AssetRegistry, REST post, to give access to AR mobile app

I take this opportunity to thank you because PlayCanvas is an extraordinary application and you are doing an exceptional job. However, when it comes to specific complex projects, some problems prevent the realization of the desired solution.

If you have some time, please read my requests and possibly answer me in private if you do not intend to reveal future developments now.

We are creating a Shopify based application that uses PlayCanvas for VR and another platform for AR. We would like to use PlayCanvas as a basis for VR and AR information, but unfortunately there are limitations:

  • I can’t upload images in PlayCanvas to RunTime;
  • there is no way to provide limited access to the editor to the client;
  • I’ve read about the 120 requests per minute on the REST side at PlayCanvas.

Obviously you will understand that we do not intend to provide the client with access to the PlayCanvas editor but only to use the application we are building. The damage that the customer could do, in addition to being able to read the sources, does not allow us to take this route.

The first limitation is resolved by bringing the textures (only the “diffuse”) that creates the customer on Shopify, but so I have two problems:

  • I have 2 calls to make, one to PlayCanvas and one to Shopify. Not that it’s a huge problem, but it would have been nice to have a single call to PlayCanvas (to be done ONLY for the AR, because for VR we are already INSIDE PlayCanvas and it is enough for me to recall the entities and assign the materials;

  • the second limitation is linked to the compression that PlayCanvas makes available to those who access the editor and is very efficient;

  • the third limitation is I have to manage a loader of additional data external to PlayCanvas: the textures that the customer creates are NOT internal to PlayCanvas.

My questions are:

  • do you confirm that there is no way to upload a texture even using the AppRegistry? If I use “add”, it’s still a temporary operation limited to the instance of the published application and doesn’t end up in the central archive. It’s correct?

  • when do you expect to release the “asset” POST as a “texture”? Is there a beta service that we could access, perhaps to help you test?

  • the limitation of requests worries me if the AR application is successful. The only thing that comes to mind is to download the entire application on the “mobile” client in order to limit the requests as much as possible. This would be fine also because I noticed that there is no “api” for the request of the “hierarchy” of the entities, but I have it when I get the whole application in download. It does mean, however, that I have to unzip the “mobile” app (not a big problem, but still more complexity to manage), but more seriously, the client receives sensitive data and files like the application’s sources. It is true that I could delete them after the upload, but a hacker could look at the traffic and intercept the data.

I hope you were able to read everything despite the things you have to do and understand my questions.

I thank you in advance in the hope of being able to solve these problems.

Thank you so much.

Romeo

When you say upload, where do you mean? Are you talking about the Editor, the runtime app (ie loading images as textures at runtime) or somewhere else?

What do you mean by central archive?

It is possible to compress the textures yourself but I don’t know what the settings/tools are used by PlayCanvas. There’s a few threads on this, you might be able to contact some of the posters to see if they are willing to share the settings/tools used.

Not sure what you mean by this. Can you provide an example of what you mean please?

Offhand, it sounds like you are best making an PlayCanvas app where all the item data and assets are on a separate service to the app. The app can then use the API of said service to load the items and the corresponding assets from the service.

Offhand, it sounds like you are best making an PlayCanvas app where all the item data and assets are on a separate service to the app. The app can then use the API of said service to load the items and the corresponding assets from the service

I supposed…

Thank you so much.

Romeo