Model-viewer: Support simultaneous viewing of multiple models

[ronpadz]

Support for simultaneous viewing of multiple models in the viewer at once is required for augmented reality experiences. Consider the example of a "try-and-buy" experience where the user would like to see how multiple pieces of furniture look in their living room. Modular sofas are an example whereby different components can be combined in myriad configurations based on the dimensions of the space and the tastes of the customer. The creator of the experience should be able to add all of the sofa module models to the package. The implication is that once added to the viewer, the user would need to be able to select the bounding box for each model individually in order to manipulate it.

This is related to issue #481 in that there need to be multiple models packaged with the experience and available for selection, but this differs in that this use case requires multiple models to be simultaneously present in the viewer then selectively manipulated..

[smalls]

Yeah, this is a good question!

We have discussed adding basic scene composition through a mix of tools (#12) and hot-swap/configuration support (my comment on #481). A single modular sofa might be a good use case here, but a full interactive room designer (with many different sofas, couches, and lights) might not.

Longer-term, I think there may be some interesting scene composition features we could add that's more in line with what you may be thinking of. A-Frame has some really interesting work. That needs a fair bit more discussion, though.

[cdata]

I want to document some design discussion that has taken place side-band related to this topic.

At W3C Inclusive Design for Immersive Web standards workshop I gave a presentation that contains this slide:

This suggests a declarative API for incorporating multiple models into a single <model-viewer> element, which in turn has implications for https://github.com/GoogleWebComponents/model-viewer/issues/675, #738 and possibly other planned features.

[ronpadz]

so theoretically no limit to the number of 's, right? Good start. Lots of considerations for how the properties operate.

[cdata]

Theoretically no limit beyond what is feasible with DOM nodes and the resource limitations related to loading 3D models in a browser.

Keep in mind that a single glTF model of modest complexity incurs a lot of memory overhead.

[pedrobergamini]

Are there any plans on implementing @cdata suggestion?

[elalish]

@pedrobergamini We don't really have the resources to do the declarative approach in the near term, though contributions would be welcome. I'm hoping we can get a JS API together first to add models to the scene.

[jensdev]

@elalish any update on this? Would love this feature, especially in AR. So you could add a new table / chairs to your dining room

[elalish]

@jensdev Not yet; it's definitely on the roadmap, but it'll be a fair amount of work. I'm currently working on some smaller items for our upcoming release. Hopefully I can start on this thereafter.

[jensdev]

@elalish Thanks for the update. Would be really nice to build a scene in a declarative way with different model files which can be moved/rotated. Can we see the current roadmap somewhere?

[elalish]

@jensdev The near term roadmap is the ToDo column in our github project. This will be a bigger piece of work that I'm not sure when I'll have time for. Any interest in collaborating on it?

[Qiweih]

Hello, is there any update about this features ? Thanks.