gltf vs babylon file

[pichou]

Hello everyone,

 

First congrats for this new v1.3 babylon version. Seems there is a lot of nice improvements and new tools!

I look at the gltf file format and I was wondering what was the differences with the babylon file format?
For instance I have look at some gltf files and I think they are way more light from what I saw with the babylon files. So does this this mean they would be faster to load ?
I guess that once the gltf model is loaded, you will have the exact same properties as in any mesh ( materials, clone, position, etc ) ?

Cheers, Pichou
 

[Xav]

Hello pichou,

Yes you can handle mesh in the same way as with a .babylon file.
The difference is at the Material level or unless I'm mistaken, you have to use a PBR material with these specificities!

You can also use the glb format which groups the mesh and the texures in the same file.

[JackFalcon]

Hi @pichou,

Did a deepdive,  here is glTF FINDINGS:

- glTF new hottness. As of Summer 2017. And for good reason... glTF === 3D everywhere. [everywhere?]. Nah.

- Babylon implemented glTF (almost) immediately. It has pretty good coverage... afalcon  goes through all  example prototypes. [all?] Ok, a few...

- Law of Importers: 3d tools can export Infinity of Features. We cannot import Infinity ~ so always something that cannot import. [always?]

          - maybe you've seen this... 

Q: "differences to .babylon"?

 A: .babylon is pretty awesome. Just apply objects before export (blender), and check your animations -> not every thing exports. Gotta tinker.  

         Also there is a rumored jedi exporter, the last one...  living on an island. It converts the assets to JavaScript, and is pretty robust. The force is strong with that 1...

- glTF can be compressed to binary right? So it can send 'screamin' stream-o-bits down the pipe. But!

- glTF Curveball: Fast down the pipe, is not fast to load. Good intuition on that, because bits could be a high-density blob right? Which happens... So

Q: "faster to load"

A: hmmm well, faster relative, bigger slower. [?] Watch the super fancy PBR example... does it take an extra heartbeat to load? [maybe its just afalcon...]

A:  Use BOTH... meaning: all three. Because some things work better for some things. For example: 

- switched back to .babylon for the moment, giving glTF time to grow, or at least be 6 mos. [is it?] - happy half birthday glTF!!! Ah,  so cute... little feet.

- but also that "converting 3D into Javascript modules" idea - tons of potential. if that is the sort of thing that you need. Like this guy.  

[what is it's funny name again?] [ping @JCPalmer?]      baba-lama-rama.... what is it?!? Can't recall... brain doesn't hold water.

Q: "more light!"

A: the default colors are different. Stumped me for a moment. The default color in glTF is a very nice middle grey... babylon - white? idk. Maybe that's it.... 

Q: "exact same properties"

A:  that would be nice.... but If afalcon had hand in it->>would get creative, and every property NOT exact same! But optimized!!! A slew of random-other-things...  

      [probably not]. That said, the import-gods did a fine job of following the pictogram (above), and greatful, greatfulness for that...

            

Run with .babylon first. It is really good --> TIP: in blender: Object->Apply RTS(rotation,translation,scale) before export, And check your animations (bones) before building super-big-things. Because (Law)-> not every thing exports!  And who knows, maybe there is a last jedi way [ha ha... so funny], to export assets directly into (rumored) arrays of numbers in code... the way the ancients did it!

[anyone downloading (and loading) big JS files quickly?] Idk... remains to be seen. Good questions. : )

<jokes-pending-removal/>

Happy holidays.