3 posts tagged with "asset-store"

Today, we're excited to announce the integration of Sketchfab into the PlayCanvas Editor!

"Spartan Armour" by McCarthy3D is licensed under CC BY 4.0.

With today's launch you'll have instant access to Sketchfab's enormous library of high quality 3D content right inside the Editor.

What Is Sketchfab?​

Sketchfab is a platform that allows users to publish, share and discover 3D content on the web. You can think of it as a sort of "YouTube for 3D models". The platform hosts millions of 3D models in various formats, including glTF, OBJ, STL, and more.

Users can upload their 3D models to Sketchfab and embed them in other websites much like one would embed a YouTube video. This has made it popular for showcasing 3D models for a wide range of uses including game assets, 3D scans, architectural models, and educational content.

Accessing Sketchfab from the Asset Store​

Earlier this month, we announced the brand new PlayCanvas Asset Store. The Asset Store is an in-Editor panel of useful assets that you can use in your projects. With a few clicks, you can browse, discover and import various types of content. So it is the obvious place to incorporate the vast Sketchfab content library.

To access the Sketchfab library, simply hit the Asset Store button on the Asset Panel header and select the SKETCHFAB filter on the left.

Authorizing PlayCanvas to Access Sketchfab​

If you want to import models from Sketchfab into PlayCanvas, you first need to create a Sketchfab account. Then, the first time you try to import a Sketchfab model in the Asset Store, you will be asked to authorize PlayCanvas to access your Sketchfab account.

It's so quick and easy!

New License and Author Info for Assets​

Sketchfab assets are all tagged with a license and an author. When you import Sketchfab content into your PlayCanvas projects, it's important that we preserve this information. Now, when you click on any imported asset, you'll see we've added links to license and author information in the Inspector panel.

This ensures that the author's licensing wishes are respected and that they recieve credit for their work.

Go Forth and Create​

With today's release, it's never been easier to create interactive 3D experiences for the web. We hope you love the new Sketchfab integration. But, as always, we love to hear your opinions so head over to the forum and join the conversation. Happy creating! 🚧👷

The PlayCanvas Asset Store is the first place that users tend to go to find content for their projects. This is especially true for new users who want to get started as quickly as possible. Up until now, the Store has not been particularly easy to use and the content has not changed in quite a long time. In short, a complete overhaul and refresh has been long overdue. So today, we are incredibly excited to announce a major upgrade for the PlayCanvas Asset Store!

First up, check out a little example of building a city scene using content taken from the Asset Store. A skybox, a pack of 3D city block meshes and a camera control script are imported and the city is built via drag and drop. And not one single line of code is needed!

Now, let's examine some of the key highlights that make the new Asset Store so special.

Built Right In To The Editor​

It should be possible to grab assets quickly, right from within the Editor itself. Why should you have to open a new tab and go hunting around the web? So to keep things as convenient as possible, the ASSET STORE button (in the Editor's Assets Panel) now opens a nicely designed, responsive Asset Store panel.

One really cool benefit of selecting assets from within the Editor is that the currently selected Asset folder is known. This means you have compete control over where your imported assets will be saved.

Preview Store Assets Before Import​

Sometimes, an asset thumbnail just isn't sufficient to tell if a particular asset is what you want.

Our new Store allows you to select a Store Item and preview it in an appropriate viewer (glTF Viewer for 3D models, Texture Viewer for textures and cubemaps).

Find What You Want Quickly​

As the number of store items continues to grow, it's going to be incredibly important for you to be able to narrow down your assets searches. As a result, the new Store comes with powerful searching, sorting and filtering capabilities.

You can filter by asset type, search asset names and descriptions and then order search results on a host of criteria.

Fresh New Content​

Recently, the Asset Store content was, let's just say, beginning to show its age. We are now in a world of HDR skyboxes, PBR materials and high polygon meshes. So it made sense to erase old store items and refresh the Store with better, more modern content. We have selected a broad variety of Creative Commons assets from fantastic content sources such as kenney.nl, HDRi Haven, Sketchfab and Khronos' glTF Sample Models.

If you would have any suggestions for content you would like to be added to the Store, please do let us know!

The Future​

There's still so much we want to do with the new Asset Store! But here are some things we have in mind:

1. More Content. The important thing to say about today's update is that it delivers the core infrastructure on which we can iterate. It is now exceptionally easy for us to populate the store with more content. So, in the near term, you can expect to see the range of content expand quite rapidly.

2. Third Party Stores. Now that we have a solid foundation in place for the Store, we have the ability to host third party stores within the same UI and maximize your choice.

3. More Asset Types. Today's launch offers models, fonts, textures, skyboxes and scripts. Next, we want to add audio assets and template assets (AKA prefabs). Template assets in particular are very exciting because you would be able to import fully interactive, visual entities into your projects (such as a drivable vehicle or a controllable character).

What would you like to see us add to the Asset Store next? Let us know on the forum.

Happy creating, friends!

Propsplanet is an online digital marketplace which sells 3D models to independent game developers. Previously powered by the Unity Web Player browser plugin, Propsplanet has this week relaunched using the PlayCanvas engine.

"Upgrading our online 3D preview from Unity to PlayCanvas has made a huge difference to the customer experience on our website. It lets us broaden our audience from desktop only to include every shopper including tablet and mobile users. Our early tests show that using PlayCanvas decreases page loading times by over 10x which has led to more item views and the average time on site has increased by over 500%.”

Propsplanet founder, Wale Adeyeye

“WebGL technology is a huge deal for online retailers. For companies like Propsplanet, having previews of their digital assets is vital. Previous technologies were limited by plugins which led to low engagement and were simply missing the enormous mobile market. We’re showing how PlayCanvas isn’t just able to power the next-generation of games but also help digital retailers and other websites use 3D on the web to raise engagement and increase sales.”

PlayCanvas CEO, Will Eastcott

Propsplanet used our cloud-hosted tools platform to build the interactive 3D application which let’s users preview hundreds of 3D models streamed dynamically from the server. Because PlayCanvas applications are standard web pages the preview application works on every platform.

You can see what an improvement we made to the Propsplanet user experience in this side-by-side comparison video

You can try the PlayCanvas-powered application on Propsplanet’s store website now.