Figure 1: An example of a 3D model shown with visibility culling in a web browser reducing the immediate GPU memory consumption. The view from outside (left) consumes 693 MB, whereas the view from the inside (right) with visibility culling consumes only 161 MB of the GPU memory. This is a part of a much larger scene shown in Fig. 8. Model courtesy of Canary Wharf Contractors Limited. AbstractAs Web3D technology advances, the need for delivering real-time 3D content online has gained traction in the academic as well as commercial world. Various efforts have been made in creating a suitable transmission format for streaming of 3D assets over the Internet. Despite being accustomed to waiting for long periods of time for massive scenes to load in CAD editors, end users often expect an instant rendering on a web browser. An effective streaming transmission format, coupled with progressive encoding methods, is able to create a better interactive experience for the users. Most of the existing techniques are either domain specific, tying the users in on a particular rendering engine, or they are too general; resulting in extra processing at the application level. In this paper, we demonstrate a novel method of transmitting 3D assets in glTF format for high interoperability and scalability in 3D Repo. Firstly, we extend glTF with the ability to stream binary data buffers with a progressive encoding technique to increase performance and overall client interactivity. Next, we extend X3DOM for glTF support and introduce multipart optimization into glTF as a way of grouping multiple meshes together which significantly reduces the number of network requests as well as draw calls. Finally, we investigate memory management protocols and devise a novel GraphicsMemoryManager suitable for streaming on top of X3DOM in order to render models that otherwise would not fit available video memory.

This paper presents a novel open source web-based 3D version control system positioned directly within the context of the recent strategic plan for digitising the construction sector in the United Kingdom. The aim is to achieve reduction of cost and carbon emissions in the built environment by up to 20% simply by properly managing digital information and 3D models. Even though previous works in the field concentrated mainly on defining novel WebGL frameworks and later on the efficiency of 3D data delivery over the Internet, there is still the emerging need for a practical solution that would provide ubiquitous access to 3D assets, whether it is for large international enterprises or individual members of the general public. We have, therefore, developed a novel platform leveraging the latest open web-based technologies such as AngularJS and X3DOM in order to define an industrial-strength collaborative cloud hosting service 3drepo.io. Firstly, we introduce the work and outline the high-level system architecture as well as improvements in relation to previous work. Next, we describe database and frontend considerations with emphasis on scalability and enhanced security. Finally, we present several performance measurement experiments and a selection of real-life industrial use cases. We conclude that jQuery provides performance benefits over AngularJS when manipulating large scene graphs in web browsers.

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