GLB conversion and compression

[creativelab]

I know this topic has been discussed many times but I am surprised the GLB workflow is still not fully integrated. Working for mobile experiences there are no way around it; we must work with GLB and yet there are still no way to import a GLB directly to playcanvas. I don’t mind the FBX → GLB conversion but the problem is:

1: there are no options to enable DRACO compression
2: sometimes the converted GLB file is bigger than the source FBX

I just wonder if GLB workflow is still under development and there is hope to see better tools one day to work with GLB or if our only option is to use FBX to set material and textures in the editor and create a script to just replace the FBX (or converted GLB) with our compressed GLB and just copy the materials properties onto it.

Once again I cannot imagine not working with GLB especially when developing mobile experiences, any help or info on the matter would greatly be appreciated!

Thanks

[yaustar]

1. Unfortunately not. The current method that other developers are doing is to import the Draco compression WASM (can be found here: Loading Draco Compressed GLBs | Learn PlayCanvas) and as a post build process (after downloading the ZIP to self host), run Draco compression on the GLBs in the project. While not ideal, can be automated quite nicely

2. Is that before or after GZIP compression? Generally, servers will gzip files for network transport so the size of download is usually smaller than the actual file size. For example, I’m looking at a 22MB Basis texture file that GZIPs to 2.2MB

[creativelab]

1. I know it can be automated nicely but not seing your model in the editor and not being able to update materials settings with the editor’s built-in tools defeat the whole purpose of using an editor in the first place

2. It’s before GZIP compression, just looking at the file size in playcanvas file explorer the converted GLB is usually bigger than source FBX

In my opinion the playcanvas team doesnt’ necessarily need to change a lot of things. Just leave us the possibility to import our own GLB files directly in the editor and being able to use the GLB as a container like with playcanvas’ converted GLB

But as of right now, importing a GLB directly in the editor create a binary file that we cannot drag onto the scene directly

[mvaligursky]

@creativelab

In my opinion the playcanvas team doesnt’ necessarily need to change a lot of things. Just leave us the possibility to import our own GLB files directly in the editor and being able to use the GLB as a container like with playcanvas’ converted GLB

It is on our todo list, but it’s not a small amount of work unfortunately.

[creativelab]

Very happy to hear it’s on the todo list!! Sorry to hear it’s not a small work…
Any chance you can give us a vague timeline for this to happen ?

Thank you very much for the reply

[yaustar]

@creativelab

• I know it can be automated nicely but not seing your model in the editor and not being able to update materials settings with the editor’s built-in tools defeat the whole purpose of using an editor in the first place

Sorry, yes, this was in the context of a Import FBX To GLB workflow, not importing GLBs directly

So the workflow would be to import into the Editor as a FBX so you would get all the materials, hierarchy, GLB container and viewable in the Editor.

When it comes to publishing, some automation can be done to compress the GLBs with Draco

[mvaligursky]

@creativelab

Any chance you can give us a vague timeline for this to happen ?

Sometimes in the second half of this year.

[creativelab]

Alright!! thanks for the timeline