Save ARFaceGeometry to OBJ file

In an iOS ARKit app, I've been trying to save the

ARFaceGeometry
data to an OBJ file. I followed the explanation here: How to make a 3D model from AVDepthData?. However, the OBJ isn't created correctly. Here's what I have:


func renderer(_ renderer: SCNSceneRenderer, didAdd node: SCNNode, for anchor: ARAnchor) {
        guard let faceAnchor = anchor as? ARFaceAnchor else { return }
        currentFaceAnchor = faceAnchor
        
        // If this is the first time with this anchor, get the controller to create content.
        // Otherwise (switching content), will change content when setting `selectedVirtualContent`.
        if node.childNodes.isEmpty, let contentNode = selectedContentController.renderer(renderer, nodeFor: faceAnchor) {
            node.addChildNode(contentNode)
        }

        // https://stackoverflow.com/questions/52953590/how-to-make-a-3d-model-from-avdepthdata
        let geometry = faceAnchor.geometry        
        let allocator = MDLMeshBufferDataAllocator()
        let vertices = allocator.newBuffer(with: Data(fromArray: geometry.vertices), type: .vertex)
        let textureCoordinates = allocator.newBuffer(with: Data(fromArray: geometry.textureCoordinates), type: .vertex)
        let triangleIndices = allocator.newBuffer(with: Data(fromArray: geometry.triangleIndices), type: .index)
        let submesh = MDLSubmesh(indexBuffer: triangleIndices, indexCount: geometry.triangleIndices.count, indexType: .uInt16, geometryType: .triangles, material: MDLMaterial(name: "mat1", scatteringFunction: MDLPhysicallyPlausibleScatteringFunction()))
        
        let vertexDescriptor = MDLVertexDescriptor()
        // Attributes
        vertexDescriptor.addOrReplaceAttribute(MDLVertexAttribute(name: MDLVertexAttributePosition, format: .float3, offset: 0, bufferIndex: 0))
        vertexDescriptor.addOrReplaceAttribute(MDLVertexAttribute(name: MDLVertexAttributeNormal, format: .float3, offset: MemoryLayout.stride, bufferIndex: 0))
        vertexDescriptor.addOrReplaceAttribute(MDLVertexAttribute(name: MDLVertexAttributeTextureCoordinate, format: .float2, offset: MemoryLayout.stride + MemoryLayout.stride, bufferIndex: 0))
        // Layouts
        vertexDescriptor.layouts.add(MDLVertexBufferLayout(stride: MemoryLayout.stride + MemoryLayout.stride + MemoryLayout.stride))

        let mdlMesh = MDLMesh(vertexBuffers: [vertices, textureCoordinates], vertexCount: geometry.vertices.count, de}scriptor: vertexDescriptor, submeshes: [submesh])
        mdlMesh.addNormals(withAttributeNamed: MDLVertexAttributeNormal, creaseThreshold: 0.5)
        let asset = MDLAsset(bufferAllocator: allocator)
        asset.add(mdlMesh)

        let documentsPath = FileManager.default.urls(for: .documentDirectory, in: .userDomainMask).first!
        let exportUrl = documentsPath.appendingPathComponent("face.obj")
        try! asset.export(to: exportUrl)


The resulting OBJ file looks like this. I would expect many more vertices, and the index values look wrong.


# Apple ModelIO OBJ File: face
mtllib face.mtl
g
v -0.000128156 -0.0277879 0.0575149
vn 0 0 0
vt -9.36008e-05 -0.0242016
usemtl material_1
f 1/1/1 1/1/1 1/1/1
f 1/1/1 1/1/1 1/1/1
f 1/1/1 1/1/1 1/1/1
... and many more lines

Replies

If you're rendering the face geometry using SceneKit, you can instantiate MDLAsset from your SCNScene and export it using export(to: URL). Use MDLAsset's init(scnScene:) to create the exporter. And see the discussion section to ensure OBJ is a supported export format at runtime:


`The

MDLAsset
class infers the data format to export in from the
pathExtension
property of the specified URL. To determine whether a format is supported for export, call the
canExportFileExtension(_:)
method.`