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Assets types & compatibility

3D Models / Objects

3D Models

The modern 3D asset pipeline

Even though we support several 3D file formats, we highly recommend switching your 3D production pipeline to glTF. It is a format adopted by industry leaders and is going to be present in the entire 3D ecosystem.

Minsar supports glTF/GLB and OBJ files for now. More file formats are expected in the future though. You can import animated glTF/GLB objects, and you can edit some properties of the animation inside the app itself ( like the speed of the animation, for instance).

Minsar leverages Physical Based Rendering to closely match the appearance defined by the asset creators. We support the same file formats as Images. Diffuse, Bump, Normal are supported, as well as Ambient Occlusion, Roughness and Metallic. For these three maps, however, we highly recommend to follow the Khronos Group's official glTF pipeline. We are progressively adding support of glass-like materials as well.

Consider the general performance of your scenes

While we plan to offer a way to simplify the performance budget management, you currently have to pay attention to the amount of heavy assets you are willing to put in your scenes.

Based on the experience you are creating, you might want to balance between heavily-decimated assets (< 20K triangles) and more detailed ones (> 250K triangles).

In any case, you shouldn't expect to import a 3D Assets with more than 500K triangles and see no impact on performance.

Moreover, please note that if your experience works well in Minsar Studio, it doesn't mean it will open smoothly on your visitors' devices! Always test your experiences, and remember : think "optimization"!

Reflective assets, such as 3D objects with metallic material, can benefit from our Environment Based Rendering system. On this model you can see the reflection of the Minsar offices.

A note from Blender users exporting to OBJ

If exporting a .obj from Blender, make sure you toggle the "Relative” mode in the very last option called "Path Mode”. Else the path written in the .mtl exported along the .obj will be incorrect and Minsar won’t be able to find the texture. Also, make sure there is a .mtl file exported along with your .obj. You must put both the .obj and the .mtl files in the provider in order for Minsar to properly import your object.

See Shape section to get more information about the creation of shapes.


Image

Supported images

Images

We currently support JPG, JPEG, PNG, and are considering adding support for BMP, TGA, HDR, PNM. If you are interested in these, please let us know!

We automatically resize your textures and will use the best version based on several parameters, such as the device running the scene and the complexity of the scene.

Minsar handles flat images as well as 360 images (with the ability to choose outer or inner). For both options, transparency is supported for PNG - we automatically detect transparent images and remove the default background color (which you can customize later on). See below for more information.

Image types

When you import an image, you have to choose its type:

  • Flat image: a regular flat image.

  • Outer 360 image: the 360 image is displayed on the outside of a sphere.

To use an Inner 360 Image, you have to create a projet for a virtual location: see dedicated project section.


Video

Supported videos

Videos

We currently support MP4 as the most universal video file format and support many different video types. Check out Video types section below for more information.

We recommend to avoid using videos that have a resolution higher than 1920x1080. The maximum size for the file is 500Mb.

Pipeline improvements coming in 2021

Later this year, we will announce a new feature that will automatically transcode and resize your videos to be able to stream the best version based on several parameters, such as the network bandwidth and the device capabilities.

Video types

When you import a video, you have to choose its type:

  • Flat video: a regular flat video.

  • Outer 360 video: the 360 video is displayed on the outside of a sphere.

  • Volumetric video: the video is displayed in 3D.

To use an Inner 360 Video, you have to create a projet for a virtual location: see dedicated project section.

Make sure you choose a file compatible with the video type you want.

Video player

As for sounds, the video player is displayed at the top of the menu.

Range

As for sound, you can set the range of the sound to manage from where the visitor will hear the video sound. See Range section for sounds.


Image & Video

Backside color

You can choose the color of the backside of an image/video with the "Backside color" button.

Rounded and sharp corners

By default flat content corners are rounded.

You can change them to sharp if you want to in their menu.


Sound

Supported sounds

Sounds

We have support for OGG, WAV, MP3, though we currently recommend using WAV.

You can set the audio as "spatialized" or "ambient", using the Range Sphere.

Texts

Sound player

The player is displayed at the top of the menu for sounds and videos.

Use it to play the video in Creation mode.

If you want to play the video in the experience in visit mode, use the Play action.

Range

The Range is disabled by default, meaning the sound can be heard from anywhere in the experience.

If the "Range" is enabled, you set a maximum distance from the sound element for the visitor to hear it.

You can change its size thanks to the dedicated handler displayed on the Range sphere diameter.


Text

You can create a textblock with the button "Create textblock" on the "Creation" menu.

Tap again on the textblock to edit its content.

In the "Format" menu, you can edit the:

  • Text color

  • Font size

  • Font

  • Text alignment

  • Line spacing

  • Corners type: Rounded (by default) and Sharp

  • Background color

You can also import text. It will replace all the textblock content.

We recommend you write your text (without formatting) on a PC, upload the TXT file on your preferred cloud storage service, then import it in your scene. You can then use the rich text formatting options, described above, to enhance your text element.


Shape

There are several types of shape available:

When created, each shape is customizable.

  1. Just go to the "Transform" menu.

  2. Choose "Modify" to edit the shape proportions.

  3. Hold and drag handlers to modify the shape.

You can also change the shape, the new one will keep the same proportions as the one you changed.

Color A shape is blue by default, but you can choose its color thanks to the "Color" button in its menu.