8a_400x400.png","key":"will"}],"frontMatter":{"authors":"will","slug":"build-webgpu-apps-today-with-playcanvas","title":"Build WebGPU Apps Today with PlayCanvas","tags":["webgpu","graphics","editor"]},"unlisted":false,"prevItem":{"title":"A Faster SuperSplat with PWA Support","permalink":"/a-faster-supersplat-with-pwa-support"},"nextItem":{"title":"Using Visual Studio Code with PlayCanvas","permalink":"/using-visual-studio-code-with-playcanvas"}},"content":"It\'s here! \ud83e\udd73 Today, we\'re excited to announce that WebGPU support has officially arrived in the PlayCanvas Editor.\\n\\n\\n\\n## WebGPU on the Rise\\n\\nSince its inception back in 2010, PlayCanvas has been layered on top of WebGL. In 2017, we were proud to launch support for [WebGL 2.0](https://blog.playcanvas.com/mozilla-launches-webgl-2-with-playcanvas/) in partnership with our friends at Mozilla. April 2023 marked the beginning of a new era for web graphics when Google enabled WebGPU by default in Chrome 113. Since then, WebGPU adoption has exploded and today, [Web3D Survey](https://web3dsurvey.com/webgpu) reports that **62.19% of end users can now run WebGPU**. With [Firefox and Safari due to launch their WebGPU support](https://caniuse.com/webgpu) in the not-too-distant future, expect this number to rise dramatically in 2024.\\n\\n## Why WebGPU Matters\\n\\nIf you enable WebGPU for your PlayCanvas project, you may not notice much difference to begin with. In fact, we have put a great deal of effort into ensuring your WebGL projects look identical under WebGPU. But over time, there is are a great deal of opportunities to achieve performance improvements due to WebGPU\'s reduced driver overhead.\\n\\nAnother key feature unique to WebGPU is support for Compute Shaders which allow for general computation on the GPU. Support for Compute Shaders landed in [Engine v1.70.0](https://github.com/playcanvas/engine/releases/tag/v1.70.0). Here you can see Computer Shaders in action simulating 1 million particles on the GPU:\\n\\n
\\n \\n
\\n\\n[Click here](https://playcanvas.github.io/#/compute/particles) to run it for yourself in a WebGPU-enabled browser (i.e. Chrome or Edge).\\n\\nIn short, WebGPU represents the future for PlayCanvas and you can expect some incredible advances in performance and functionality over the coming months.\\n\\n## Getting Started with WebGPU\\n\\nWebGPU support in PlayCanvas is still considered \'Beta\'. There are still some unimplemented features (for example, the run-time lightmapper is still not supported). Therefore, you have to currently \'opt in\' to WebGPU support. To do this, open your Project\'s Settings in the Inspector and expand the `RENDERING` section. Then update `Graphics Devices` to include `WebGPU (beta)`.\\n\\n\\n\\nOnce we are satisfied WebGPU support has matured enough, it will become the default.\\n\\n## Your Feedback is Important\\n\\nSince WebGPU support is new, we rely on the community for feedback. What works and what doesn\'t? Please [submit an issue](https://github.com/playcanvas/editor/issues) if you discover any problems or kick off a new thread on the [forum](https://forum.playcanvas.com/) if you want to discuss WebGPU support in more detail. We want to hear what your opinions! \ud83d\udc42"},{"id":"using-visual-studio-code-with-playcanvas","metadata":{"permalink":"/using-visual-studio-code-with-playcanvas","editUrl":"https://github.com/playcanvas/blog/tree/main/blog/2024-04-15-using-visual-studio-code-with-playcanvas.md","source":"@site/blog/2024-04-15-using-visual-studio-code-with-playcanvas.md","title":"Using Visual Studio Code with PlayCanvas","description":"Visual Studio Code is massively popular. In the Stack Overflow 2023 Developer Survey, Visual Studio Code was ranked the most popular developer environment tool among 86,544 respondents, with 73.71% reporting that they use it.","date":"2024-04-15T00:00:00.000Z","tags":[{"label":"javascript","permalink":"/tags/javascript"},{"label":"open-source","permalink":"/tags/open-source"},{"label":"scripting","permalink":"/tags/scripting"},{"label":"workflow","permalink":"/tags/workflow"}],"readingTime":1.31,"hasTruncateMarker":false,"authors":[{"name":"Will Eastcott","title":"CEO","url":"https://twitter.com/willeastcott","imageURL":"https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/2635146631/edcd8b6dc4a34625770095941519ca8a_400x400.png","key":"will"}],"frontMatter":{"authors":"will","slug":"using-visual-studio-code-with-playcanvas","title":"Using Visual Studio Code with PlayCanvas","tags":["javascript","open-source","scripting","workflow"]},"unlisted":false,"prevItem":{"title":"Build WebGPU Apps Today with PlayCanvas","permalink":"/build-webgpu-apps-today-with-playcanvas"},"nextItem":{"title":"Massive Upgrade for the PlayCanvas Developer Site","permalink":"/massive-upgrade-for-the-playcanvas-developer-site"}},"content":"[Visual Studio Code](https://code.visualstudio.com/) is massively popular. In the Stack Overflow 2023 Developer Survey, Visual Studio Code was ranked the most popular developer environment tool among 86,544 respondents, with **73.71%** reporting that they use it.\\n\\nAny PlayCanvas developer building directly on top of the Engine will very likely opt to use VS Code. But if you use the PlayCanvas Editor, you will normally rely on the built-in, browser-based Code Editor. Today, we\'re excited to give you another option by launching an open-source **Visual Studio Code Extension for PlayCanvas**.\\n\\n\\n\\n## Benefits\\n\\nThe PlayCanvas Code Editor is actually built on the [Monaco Editor](https://github.com/microsoft/monaco-editor), the beating heart of VS Code. So why use VS Code instead of the PlayCanvas Code Editor?\\n\\n* [GitHub Copilot](https://github.com/features/copilot) - leverage AI to help you write PlayCanvas code faster.\\n* Powerful IntelliSense tools (code completion, parameter info, quick info, and member lists).\\n* Leverage a huge library of other extensions to accelerate your development.\\n\\n## We \u2764\ufe0f Open Source\\n\\nAs you might expect, we have open sourced the VS Code extension under a liberal MIT license!\\n\\n* [VS Code Extension on GitHub](https://github.com/playcanvas/vscode-extension)\\n\\nSo if you find a bug or have a suggestion, please do [log an issue](https://github.com/playcanvas/vscode-extension/issues). And for the more adventurous, consider making a code contribution!\\n\\nWe want you to feel empowered to make these tools your own. Let\'s make them awesome together! \ud83d\ude4c\\n\\n## Get Started Now\\n\\nIf this all sounds great to you, why not give it a try? Head over to the User Manual for instructions on how to get started:\\n\\n[READ THE DOCS](https://developer.playcanvas.com/user-manual/scripting/vscode-extension/)"},{"id":"massive-upgrade-for-the-playcanvas-developer-site","metadata":{"permalink":"/massive-upgrade-for-the-playcanvas-developer-site","editUrl":"https://github.com/playcanvas/blog/tree/main/blog/2024-02-08-massive-upgrade-for-playcanvas-developer-site.md","source":"@site/blog/2024-02-08-massive-upgrade-for-playcanvas-developer-site.md","title":"Massive Upgrade for the PlayCanvas Developer Site","description":"Today, we are excited to announce the brand new PlayCanvas Developer Site and API Reference Manual!","date":"2024-02-08T00:00:00.000Z","tags":[{"label":"documentation","permalink":"/tags/documentation"},{"label":"tutorial","permalink":"/tags/tutorial"},{"label":"open-source","permalink":"/tags/open-source"}],"readingTime":3.42,"hasTruncateMarker":false,"authors":[{"name":"Will Eastcott","title":"CEO","url":"https://twitter.com/willeastcott","imageURL":"https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/2635146631/edcd8b6dc4a34625770095941519ca8a_400x400.png","key":"will"}],"frontMatter":{"authors":"will","slug":"massive-upgrade-for-the-playcanvas-developer-site","title":"Massive Upgrade for the PlayCanvas Developer Site","tags":["documentation","tutorial","open-source"]},"unlisted":false,"prevItem":{"title":"Using Visual Studio Code with PlayCanvas","permalink":"/using-visual-studio-code-with-playcanvas"},"nextItem":{"title":"Compressing Gaussian Splats","permalink":"/compressing-gaussian-splats"}},"content":"Today, we are excited to announce the brand new [PlayCanvas Developer Site](https://developer.playcanvas.com/) and [API Reference Manual](https://api.playcanvas.com/)!\\n\\n## Developer Site\\n\\nLet\'s start by taking a look at the new Developer Site, home of the PlayCanvas User Manual and Tutorials.\\n\\n\\n\\n### Migrating from Metalsmith to Docusaurus\\n\\nSince PlayCanvas was born in 2011, the basic look of the Developer Site has changed little. The content was written in Markdown and converted to a static HTML site using a tool called [Metalsmith](https://metalsmith.io/). Customizing the site to our needs meant we had to write many Metalsmith plugins (for localization, navigation and more) and a lot of HTML and CSS to style the pages as we wanted.\\n\\n13 years later, the world of static site generators has moved on with lots of exciting new options! We evaluated [Docusaurus](https://docusaurus.io/) and decided to migrate over to it.\\n\\n### What\'s New\\n\\nSo what made Docusaurus so compelling? First up, the migration was going to be straightforward because, like Metalsmith, Docusaurus consumes Markdown and outputs a static site. And much of the customization we did for Metalsmith is supplied \'out-of-the-box\' with Docusaurus. So that\'s all great. But the new site comes with lots of cool new features we known you\'re going to love:\\n\\n#### \ud83d\udd0d Powerful Search\\n\\nThe site now integrates [Algolia](https://www.algolia.com/) for advanced searching of the documentation.\\n\\n\\n\\nThis is a quantum leap over what came before. Try it (by pressing `CTRL + K`) - you\'ll be amazed. \ud83e\udd2f\\n\\n#### \ud83c\udf12 Light and Dark Modes\\n\\nEasily switch between light and dark themes (by clicking on the sun/moon icon top-right).\\n\\n\\n\\n#### \ud83c\udf0f Language Selection\\n\\nSwitch language from the nav-bar. At the moment, we\'re shipping with Japanese translations.\\n\\n\\n\\n#### \ud83d\udc69\u200d\ud83d\udcbb Edit on GitHub\\n\\nAs you might expect, [the Developer Site is Open Source (MIT)](https://github.com/playcanvas/developer.playcanvas.com). Every page now has a handy link to the content on GitHub. Spot a mistake? Now can you fix it yourself and improve the docs for the community!\\n\\n#### \ud83e\udded Easier Navigation\\n\\nAt the top of each page, you\'ll find \'Sidebar Breadcrumbs\' which allow you to click back up the page hierarchy.\\n\\n\\n\\nTo the right of each page, you\'ll find a table of contents which can be a big help, especially for long pages.\\n\\n\\n\\nAnd at the bottom of each page, you\'ll find \'Previous\' and \'Next\' links that allow you to read through the User Manual sequentially.\\n\\n\\n\\n## API Reference\\n\\nWe are not just launching a new Developer Site today. We are also launching our brand new, upgraded [API Reference Manual](https://api.playcanvas.com/)!\\n\\n\\n\\n### Migrating from JSDoc to TypeDoc\\n\\nSince the start, we have relied on [JSDoc](https://jsdoc.app/) to generate our API reference manual. But since then, we have seen the introduction of [TypeDoc](https://typedoc.org/) which offers some major advantages over JSDoc.\\n\\n#### \ud83c\udfa8 High Quality Default Theme\\n\\nWhile it\'s not perfect, the default TypeDoc theme is gorgeous and a big improvement over our custom JSDoc theme. It provides:\\n\\n* Light and dark modes (like the main developer site)\\n* Links to the source code on GitHub\\n* Grouping of API into related categories\\n* Powerful search (press `/` to activate it)\\n* ...and much more!\\n\\nIt\'s a great foundation for us to begin with and we can customize the default theme to our requirements as needed.\\n\\n#### \ud83d\udd17 Easy Combining of APIs\\n\\nDid you know that PlayCanvas develops frameworks and libraries other than the PlayCanvas Engine? There\'s [PCUI](https://github.com/playcanvas/pcui), a front-end framework for web-based tools. There\'s the [PlayCanvas Editor API](https://github.com/playcanvas/editor-api) for automating the interface. And more! The new API reference collects all of the PlayCanvas APIs into a single manual.\\n\\n\\n\\n## Open Source FTW\\n\\nEverything we are announcing today is 100% open source.\\n\\n* [Developer Site on GitHub](https://github.com/playcanvas/developer.playcanvas.com)\\n* [API Reference Site on GitHub](https://github.com/playcanvas/api-reference)\\n\\nWe want to empower to community to get involved and make PlayCanvas better for everybody. It\'s never been easier to submit your first pull request on GitHub. So why wait - get started today! \u2764\ufe0f"},{"id":"compressing-gaussian-splats","metadata":{"permalink":"/compressing-gaussian-splats","editUrl":"https://github.com/playcanvas/blog/tree/main/blog/2023-12-05-compressing-gaussian-splats.md","source":"@site/blog/2023-12-05-compressing-gaussian-splats.md","title":"Compressing Gaussian Splats","description":"Introduction","date":"2023-12-05T00:00:00.000Z","tags":[{"label":"gaussian-splats","permalink":"/tags/gaussian-splats"},{"label":"compression","permalink":"/tags/compression"},{"label":"supersplat","permalink":"/tags/supersplat"}],"readingTime":3.61,"hasTruncateMarker":false,"authors":[{"name":"Donovan Hutchence","title":"Staff Software Engineer","url":"https://twitter.com/slimbuck7","imageURL":"https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1727369755231727616/ukKVbC9b_400x400.png","key":"donovan"}],"frontMatter":{"authors":"donovan","slug":"compressing-gaussian-splats","title":"Compressing Gaussian Splats","tags":["gaussian-splats","compression","supersplat"]},"unlisted":false,"prevItem":{"title":"Massive Upgrade for the PlayCanvas Developer Site","permalink":"/massive-upgrade-for-the-playcanvas-developer-site"},"nextItem":{"title":"Boost Your Efficiency: Editor gets Support for AVIF and WebP","permalink":"/avif-webp-land-in-editor"}},"content":"### Introduction\\n\\n[**3D Gaussian Splatting**](https://repo-sam.inria.fr/fungraph/3d-gaussian-splatting/) is a new method for digitizing and rendering real world objects. With gaussian splatting, you can digitize a scene from a few photos using services like [Luma Labs](https://lumalabs.ai/) or [Polycam](https://poly.cam/). These services take the set of photos and generate a 3d Gaussian Splat scene in [PLY format](\\n \\n
\\n\\n### What is a Splat?\\n\\nGaussian Splat Scenes are not made up of polygons and textures. Instead, they are made up of many (up to millions) of individual, unconnected blobs called _splats_. A splat is just a particle in space with size, orientation, color and opacity.\\n\\nBelow you can see a single brown splat selected. The splat bounding box shows its orientation and size:\\n\\n\\n\\nThe gaussian part of the name comes from the shape of splat itself: the splat opacity has a gaussian falloff from its center to its edge.\\n\\n### Engine Support\\n\\nThe PlayCanvas team has been adding support to the engine for loading and rendering Gaussian Splat PLY files:\\n\\n[](https://playcanvas.github.io/#/loaders/splat-many)\\n\\nSince the resulting files are often messy and require cleaning, we released [SuperSplat](https://playcanvas.com/super-splat), a tool for cleaning and processing gaussian splat PLY files:\\n\\n[](https://playcanvas.com/super-splat?load=https://code.playcanvas.com/viewer/guitar-cleaned.ply)\\n\\n### PLY Format\\n\\nHowever, the default gaussian splat PLY format as exported by training tools is large.\\n\\nThis is because the uncompressed format stores a large amount of data _per splat_:\\n\\n| Name | Data Format | Bytes |\\n| --------------------------- | ----------- | ----- |\\n| Position | 3 x float | 12 |\\n| Orientation | 4 x float | 16 |\\n| Scale | 3 x float | 12 |\\n| Spherical harmonics / color | 48 x float | 192 |\\n| Total | | 232 |\\n\\nFor example, the original `guitar.ply` scene file takes **132.8 MB** (**32 MB** excluding spherical harmonic data).\\n\\n### Compressed PLY Format\\n\\nSo we introduced a _compressed PLY_ format for use in runtime applications. The compressed PLY file format ignores the unused spherical harmonic data and stores the rest of the elements in quantized integers.\\n\\nThe format can be summarized as follows:\\n\\n- Split the scene into chunks of 256 splats\\n- For each chunk, store the min and max (x, y, z) for position and scale in floating point\\n- For each splat in the chunk, store a normalized and quantized value for position and scale (relative to chunk extents) and orientation and color\\n\\nThis data layout results in the following data _per chunk_:\\n\\n| Name | Data Format | Bytes |\\n| -------------- | ----------- | ----- |\\n| Position bound | 6 x float | 24 |\\n| Scale bound | 6 x float | 24 |\\n| Total | | 48 |\\n\\nAnd the following data _per splat_:\\n\\n| Name | Data Format | Bytes |\\n| ----------- | ---------------------- | ----- |\\n| Position | uint32 (11, 10, 11) | 4 |\\n| Orientation | uint32 (2, 10, 10, 10) | 4 |\\n| Scale | uint32 (11, 10, 11) | 4 |\\n| Color | uint32 (8, 8, 8, 8) | 4 |\\n| Total | | 16 |\\n\\nAs a result, the compressed version of `guitar.ply` takes only **8.7 MB**.\\n\\n### Do It Yourself\\n\\nThe easiest way to generate a compressed PLY file yourself is using the [SuperSplat tool](https://playcanvas.com/super-splat). Load the PLY file into SuperSplat and export it again using the \'Compressed Ply File\' option:\\n\\n[](https://playcanvas.com/super-splat)\\n\\nIf you are interested in the file format specifics, see [this code](https://github.com/playcanvas/engine/blob/a86bd8be0cfd4e39e9ba5e5466acb6875ab9906e/extras/splat/splat-data.js#L257) which demonstrates how to decompress the file data.\\n\\nSee [this editor project](https://playcanvas.com/project/1165904/overview/gaussiansplatdemo) for an example of loading and rendering a compressed gaussian splat PLY file. Or you can [run it here](https://playcanv.as/p/69cnpevQ/).\\n\\n### Summary and Future\\n\\nWe have introduced a new compressed PLY format for gaussian splatting which is roughly 4x smaller than uncompressed data and can be used in realtime applications.\\n\\nIn future we hope to:\\n\\n- store splats hierarchically for optimized rendering and culling\\n- implement realtime splat LOD\\n- test skinning and animation of gaussian splats\\n- further compress gaussian splat data\\n- optimize WebGPU rendering\\n\\n### References\\n\\nThe compressed format is largely based on the fine work of Aras Pranckevi\u010dius and his [blog posts](https://aras-p.info/)."},{"id":"avif-webp-land-in-editor","metadata":{"permalink":"/avif-webp-land-in-editor","editUrl":"https://github.com/playcanvas/blog/tree/main/blog/2023-10-11-avif-webp-lands-in-editor.md","source":"@site/blog/2023-10-11-avif-webp-lands-in-editor.md","title":"Boost Your Efficiency: Editor gets Support for AVIF and WebP","description":"AVIF + WebP Support","date":"2023-10-11T00:00:00.000Z","tags":[{"label":"editor","permalink":"/tags/editor"},{"label":"textures","permalink":"/tags/textures"},{"label":"workflow","permalink":"/tags/workflow"},{"label":"compression","permalink":"/tags/compression"}],"readingTime":2.2,"hasTruncateMarker":false,"authors":[{"name":"Mark Lundin","title":"Software Engineer","url":"https://twitter.com/mark_lundin","imageURL":"https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1281491980707598336/wW0BoD7T_400x400.jpg","key":"mark"}],"frontMatter":{"authors":"mark","slug":"avif-webp-land-in-editor","title":"Boost Your Efficiency: Editor gets Support for AVIF and WebP","tags":["editor","textures","workflow","compression"]},"unlisted":false,"prevItem":{"title":"Compressing Gaussian Splats","permalink":"/compressing-gaussian-splats"},"nextItem":{"title":"glTF Viewer 4.0 Adds WebGPU Support","permalink":"/gltf-viewer-adds-webgpu-support"}},"content":"\\n\\n**Today we\'re excited to announce that PlayCanvas now supports WebP and AVIF images natively in the editor. Two new, efficient image formats built for the web.**\\n\\nThis is not just an exciting update for us but a game-changer for anyone looking to optimize their projects for faster load times and better quality.\\n\\nJPGs and PNGs have served us well. They\'re reliable and you can use them everywhere. AVIF and WebP are the new kids on the block. They offer better compression with a wider range of features like alpha channels, HDR and wide color gamut. But how do these formats work in practice and are they really that good? Let\'s dive in.\\n\\n_Take a look at the following images:_\\n\\n\\n \\n
\\n\\nTake your 3D models into the real world with our revamped WebXR Augmented Reality (AR) mode! Available currently on Android devices, this enhanced AR mode lets you view any model in your actual environment, complete with intuitive new controls that allow you to accurately position and rotate objects in the real world. Let\'s hope Apple decides to roll out WebXR support on iOS soon! \ud83d\ude4f\\n\\n#### Frame Selected Node\\n\\n\\n \\n
\\n\\nNavigating large scenes can be a pain - Viewer 4.0 addresses this by allowing you to select a node in the scene via the hierarchy panel on the left. You can then press \'F\' on the keyboard to frame that node and recenter the orbit camera on that node\'s position.\\n\\n#### Better Immersion with Projective Sky Dome\\n\\n\\n \\n
\\n\\n_[\\"130\\"](https://skfb.ly/6R9Ow) by mononofu is licensed under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)._\\n\\nExperience realistic photographic skies with our new projective sky dome! While previous versions allowed for skyboxex with an infinite projection, 4.0 introduces a dome-shaped skybox projection that incorporates a flat ground plane. This warps the skybox texture to have a more believable appearance, delivering a more authentic and immersive perspective, melding your 3D models with strikingly realistic backdrops.\\n\\n#### Debug and Inspect with Render Mode\\n\\n[](/img/gltf-viewer-render-mode.gif)\\n\\nEnsuring that developers can seamlessly troubleshoot and inspect glTF files, the new render mode allows you to select and display individual inputs/outputs of the render pipeline, including albedo, emissive, normals, gloss, AO, and more. This new level of insight is invaluable for debugging, making it even easier to work with your glTF data.\\n\\n#### Enhanced Realism with VSM Shadows\\n\\nThe addition of Variance Shadow Mapping (VSM) casts your 3D scenes in a new light, literally! Shadows aren\'t merely aesthetic; they provide context and depth, especially in AR mode, assisting to ground your object naturally within its real-world environment. Explore scenes with a newfound depth and realism that draws viewers into the experience, both in standard and AR viewing modes. Find the new shadow controls in the Light Settings panel:\\n\\n[](/img/gltf-viewer-light-settings.png)\\n\\n### Join Our Open Source Community\\n\\nWe\'re not just excited to share these innovations with you; we\'re eager to hear your thoughts and welcome your contributions! If there\'s a feature you\'re longing for, please don\'t hesitate to [submit your requests](https://github.com/playcanvas/model-viewer/issues).\\n\\nBetter yet, become an active contributor to our codebase! Our open-source community thrives on collaboration and fresh perspectives. So, dive right in, [explore the code](https://github.com/playcanvas/model-viewer), and let\'s shape the future of 3D model viewing together! Your expertise and insights could help shape the next release.\\n\\n[**GO TO GITHUB NOW**](https://github.com/playcanvas/model-viewer)\\n\\n### Conclusion\\n\\nWith glTF Viewer 4.0, we\'re redefining the standards of 3D model viewing. From WebGPU-powered rendering to WebXR-powered AR, this update is designed to inspire, assist, and elevate your work with glTF data.\\n\\nSo stay creative, friends, and we\'ll see you on the [forums](https://forum.playcanvas.com/)! \ud83d\udc4b"},{"id":"playcanvas-adds-sketchfab-integration","metadata":{"permalink":"/playcanvas-adds-sketchfab-integration","editUrl":"https://github.com/playcanvas/blog/tree/main/blog/2023-06-26-playcanvas-adds-sketchfab-itegration.md","source":"@site/blog/2023-06-26-playcanvas-adds-sketchfab-itegration.md","title":"PlayCanvas Adds Sketchfab Integration","description":"Today, we\'re excited to announce the integration of Sketchfab into the PlayCanvas Editor!","date":"2023-06-26T00:00:00.000Z","tags":[{"label":"asset-store","permalink":"/tags/asset-store"},{"label":"editor","permalink":"/tags/editor"},{"label":"sketchfab","permalink":"/tags/sketchfab"},{"label":"workflow","permalink":"/tags/workflow"}],"readingTime":2.15,"hasTruncateMarker":false,"authors":[{"name":"Will Eastcott","title":"CEO","url":"https://twitter.com/willeastcott","imageURL":"https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/2635146631/edcd8b6dc4a34625770095941519ca8a_400x400.png","key":"will"}],"frontMatter":{"authors":"will","slug":"playcanvas-adds-sketchfab-integration","title":"PlayCanvas Adds Sketchfab Integration","tags":["asset-store","editor","sketchfab","workflow"]},"unlisted":false,"prevItem":{"title":"glTF Viewer 4.0 Adds WebGPU Support","permalink":"/gltf-viewer-adds-webgpu-support"},"nextItem":{"title":"Moving from WordPress to Jekyll - A Case Study","permalink":"/moving-from-wordpress-to-jekyll-a-case-study"}},"content":"Today, we\'re excited to announce the integration of Sketchfab into the PlayCanvas Editor!\\n\\n\\n \\n
\\n\\n_[\\"Spartan Armour\\"](https://skfb.ly/6QVvM) by McCarthy3D is licensed under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)._\\n\\nWith today\'s launch you\'ll have instant access to Sketchfab\'s enormous library of high quality 3D content right inside the Editor.\\n\\n### What Is Sketchfab?\\n\\n[Sketchfab](https://sketchfab.com/) is a platform that allows users to publish, share and discover 3D content on the web. You can think of it as a sort of \\"YouTube for 3D models\\". The platform hosts millions of 3D models in various formats, including glTF, OBJ, STL, and more.\\n\\nUsers can upload their 3D models to Sketchfab and embed them in other websites much like one would embed a YouTube video. This has made it popular for showcasing 3D models for a wide range of uses including game assets, 3D scans, architectural models, and educational content.\\n\\n### Accessing Sketchfab from the Asset Store\\n\\nEarlier this month, we [announced](https://blog.playcanvas.com/announcing-the-new-playcanvas-asset-store/) the brand new PlayCanvas Asset Store. The Asset Store is an in-Editor panel of useful assets that you can use in your projects. With a few clicks, you can browse, discover and import various types of content. So it is the obvious place to incorporate the vast Sketchfab content library.\\n\\nTo access the Sketchfab library, simply hit the Asset Store button on the Asset Panel header and select the SKETCHFAB filter on the left.\\n\\n[](/img/asset-store-sketchfab-open.gif)\\n\\n### Authorizing PlayCanvas to Access Sketchfab\\n\\nIf you want to import models from Sketchfab into PlayCanvas, you first need to create a Sketchfab account. Then, the first time you try to import a Sketchfab model in the Asset Store, you will be asked to authorize PlayCanvas to access your Sketchfab account.\\n\\n[](/img/asset-store-sketchfab-authorize.gif)\\n\\nIt\'s so quick and easy!\\n\\n### New License and Author Info for Assets\\n\\nSketchfab assets are all tagged with a license and an author. When you import Sketchfab content into your PlayCanvas projects, it\'s important that we preserve this information. Now, when you click on any imported asset, you\'ll see we\'ve added links to license and author information in the Inspector panel.\\n\\n[](/img/asset-store-sketchfab-license.gif)\\n\\nThis ensures that the author\'s licensing wishes are respected and that they recieve credit for their work.\\n\\n### Go Forth and Create\\n\\nWith today\'s release, it\'s never been easier to create interactive 3D experiences for the web. We hope you love the new Sketchfab integration. But, as always, we _love_ to hear your opinions so head over to the [forum](https://forum.playcanvas.com/t/playcanvas-integrates-sketchfab/31885) and join the conversation. Happy creating! \ud83d\udea7\ud83d\udc77"},{"id":"moving-from-wordpress-to-jekyll-a-case-study","metadata":{"permalink":"/moving-from-wordpress-to-jekyll-a-case-study","editUrl":"https://github.com/playcanvas/blog/tree/main/blog/2023-06-07-moving-from-wordpress-to-jekyll-a-case-study.md","source":"@site/blog/2023-06-07-moving-from-wordpress-to-jekyll-a-case-study.md","title":"Moving from WordPress to Jekyll - A Case Study","description":"Welcome to the new PlayCanvas blog! \ud83d\ude0e","date":"2023-06-07T00:00:00.000Z","tags":[{"label":"jekyll","permalink":"/tags/jekyll"},{"label":"wordpress","permalink":"/tags/wordpress"},{"label":"github","permalink":"/tags/github"}],"readingTime":6.73,"hasTruncateMarker":false,"authors":[{"name":"Will Eastcott","title":"CEO","url":"https://twitter.com/willeastcott","imageURL":"https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/2635146631/edcd8b6dc4a34625770095941519ca8a_400x400.png","key":"will"}],"frontMatter":{"authors":"will","slug":"moving-from-wordpress-to-jekyll-a-case-study","title":"Moving from WordPress to Jekyll - A Case Study","tags":["jekyll","wordpress","github"]},"unlisted":false,"prevItem":{"title":"PlayCanvas Adds Sketchfab Integration","permalink":"/playcanvas-adds-sketchfab-integration"},"nextItem":{"title":"Announcing the New PlayCanvas Asset Store","permalink":"/announcing-the-new-playcanvas-asset-store"}},"content":"Welcome to the new PlayCanvas blog! \ud83d\ude0e\\n\\n\\n\\nWe have made the decision to move from WordPress to [Jekyll](https://jekyllrb.com/) and although it\'s early days, so far, we are very pleased with the results. Therefore, we thought it might be useful to explain the reasons why we did this and describe the process we followed.\\n\\n### Some History\\n\\nWe originally started our blog back in February 2012 with a very [low-key post](https://blog.playcanvas.com/hello-world/). We installed our own instance of WordPress and that functioned fine for a few years. However, in 2015, we decided that we didn\'t want to deal with managing a WordPress instance ourselves and so we signed up for [WPEngine](https://wpengine.com/), a WordPress hosting service. And there we stayed until today.\\n\\n### A Better Way?\\n\\nOver the years, some frustrations over WordPress did start to materialize. Customizing styling was tricky, bulk editing posts was not an option, managing media through the media library was quite inconvenient, and so on. On top of that, our blog was continuing to grow in popularity and WPEngine costs were rising. A team member suggested Jekyll as an alternative so we ran some tests to see what would be involved in a migration.\\n\\n### Migrating from WordPress to Jekyll\\n\\nFirst up, I should say that you should make use of ChatGPT when you attempt something like this. It made it a smooth and pleasant experience for me. But so you can see how straightforward it was, here are the key steps:\\n\\n1. **Export Your WordPress Content.** On your WordPress Dashboard, navigate to Tools > Export and select \'All Content\'. Click \'Download Export File\'. You should receive an XML file that contains all of your site\u2019s content.\\n2. **Convert WordPress Export to Jekyll Format.** To convert your WordPress export file to a Jekyll-friendly format, you can use a tool called `exitwp`. Here are the steps:\\n\\n - Clone or download `exitwp` from its [GitHub repository](https://github.com/thomasf/exitwp).\\n - Put your WordPress XML file in the `wordpress-xml` directory in the `exitwp` directory.\\n - Run `exitwp` (requires Python and some libraries, see the repo\'s `README` for details).\\n - This will generate a `_posts` directory containing all your blog posts converted into markdown format that Jekyll understands.\\n\\n3. **Setting Up Jekyll.**\\n\\n - Install Ruby and Jekyll. For installation guide refer to [Jekyll\'s official site](https://jekyllrb.com/docs/installation/).\\n - Create a new Jekyll site by typing `jekyll new my-awesome-site` in the command line.\\n - Replace the `_posts` directory in your new Jekyll site with the `_posts` directory that `exitwp` generated.\\n - You can run your site locally to see how it looks by using the command `bundle exec jekyll serve`.\\n - Then, open your browser to http://localhost:4000.\\n\\nOnce I had our blog post content successfully exported to a basic Jekyll site, I checked everything in to a new [GitHub repository](https://github.com/playcanvas/blog). From this point, I wanted any change I made to the content to be tracked via Git version control - I mean, why wouldn\'t you?\\n\\nThe initial migration to Markdown worked OK but it wasn\'t perfect. There was a lot of superfluous whitespace in the generated Markdown and syntax was broken in places. So I took the opportunity to do a wholesale spring clean of the Markdown content.\\n\\n#### Prettier\\n\\n[Prettier](https://prettier.io/) is a great code formatter but you may not know that it also has built-in support for Markdown formatting. I installed Prettier via NPM and ran it over all Markdown files:\\n\\n```shell\\nprettier --write _posts\\n```\\n\\nAll formatting was now beautifully consistent.\\n\\n#### Linkinator\\n\\n[Linkinator](https://github.com/JustinBeckwith/linkinator) is a tool for reporting broken hyperlinks in both Markdown and HTML. I scanned the locally generated Jekyll site with it using the following command:\\n\\n```shell\\nlinkinator . --server-root _site --recurse --verbosity error\\n```\\n\\nI fixed well over 100 dead links. The older the post, the more dead links there tended to be (as you might expect). While I was always able to use Linkinator on the published WordPress site, it was never convenient to skip from post to post and edit hyperlinks in the WordPress UI (we have over 220 posts). So I never made the time for it. Now I was able to quickly search and replace links in Visual Studio Code and it was a breeze.\\n\\nAside from giving your readers a better experience, here\'s what ChatGPT has to say about dead links:\\n\\n> While Google\'s algorithms are complex and multifaceted, it is generally understood that having too many broken or dead links on your site can negatively affect your website\'s SEO ranking, albeit indirectly.\\n\\nSo this step was definitely worth doing!\\n\\n#### Media Library\\n\\nEvery WordPress blog has a Media Library that contains all of the images and videos referenced by your posts. The PlayCanvas Media Library had over 1GB of content. However, I noticed that a large amount of content was not actually referenced by any post. I wanted to ensure that I exported only the _used_ media (since I didn\'t want to bloat the GitHub repository).\\n\\n- **Step 1:** Install WordPress plugin [Media Cleaner](https://wordpress.org/plugins/media-cleaner/) and use it to delete unused media files.\\n- **Step 2:** Install WordPress plugin [Export Media Library](https://wordpress.org/plugins/export-media-library/) to download all remaining media files in a ZIP.\\n\\nThis process cut the Media Library from 1GB to about 550MB. I simply extracted the ZIP contents to `assets/media` (relative to the root folder of my Jekyll site) and then did a search and replace of all media embed links to use the new file location. Easy!\\n\\n### Hosting on GitHub Pages\\n\\nI now had a fully exported and functional Jekyll blog. But where to host it? One option was to throw the static site onto a file server and put it behind a CDN. But wait, the file-set of the Jekyll blog now sits in GitHub, so why not use [GitHub Pages](https://pages.github.com/) to host the site? There are some great benefits:\\n\\n- Deployment is a breeze to set up.\\n- It\'s a managed platform so you just don\'t need to worry about maintenance and security as you would with your own infra.\\n- And, oh yeah, **it\'s free!**\\n\\n### The Pros and Cons\\n\\nSo now that we\'re migrated over, let\'s quickly summarize the key benefits:\\n\\n- **Free:** Costs for our blog are now a pleasing $0.\\n- **Secure:** We have eliminated a potential attack vector. No more password reset confirmation emails!\\n- **Powerful Tooling:** There\'s a vast array of free and open source tools to lint and format Markdown.\\n- **Easy Editing:** Choose any editor you like such as the awesome Visual Studio Code.\\n- **Versioned:** All content is now under version control providing revision history, diffing and so on.\\n- **Collaborative:** We can take contributions to the blog via GitHub\'s pull request mechanism.\\n- **Customizable:** We have fine-grain control over the HTML and styling of posts using Jekyll themes.\\n- **Platform Agnostic:** Markdown makes it trivial to migrate to any other platform in the future.\\n\\nOK, but what about the cons? \ud83e\udd14 I have to tell you - I genuinely can\'t think of any! Sure, we don\'t have comments enabled now but as I understand it, Disqus has a [Jekyll integration](https://help.disqus.com/en/articles/1935528-jekyll-installation-instructions) that we can turn on at some point. Seriously, feel free to ping me on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/willeastcott/) if you think I\'m missing something here. But I wish we had taken this step years ago.\\n\\n### Open Source and Open to Contributions\\n\\nAs mentioned, the blog is now on [GitHub](https://github.com/playcanvas/blog). Take a moment to go check out the repository and hit that Star button if you like what we\'ve done here. \u2b50 We\'ve taken the step to open source the blog\'s content under an [Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International](https://github.com/playcanvas/blog/blob/main/LICENSE.md) license. This is part of our continuing drive to open source most of what we do.\\n\\nUltimately, we want **you** to get involved and help us make the blog better and better over time. Consider submitting issues and pull requests yourself.\\n\\n- Submit spelling and grammar fixes.\\n- Submit design tweaks and improvements.\\n- Submit your own posts showcasing your PlayCanvas projects.\\n\\nIt\'s your blog! \ud83d\ude0a\\n\\nThat\'s all from me. Looking forward to many-a-future blogs posts on this new platform. \ud83d\udc4b"},{"id":"announcing-the-new-playcanvas-asset-store","metadata":{"permalink":"/announcing-the-new-playcanvas-asset-store","editUrl":"https://github.com/playcanvas/blog/tree/main/blog/2023-04-26-announcing-the-new-playcanvas-asset-store.md","source":"@site/blog/2023-04-26-announcing-the-new-playcanvas-asset-store.md","title":"Announcing the New PlayCanvas Asset Store","description":"The PlayCanvas Asset Store is the first place that users tend to go to find content for their projects. This is especially true for new users who want to get started as quickly as possible. Up until now, the Store has not been particularly easy to use and the content has not changed in quite a long time. In short, a complete overhaul and refresh has been long overdue. So today, we are incredibly excited to announce a major upgrade for the PlayCanvas Asset Store!","date":"2023-04-26T00:00:00.000Z","tags":[{"label":"asset-store","permalink":"/tags/asset-store"},{"label":"editor","permalink":"/tags/editor"},{"label":"news","permalink":"/tags/news"},{"label":"workflow","permalink":"/tags/workflow"}],"readingTime":3.425,"hasTruncateMarker":false,"authors":[{"name":"Will Eastcott","title":"CEO","url":"https://twitter.com/willeastcott","imageURL":"https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/2635146631/edcd8b6dc4a34625770095941519ca8a_400x400.png","key":"will"}],"frontMatter":{"authors":"will","slug":"announcing-the-new-playcanvas-asset-store","title":"Announcing the New PlayCanvas Asset Store","tags":["asset-store","editor","news","workflow"]},"unlisted":false,"prevItem":{"title":"Moving from WordPress to Jekyll - A Case Study","permalink":"/moving-from-wordpress-to-jekyll-a-case-study"},"nextItem":{"title":"Initial WebGPU support lands in PlayCanvas Engine 1.62!","permalink":"/initial-webgpu-support-lands-in-playcanvas-engine-1-62"}},"content":"The PlayCanvas Asset Store is the first place that users tend to go to find content for their projects. This is especially true for new users who want to get started as quickly as possible. Up until now, the Store has not been particularly easy to use and the content has not changed in quite a long time. In short, a complete overhaul and refresh has been long overdue. So today, we are incredibly excited to announce a major upgrade for the PlayCanvas Asset Store!\\n\\nFirst up, check out a little example of building a city scene using content taken from the Asset Store. A skybox, a pack of 3D city block meshes and a camera control script are imported and the city is built via drag and drop. And _not one single line of code is needed_!\\n\\n\\n \\n
\\n\\nNow, let\'s examine some of the key highlights that make the new Asset Store so special.\\n\\n### Built Right In To The Editor\\n\\nIt should be possible to grab assets quickly, right from within the Editor itself. Why should you have to open a new tab and go hunting around the web? So to keep things as convenient as possible, the ASSET STORE button (in the Editor\'s Assets Panel) now opens a nicely designed, responsive Asset Store panel.\\n\\n[](/img/asset-store-open.gif)\\n\\nOne really cool benefit of selecting assets from within the Editor is that the currently selected Asset folder is known. This means you have compete control over where your imported assets will be saved.\\n\\n### Preview Store Assets Before Import\\n\\nSometimes, an asset thumbnail just isn\'t sufficient to tell if a particular asset is what you want.\\n\\n[](/img/asset-store-viewer.gif)\\n\\nOur new Store allows you to select a Store Item and preview it in an appropriate viewer (glTF Viewer for 3D models, Texture Viewer for textures and cubemaps).\\n\\n### Find What You Want Quickly\\n\\nAs the number of store items continues to grow, it\'s going to be incredibly important for you to be able to narrow down your assets searches. As a result, the new Store comes with powerful searching, sorting and filtering capabilities.\\n\\n[](/img/asset-store-search.gif)\\n\\nYou can filter by asset type, search asset names and descriptions and then order search results on a host of criteria.\\n\\n### Fresh New Content\\n\\nRecently, the Asset Store content was, let\'s just say, beginning to show its age. We are now in a world of HDR skyboxes, PBR materials and high polygon meshes. So it made sense to erase old store items and refresh the Store with better, more modern content. We have selected a broad variety of Creative Commons assets from fantastic content sources such as [kenney.nl](https://kenney.nl/), [HDRi Haven](https://hdri-haven.com/), [Sketchfab](https://sketchfab.com/) and Khronos\' [glTF Sample Models](https://github.com/KhronosGroup/glTF-Sample-Models).\\n\\n[](/img/asset-store-content.gif)\\n\\nIf you would have any suggestions for content you would like to be added to the Store, please do let us know!\\n\\n### The Future\\n\\nThere\'s still so much we want to do with the new Asset Store! But here are some things we have in mind:\\n\\n1. **More Content.** The important thing to say about today\'s update is that it delivers the core infrastructure on which we can iterate. It is now exceptionally easy for us to populate the store with more content. So, in the near term, you can expect to see the range of content expand quite rapidly.\\n\\n2. **Third Party Stores.** Now that we have a solid foundation in place for the Store, we have the ability to host third party stores within the same UI and maximize your choice.\\n\\n3. **More Asset Types.** Today\'s launch offers models, fonts, textures, skyboxes and scripts. Next, we want to add audio assets and template assets (AKA prefabs). Template assets in particular are very exciting because you would be able to import fully interactive, visual entities into your projects (such as a drivable vehicle or a controllable character).\\n\\nWhat would _you_ like to see us add to the Asset Store next? Let us know on the [forum](https://forum.playcanvas.com/).\\n\\nHappy creating, friends!"},{"id":"initial-webgpu-support-lands-in-playcanvas-engine-1-62","metadata":{"permalink":"/initial-webgpu-support-lands-in-playcanvas-engine-1-62","editUrl":"https://github.com/playcanvas/blog/tree/main/blog/2023-03-31-initial-webgpu-support-lands-in-playcanvas-engine-1-62.md","source":"@site/blog/2023-03-31-initial-webgpu-support-lands-in-playcanvas-engine-1-62.md","title":"Initial WebGPU support lands in PlayCanvas Engine 1.62!","description":"WebGPU is a cutting-edge technology that promises to revolutionize the way 3D graphics are handled on the web. As the successor to WebGL, WebGPU provides faster and more efficient rendering capabilities for complex 3D graphics and simulations.","date":"2023-03-31T00:00:00.000Z","tags":[{"label":"webgpu","permalink":"/tags/webgpu"}],"readingTime":3.095,"hasTruncateMarker":false,"authors":[{"name":"Martin Valigursky","title":"Software Engineer","url":"https://twitter.com/ValigurskyM","imageURL":"https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1262848991982690305/gUUoHdk1_400x400.jpg","key":"martin"}],"frontMatter":{"authors":"martin","slug":"initial-webgpu-support-lands-in-playcanvas-engine-1-62","title":"Initial WebGPU support lands in PlayCanvas Engine 1.62!","tags":["webgpu"]},"unlisted":false,"prevItem":{"title":"Announcing the New PlayCanvas Asset Store","permalink":"/announcing-the-new-playcanvas-asset-store"},"nextItem":{"title":"WebXR AR Made Easy with PlayCanvas","permalink":"/webxr-ar-made-easy-with-playcanvas"}},"content":"WebGPU is a cutting-edge technology that promises to revolutionize the way 3D graphics are handled on the web. As the successor to WebGL, WebGPU provides faster and more efficient rendering capabilities for complex 3D graphics and simulations.\\n\\nPlayCanvas has been at the forefront of this new technology and has been working on adding WebGPU support to its platform.\\n\\nWith WebGPU, we can expect to see more immersive and interactive 3D experiences on the web in the future.\\n\\n[](/img/webgpu-area-lights-demo.jpg) \\n[_PlayCanvas WebGPU Clustered Area Lights Demo_](https://playcanvas.com/demos/arealights/)\\n\\n## Refactoring of WebGL engine\\n\\nBefore adding support for WebGPU, it\'s important to discuss the significant amount of refactoring work that was required on our existing WebGL engine. Implementing deeper architectural changes while preserving backwards compatibility required a significant amount of meticulous care.\\n\\n- To enable support for WebGPU, we needed to establish a clear separation of graphics technology that could be shared between WebGL and WebGPU. This involved a significant refactoring effort to extract WebGL-specific code into a separate set of classes.\\n- PlayCanvas utilizes a collection of shader chunks to produce GLSL shaders that implement advanced material properties and lighting modes, as well as custom shader chunks defined by users. However, since WebGPU employs the WGSL language, we used glslang and tint WASM modules to dynamically convert these shaders on-the-fly with injecting support for uniform buffers and other modifications.\\n- The PlayCanvas engine lacked explicit render passes, making the rendering process more rigid and harder to extend. This was solved by implementing a FrameGraph that allowed us to describe the rendering process as a set of render passes, their dependencies, and associated targets, which created a more flexible and performant rendering architecture.\\n- Unlike WebGL, which sets render state and shaders using a custom API, WebGPU specifies all those through render pipelines. To support both rendering APIs with optimal performance, we needed to refactor the render states into standalone objects that are efficient to compare and set up.\\n- To support the WebGPU platform, we need to undergo a significant refactoring to organize uniforms into uniform buffers.\\n- To facilitate the asynchronous creation of WebGPU device, we have introduced a new async API to create a graphics device, which is the primary breaking change required to adopt WebGPU.\\n\\n## What is left to do\\n\\n- Our primary objective is to align the WebGPU implementation with that of WebGL, and while we have made significant progress towards this goal, there are still some features that are missing. Furthermore, several smaller details require cleanup and rectification.\\n- We need to incorporate it into the Editor environment for both launched and published applications. Currently, only WebGL is available in this environment.\\n- Our primary objective is to achieve full parity with WebGL, but initially, we are focusing on basic implementations of some concepts to deliver a working implementation, which will need to be extended to meet our performance objectives.\\n- WebGPU provides developers with access to Compute Shaders, which enables more efficient parallel processing of data on the GPU. This feature can significantly improve the performance of complex algorithms and simulations, which may have been impractical to run on the CPU. With access to Compute Shaders, we can bring new visual features to the next level, such as advanced particle systems, post-processing and global illumination techniques.\\n\\n## Engine examples\\n\\nAs an early pre-release of WebGPU, we have updated several engine examples to use it, which can be accessed on [https://playcanvas.github.io](https://playcanvas.github.io/). To use WebGPU, the Chrome Canary browser is required, with the \'chrome://flags/#enable-unsafe-webgpu\' flag enabled.\\n\\n[](/img/playcanvas-examples-browser-webgpu.jpg)\\n\\n[PlayCanvas Examples Browser](https://playcanvas.github.io/)\\n\\nLet us know what you think in the [forums](https://forum.playcanvas.com/t/engine-release-v1-62/30360)!\\n\\n### Attributions\\n\\n[Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme Sedan \'71](https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/oldsmobile-cutlass-supreme-sedan-71-78f76d386a4341b0b71745bdc50fd5ab) by Barbo is licensed under [Creative Commons Attribution](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)"},{"id":"webxr-ar-made-easy-with-playcanvas","metadata":{"permalink":"/webxr-ar-made-easy-with-playcanvas","editUrl":"https://github.com/playcanvas/blog/tree/main/blog/2023-03-16-webxr-ar-made-easy-with-playcanvas.md","source":"@site/blog/2023-03-16-webxr-ar-made-easy-with-playcanvas.md","title":"WebXR AR Made Easy with PlayCanvas","description":"We are excited to announce the launch of our WebXR AR Starter Kit, available in the New Project dialog today!","date":"2023-03-16T00:00:00.000Z","tags":[{"label":"ar","permalink":"/tags/ar"},{"label":"webxr","permalink":"/tags/webxr"}],"readingTime":0.8,"hasTruncateMarker":false,"authors":[{"name":"Steven Yau","title":"Partner Relations Manager","url":"https://twitter.com/yaustar","imageURL":"https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1675831859756908545/E60-0cNq_400x400.jpg","key":"steven"}],"frontMatter":{"authors":"steven","slug":"webxr-ar-made-easy-with-playcanvas","title":"WebXR AR Made Easy with PlayCanvas","tags":["ar","webxr"]},"unlisted":false,"prevItem":{"title":"Initial WebGPU support lands in PlayCanvas Engine 1.62!","permalink":"/initial-webgpu-support-lands-in-playcanvas-engine-1-62"},"nextItem":{"title":"Draco Mesh Compression Arrives in the PlayCanvas Editor","permalink":"/draco-mesh-compression-arrives-in-the-playcanvas-editor"}},"content":"We are excited to announce the launch of our WebXR AR Starter Kit, available in the New Project dialog today!\\n\\n[](/img/webar-xr-starterkit-project-dialog.jpg)\\n\\n[WebXR](https://immersiveweb.dev/) is a technology that powers immersive and interactive AR and VR experiences to be accessed through supported web browsers. This allows us to build memorable, engaging content and share them with just a URL. No installs needed!\\n\\nThe starter kit comes with all you need to kickstart your AR experience for WebXR including:\\n\\n- Real world light estimation\\n- AR shadow renderer\\n- AR object resizing and positioning controls\\n- Physics raycasting\\n- And more!\\n\\nLook how quickly you can create AR experiences below!\\n\\n\\n \\n
\\n\\n[Pacman Arcade + animation](https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/pacman-arcade-animation-0b43f85af5384ea4bac5d6e2d3cbd008) by Daniel Br\xfcck is licensed under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)\\n\\n[Try it on your device](https://playcanv.as/p/inoDeWOQ/)\\n\\nGive the Starter Kit a try today at [playcanvas.com](https://playcanvas.com) where you can use it for free!"},{"id":"draco-mesh-compression-arrives-in-the-playcanvas-editor","metadata":{"permalink":"/draco-mesh-compression-arrives-in-the-playcanvas-editor","editUrl":"https://github.com/playcanvas/blog/tree/main/blog/2023-02-28-draco-mesh-compression-arrives-in-the-playcanvas-editor.md","source":"@site/blog/2023-02-28-draco-mesh-compression-arrives-in-the-playcanvas-editor.md","title":"Draco Mesh Compression Arrives in the PlayCanvas Editor","description":"We are thrilled to announce the immediate availability of Draco Mesh Compression in the PlayCanvas Editor! Our latest feature allows developers to compress meshes using Google\'s Draco technology, reducing file sizes and enhancing the end-user experience.","date":"2023-02-28T00:00:00.000Z","tags":[{"label":"compression","permalink":"/tags/compression"},{"label":"editor","permalink":"/tags/editor"},{"label":"gltf","permalink":"/tags/gltf"},{"label":"performance","permalink":"/tags/performance"}],"readingTime":1.64,"hasTruncateMarker":false,"authors":[{"name":"Will Eastcott","title":"CEO","url":"https://twitter.com/willeastcott","imageURL":"https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/2635146631/edcd8b6dc4a34625770095941519ca8a_400x400.png","key":"will"}],"frontMatter":{"authors":"will","slug":"draco-mesh-compression-arrives-in-the-playcanvas-editor","title":"Draco Mesh Compression Arrives in the PlayCanvas Editor","tags":["compression","editor","gltf","performance"]},"unlisted":false,"prevItem":{"title":"WebXR AR Made Easy with PlayCanvas","permalink":"/webxr-ar-made-easy-with-playcanvas"},"nextItem":{"title":"How to make your HTML5 Games Awesome!","permalink":"/how-to-make-your-html5-games-awesome"}},"content":"We are thrilled to announce the immediate availability of Draco Mesh Compression in the PlayCanvas Editor! Our latest feature allows developers to compress meshes using Google\'s Draco technology, reducing file sizes and enhancing the end-user experience.\\n\\nAt its core, [Draco Mesh Compression](https://google.github.io/draco/) reduces the amount of data needed to represent 3D graphics without compromising visual quality. The technology achieves this by applying a lossy compression algorithm to the mesh data. With less data to transfer, the result is faster load times and lower bandwidth costs for your applications.\\n\\nThe open source [PlayCanvas Engine](https://github.com/playcanvas/engine) has been able to load Draco-compressed glTF 2.0 files for quite some time now. But now you can generate these Draco-compressed glTF files in the Editor at import time. Check out how easy it is to use:\\n\\n\\n \\n
\\n\\n_[\\"1972 Datsun 240k GT\\"](https://skfb.ly/6VtZu) by Karol Miklas is licensed under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)._\\n\\nIn the example above, a **49.9MB** GLB file is crunched down to only **3.67MB**. That\'s a **92.6% reduction is file size**! And for the majority of scenes, you should notice _no difference in terms of visual quality_. The only cost is decompression time when the compressed GLB is downloaded by an end user, but this should be significantly less than what is saved in terms of download time.\\n\\nTo enable the feature, open your Project Settings in the Inspector, expand the Asset Tasks panel and edit the Mesh Compression setting. Then, simply Re-Import any existing FBX or GLB and compression will be applied. Any FBX or GLB subsequently imported will also respect your mesh compression setting. Read more on the [Developer Site](https://developer.playcanvas.com/user-manual/assets/import-pipeline/#mesh-compression).\\n\\nWe believe that mesh compression is going to take many types of applications to the next level, particularly e-commerce applications like product configurators, which need to load detailed meshes as fast as possible.\\n\\nGet started with PlayCanvas today and make your WebGL dreams a reality!"},{"id":"how-to-make-your-html5-games-awesome","metadata":{"permalink":"/how-to-make-your-html5-games-awesome","editUrl":"https://github.com/playcanvas/blog/tree/main/blog/2023-02-07-how-to-make-your-html5-games-awesome.md","source":"@site/blog/2023-02-07-how-to-make-your-html5-games-awesome.md","title":"How to make your HTML5 Games Awesome!","description":"How To Make Your HTML5 Games Awesome","date":"2023-02-07T00:00:00.000Z","tags":[{"label":"gamedev","permalink":"/tags/gamedev"},{"label":"html5","permalink":"/tags/html-5"},{"label":"webgl","permalink":"/tags/webgl"}],"readingTime":11.625,"hasTruncateMarker":false,"authors":[{"name":"Paulo Oliveira","title":"Associate Partner Support Engineer","url":"https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulo-oliveira-ninitoph/","key":"paulo"}],"frontMatter":{"authors":"paulo","slug":"how-to-make-your-html5-games-awesome","title":"How to make your HTML5 Games Awesome!","tags":["gamedev","html5","webgl"]},"unlisted":false,"prevItem":{"title":"Draco Mesh Compression Arrives in the PlayCanvas Editor","permalink":"/draco-mesh-compression-arrives-in-the-playcanvas-editor"},"nextItem":{"title":"PlayCanvas now supports Microsoft volumetric video playback","permalink":"/playcanvas-now-supports-microsoft-volumetric-video-playback"}},"content":"import ReactPlayer from \'react-player\'\\n\\n\\n\\nThe quality of a video game is often determined by how polished it is. It\'s the attention to detail and the finishing touches that can make a good game great. In this article, we\'ll take a look at the importance of polish in game development and how it can significantly enhance the overall experience.\\n\\nWe\'ll use [Space Rocks!](https://playcanvas.com/project/1029772/overview/space-rocks), a simple Asteroids game created with the PlayCanvas game engine to showcase how even the smallest details can make a big impact.\\n\\n> [Game juice](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fy0aCDmgnxg) is a design term to refer to the small visual and audio effects that are added to a game to make it feel more satisfying to play. This can include things like screen shakes, particle effects, and sound effects that are triggered when the player takes certain actions. Game juice is all about enhancing the overall feel of a game and making it more immersive and enjoyable.\\n\\nParticularly, we\'ll explore how game polish can be achieved through **game juice**.\\n\\n- + diff --git a/avif-webp-land-in-editor/index.html b/avif-webp-land-in-editor/index.html index 6e46b0699..2ffc60f62 100644 --- a/avif-webp-land-in-editor/index.html +++ b/avif-webp-land-in-editor/index.html @@ -5,7 +5,7 @@Clustered area lights are happening at @playcanvas ! pic.twitter.com/LTwlhbcg8y
— Martin Valigursky (@ValigurskyM) November 11, 2021
A Faster SuperSplat with PWA Support
· 2 min read
Today, we are announcing the v0.17.0 release of SuperSplat, the open source tool for editing and optimizing 3D Gaussian Splats.
+A Faster SuperSplat with PWA Support
· 2 min read
Today, we are announcing the latest release of SuperSplat, the open source tool for editing and optimizing 3D Gaussian Splats.
Version 0.17.1 focuses on two key areas: performance and PWA support.
Performance Improvements
diff --git a/initial-webgpu-support-lands-in-playcanvas-engine-1-62/index.html b/initial-webgpu-support-lands-in-playcanvas-engine-1-62/index.html index 32dd55a8c..9c86f170c 100644 --- a/initial-webgpu-support-lands-in-playcanvas-engine-1-62/index.html +++ b/initial-webgpu-support-lands-in-playcanvas-engine-1-62/index.html @@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
Version 0.17.1 focuses on two key areas: performance and PWA support.
Performance Improvements
diff --git a/runtime-lightmap-generation-for-webgl/index.html b/runtime-lightmap-generation-for-webgl/index.html index e2875da98..a4b3129b2 100644 --- a/runtime-lightmap-generation-for-webgl/index.html +++ b/runtime-lightmap-generation-for-webgl/index.html @@ -5,7 +5,7 @@2 posts tagged with "gaussian-splats"
View All TagsA Faster SuperSplat with PWA Support
· 2 min read
Today, we are announcing the v0.17.0 release of SuperSplat, the open source tool for editing and optimizing 3D Gaussian Splats.
+2 posts tagged with "gaussian-splats"
View All TagsA Faster SuperSplat with PWA Support
· 2 min read
Today, we are announcing the latest release of SuperSplat, the open source tool for editing and optimizing 3D Gaussian Splats.
Version 0.17.1 focuses on two key areas: performance and PWA support.
Performance Improvements
diff --git a/tags/gdc/index.html b/tags/gdc/index.html index ae0019ad5..98a7c3793 100644 --- a/tags/gdc/index.html +++ b/tags/gdc/index.html @@ -5,7 +5,7 @@2 posts tagged with "supersplat"
View All TagsA Faster SuperSplat with PWA Support
· 2 min read
Today, we are announcing the v0.17.0 release of SuperSplat, the open source tool for editing and optimizing 3D Gaussian Splats.
+2 posts tagged with "supersplat"
View All TagsA Faster SuperSplat with PWA Support
· 2 min read
Today, we are announcing the latest release of SuperSplat, the open source tool for editing and optimizing 3D Gaussian Splats.
Version 0.17.1 focuses on two key areas: performance and PWA support.