Business context
The client is a drone imagery company in Australia that captures buildings and monuments for customers in survey, architecture and construction. Its captures are only as valuable as its customers' ability to open and explore them. Meshes, textures and panoramas delivered as loose files are hard for non-specialists to use.
The challenge
The client needed a tool to visualize and walk through 3D models of buildings. The tool had to combine two kinds of data in one place: textured 3D meshes and 360 panoramic images. Moving between them had to feel smooth, and users needed to measure real distances and angles in a web browser, not in desktop 3D software.
Our solution
We built a new web-based 3D and 360 panoramic viewer with three.js and React. It loads the client's meshes and panoramas directly and lets each project be set up through configuration rather than new code.
- Loading of panoramic JPG images, 3D meshes from OBJ, and textures
- 360 cubic rendering with zoom and rotation controls
- Configurable hotspots, transition effects, 3D models and textures
- Depth and 3D surface orientation effects on the mouse pointer
- Interactive measurement of distance and angle
- Realistic, 3D mesh, dollhouse and first-person camera view modes
Business impact
The viewer can be configured to visualize different building structures.
- The client delivers each capture as an interactive web experience instead of a set of files, which makes its output easier to sell
- The client's customers inspect and measure a structure from any browser, without a new site visit
- Building owners and project teams who do not use 3D tools can still find their way around a site
- One viewer serves many projects, so the client adds new structures without new development work
Prolincur was a key enabler for our front end web development project… reliable, punctual, and a great communicator… able to meet our requirements on a tight timeline.
