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Reply to USDZ is not getting the job done for AR on ios. Are there plans to utilize WebXR in future versions of ios for phones and ipads?
I feel you. The amount of issue we encounter when working with USDZ creates complication across all our pipelines. We'd really love to support the Apple Ecosystem but the lack of documentation turns USDZ, for example with Quicklook, into a never ending research cycle. Just an example: I know USDZ is a much more complicated format then GLB. But in AR views GLB compression with WebP can slim down complex files (with AO maps) to 6-9 MBs, while USDZ remain at 30-50 MB, in many countries or even some regions in between good networks, a difficult experience. Or bespoken AOs. To create a useful pipeline how AO Setup would work in Blender for GLB and USDZ, took us days of research. Or name the development for Reality Converter is slow and it lacks a lot of practical features. No WebXR in Quicklook, where we are not able to add color changing buttons or similar to the AR experience, while that is totally simple with Android phones. These and many more issues we encounter make us often give the feeling what is Apple direction here, with AR Quicklook or Vision Pro in the end at all. Please Apple, hear the mourning.
May ’24
Reply to Apple's Choice: USDZ over Other 3D File Formats like GLTF
@Umbra: I completely agree with you on this. Working with USDZ for iOS AR experiences is incredibly time-consuming and frustrating for our company. We frequently find ourselves reverse-engineering problems and issues specific to the USDZ format that simply don't exist with GLB. Let me provide an example: We create high-quality 3D product models for web and AR applications. These can be compressed to 4-12 MB as GLB files. However, maintaining the same quality in USDZ format often results in file sizes of 60 MB or more. This leads to frequent crashes in iOS Safari or excessively long loading times in AR, making it impractical to offer to customers. Consequently, we're forced to adopt a dual approach: high-quality models for Android AR cases and lower quality for Apple devices. This clearly contradicts Apple's mission of providing superior user experiences. Furthermore, we're reliant on unpolished software like "Reality Converter," which seems to be in perpetual development with virtually no communication from Apple. We resort to downloading it monthly just to check if there's been a version update. It's challenging to comprehend Apple's strategy here. With Vision Pro and the iPad and iPhone positioned as excellent AR devices, the obstacles they're creating are baffling. I believe that dedicating a team to USDZ development, or even just assigning 5 staff members to the task, could make a world of difference.
Jul ’24