Introducing MASSIVE by Sketchfab (Alpha)

Thanks to an initiative with Iconem and CNRS – a department of the French government – last year we teased that we had begun to explore how to to support much larger data sets with our embeddable 3D viewer. Today, as part of our ongoing initiative to bring any and all 3D content to the web, we’re proud to reveal the Alpha version of our latest product: MASSIVE by Sketchfab.

While currently still in Alpha, this year’s SIGGRAPH Festival provides the ideal platform to unveil our new technology. We look forward to hearing from you on how this could be leveraged for your needs to help us build toward the best possible experience and feature set.

In this example of scanned photogrammetry data of Norwich Castle by Sketchfab community member terraDrone, you can use our player to zoom in and out of an area that comprises 40 million triangles.

MASSIVE uses a combination of data streaming and automated Level of Detail (LOD) mesh processing to make it possible to browse much larger 3D models in a browser.

We currently support OBJ and PLY datasets and theoretically there is no size limit on the data we can display. In practice though we’ll be working with you to determine suitable parameters appropriate for upload and maintenance.

Here’s another aerial scanned example by Sketchfab community member skymove.

Our technology can handle any appropriate 3D data set, so it’s not limited to map data. Here’s an example of streaming in greater fidelity at an archaeological site by Zamani Project.

Note, we are currently only using vertex color to add color information to meshes which can mean that at a distance fewer vertices will not provide enough detailed information and detail resolves as you move closer. We are also working on optimized texture support that will make for a much smoother and more detailed experience.

We are also continuing to work on optimizing MASSIVE for mobile and low-powered devices and slower connection speeds. If the above example does not play smoothly for you, you can watch a video of the same scene below.

MASSIVE by Sketchfab will launch in 2019 and we’ll be sure to keep you up to date with the latest developments over the coming months. In the meantime, if you’re interested in learning more on how MASSIVE could be leveraged for your needs and potentially help us further develop the product, please reach out to our Enterprise team.