Beyond the Frame environments you can choose in our environment picker, you can upload your own 3D models to be the environment for your Frames. We have some requirements and some tips and tricks to get you off the virtual ground with your own beautiful models. Once you have your file by following all of the guidelines below, this video shows you how to actually upload it to your Frame.
For starters, your model must be a .glb model and be no more than 50MB in size. We will occasionally make exceptions to this if you want to upload a larger model (email [email protected] if you do), but we encourage you to try to get your model well below that size limit to ensure good performance and decent load times for your Frame.
Also, the environment model must have a bounding radius of 500m or less
<aside> 💡 For accurate scene scale we provide this Sample Avatar with sitting and standing positions
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Frame runs from a web browser, and if you expect any of your audience to join from VR headsets, mobile devices, or older desktops, you should do your best to get your file size as low as possible and follow the guidelines below. We are confident that with the right techniques and optimizations, you can bring gorgeous spaces into Frame.
If you are struggling to get your model in a state where it can imported as a Frame environment, we may be able to help. Email [email protected]
As mentioned, we only support .glb models. .glb is the binary, single-file form of a gltf model. You can learn more about the gltf format here. It's a flexible, open-source format that is specifically designed for web environments like Frame. Most 3D design tools have native .glb export tools or plugins/extensions that let you export your models to .glb
We make most of our models in Blender, or they at least end up there before we do our final exports, because we have found that Blender has the best support for the gltf/glb format. That said, Microsoft makes an exporter for 3ds Max, and many other tools besides Blender have native glb exporting available. You can ensure that your model is a valid gltf/glb model here.
Overall, if you're new to GLTF, and especially if you also use Blender, this is a great article with some good tips.
The origin point (0, 0, 0) of your 3D scene will be the default spawn location for users that enter your FRAME, so make sure that you strategically position your origin point. If your model has an origin point that is far away from the model itself, it may not even work at all. Also, avoid having the origin point of your scene directly inside any enclosed geometry in your environment. Ideally, your origin point is at an open area with not too much going on around it, to help your users not feel overwhelmed when they first spawn in your space.
You should limit the amount of textures in your model, and definitely avoid really heavy textures. If you can avoid using textures where you can instead use vertex colors or color palettes, then do so. If you're having a hard time reducing the heaviness of your textures and you want help, let us know at [email protected] and we'll see how we can help.
Your material definition in the Blender node editor is not always completely honored in the process of exporting to .glb. There is somewhat of a narrow path in terms of meeting the exporter's expectations. We suggest enabling the Node Wrangler Blender add-on. Use the CTRL + SHIFT + T to open the Node Wrangler from within the Node Editor. Navigate to the folder with your PBR textures, select them, and click the button for the Node Wrangler to constitute the node material definition. Then, set your external assets to be automatically packed and reduce your PBR texture maps to 512x512 or maybe 1024x1024. Then, export and your environment should look good in Frame.
Be sure to adjust the scaling of the mapping nodes in your editor to reflect the level of tiling you want.
Reduce your poly count as much as possible. For geometry that you can duplicate, set them up as linked duplicates in Blender.