Verge3D 3.8 pre2 available!

Augmented reality on iOS via USDZ

At the moment, the browser WebXR technology is only available in Chrome for Android, with Apple still working on bringing it to mobile Safari. However, Apple also offers its own way to web-based AR using Pixar Universal Scene Description (USD) format, even if lacks interactivity of WebXR.

In this update we managed to implement a run-time exporter to compressed .usdz format with Puzzles.

As a corollary to that, it is now possible to create AR content for iOS thanks to the following simple procedure: first, export to USDZ, and then, replace the link for your “Enter AR” button.

For best results, we recommend using glTF-compatible materials. We have updated our Augmented Reality example to work on iOS. Check it out on your iPhone or iPad: link.

Blender-specific

More settings are now supported for the Copy Location constraint: Axis, Invert, Offset, and Influence. Thanks for the suggestion and sorry for the delayed response.

The node Object Info is now supported by Verge3D. With it, you can use only one material for multiple objects – e.g., using objects’ vertex colors for painting them.

3ds Max-specific

For this update we supported a bunch of new nodes: Checkerboard, Image, Two Sided, Float To Int, Float To Matrix, Float To RGBA, RGB To Vector, RGBA To Float, Vector To RGB, Shuffle, Clamp, Color Convert, Color Correct, Range, Float To RGB, and RGB To Float.

The Global Illumination demo that features light probes introduced in version 3.7, is now available in the Verge3D distribution. Check it out live: link. We also fixed an issue with importing scenes containing a Reflection CubeMap object.

Maya-specific

For this update we support a bunch of new nodes: aiFloatToInt, aiFloatToMatrix, aiFloatToRgba, aiRgbToVector, aiRgbaToFloat, aiVectorToRgb, aiClamp, aiColorConvert, aiComposite, aiRange, aiColorCorrect, and aiShuffle.

We fixed an issue with importing scenes containing a Reflection CubeMap object (used for light probes). We also fixed the export crash occurred when using name spaces.

Other improvements

We synchronized Verge3D with the underlying Three.js library (r130). Major changes in the code base include:

• JS API for multiple render targets (MRT);
• support for realistic transmission in MeshPhysicalMaterial;
• support for WebXR layers to allow compositing between AR/VR scenes;
• improved performance for multi-shader materials.

All programming API in v3d.module.js are now class-based.

We fixed the performance regression in download file puzzle. Thanks for the report.