If you want to use binary format, convert OBJ models using "convert_obj_threejs_slim.py" with "-t binary" option.
This will now create two files:
JS part with materials
BIN part with binary buffers
Binary models are loaded like this:
loader.loadBinary( 'obj/lucy/Lucy250k_bin.js', function( geometry ) { createScene( geometry, s ) }, "obj/lucy" );
(difference to ascii format is that url root must be always specified so loader can find binary buffers file, like it already was for textures)
Good news:
- raw binary files are quite smaller than raw ascii files (about half size)
- loading times went down about 20-25%
- now also Firefox can handle 250k triangle mesh (it just bugs about long running script), with ascii format it threw "array initialiser too large" exception
Mixed news:
- gzipped binary files are only about 25% smaller than gzipped ascii files so actual benefits are smaller,
also it's more likely server will have JS gzipping on by default, while you need to set it up for
other formats (could be hacked around by naming binary files with JS extension instead of BIN?)
Bad news:
- browser blocking is back :( Not that it ever went completely away (for large models object creation is more costly than loading and it is blocking), but it was slightly better with ascii loader (where data is loaded as worker's JS body).
- this comes from having to use Ajax to load binary data
- loading binary data by Ajax from within worker didn't really help, it was in fact slightly slower and browser did freeze :(
- can't easily embed binary data in JSON (would need to encode it which would make it bigger, defying the purpose)
- Loader got fatter
Also in this commit: renamed Loader.loadAsync() => Loader.loadAsciiOld() and Loader.loadWorker() = Loader.loadAscii() so that names correspond to model formats instead of underlying implementation.
loadAsciiOld - JS exported by Blender and old OBJ converter
loadAscii - JSON created by slim OBJ converter (-t ascii)
loadBinary - JSON + BIN created by slim OBJ converter (-t binary)
TODO:
- look into UV coordinates, should be indexed the same way as vertices, normals and faces are (instead of unrolled per each face)
- look into HTML5 File API, binary blobs could help
The idea is that later there will be more loaders which would load different formats (like OBJLoader, ColladaLoader).
Usage (async JS):
var loader = new THREE.Loader();
loader.loadAsync( "obj/torus/Torus.js", function() { createScene( new Torus() ) } );
Usage (web worker):
var loader = new THREE.Loader();
loader.loadWorker( "obj/torus/Torus_slim.js", function( geometry ) { createScene( geometry ) } );
Web worker loader is useful for large meshes, where it allows browser to stay responsive for longer time and also it can handle larger meshes than async JS loader.
Web worker loader needs a simpler format of the model. Web workers can communicate with the main application only via message passing, where messages are JSON objects.
There is a new version of OBJ -> Three.js converter (convert_obj_threejs_slim.py) which can produce model in format needed for web workers.
All examples which were using models from OBJ converter were refactored to use Loader.
Except large mesh example, all examples are using just async JS loading. Web worker loading is there, it's just commented out, as it's a bit pain for local development.
Chrome doesn't allow to run web workers from pages accessed via file://, so you need either to run it with "--allow-file-access-from-files" flag, or access examples via local server (http://localhost/example.html).
Limitations:
- Chrome can handle up to 5 lights in total (directional + point)
- Firefox seems to handle up to 29 lights
These number are GPU specific (mine is ATI Mobility Radeon 3650).
This turned out to be quite tricky. The number of varying vectors in shaders is limited. Additionally Chrome and Firefox have different limitations (at least on Windows, probably due to Chrome using ANGLE as rendering backend).
Hence WebGLRenderer has hardcoded limit of maximum 5 lights.
WebGLRenderer constructor now takes (optional) scene argument, so that numbers and types of lights present in the scene can be used to generate minimal possible shader.
If no scene is passed, shader allowing 1 directional + 4 point lights will be generated.
Changed OBJ -> Three.js converter to use new materials system (eventual old models need to be reconverted).
Limitations:
- one use case is now much slower
- when a mesh has each face with different color (e.g. polyfield in examples/test.html)
- before this used FaceColorFill material and in WebGLRenderer it was rendered fast with color attribute array
- now when FaceColorFill material is gone, each face gets own VBO :(
- material sorting uses Materials "toString" methods for hashing, so it's very important to keep these in a good shape
In Chrome it looks more or less ok, but it has some problem in Firefox 4 (with some camera angles there are black areas around edges).
Also updated Python builder scripts and examples to include this new material.
Mr.doob
alteredq
sole
Mark DiMarco