3D Content Guidelines for Microsoft Jeremy Kersey, Fiona Mok Version 1.3 2019 00 Introduction 03 Content Creation 04 Additional Resources 3D Content Guidelines for Office Creating Custom 3D Assets for Office Tools Guide overview Content creation overview Preview tools Polygon modelling Validation tool Surfacing Appendix 01 3D Engine Overview Animation Useful links Rendering Overview Export Workflows What is rendering? Export overview Offline rendering GLB Real-time rendering FBX OBJ Office 3D Engine PLY Real-time rendering in Office STL Performance targets 3MF Office 3D feature support Conversion Workflows CAD 02 Sourcing Assets Intermediate file formats Optimizing Acquiring 3D Assets for Office File size and memory consumption Acquiring 3D assets overview Performance Online marketplace search terms Selecting content Visual Artifacts Common visual artifacts Vendors Introduction 3D Content Guidelines for Office Introduction Guide overview Whether you are a Microsoft Office 365 user looking to acquire 3D assets for your documents or a 3D professional creating content for your clients, this guide is designed to help you be more successful with 3D in Office. The guide is split into four major parts: 01 3D Engine Overview 02 Sourcing Assets 03 Content Creation 04 Additional Resources If 3D in Office 365 is new to you, be sure to check out this quick start guide and video. These templates are also a great way to explore using 3D in PowerPoint and Word. Introduction Guide overview Each of the four major parts of the guide can be read in sequence or independently in any order you choose. 01 3D Engine Overview 02 Sourcing Assets 03 Content Creation 04 Additional Resources Learn about the inner workings of the Tips and tricks for finding quality 3D Step through the process of creating Discover tools for viewing, analyzing real-time 3D engine used in Office content in online marketplaces and content for real-time rendering in and validating your 3D content as and how it compares to other working with vendors to build your Office. From modelling, surfacing and well as links to other valuable methods of rendering 3D content. custom assets. animation through to optimizing and resources. exporting your assets. Recommended reading for: Recommended reading for: Recommended reading for: Recommended reading for: Everyone Office users looking to acquire 3D assets 3D Professionals 3D Professionals Office users reviewing 3D content 3D Engine Overview Rendering Overview 3D Engine Overview What is rendering? To create the computer-generated images used in today’s films, video games and applications, 3D models are created with complex materials and textures and then lit and animated in virtual simulations of real-world physical properties. Rendering is the process of calculating the results of these simulations and turning it into the final image on screen. Depending on the intended usage of the resulting images, different types of renderers can be used to achieve varying levels of quality and accuracy versus the time it takes to render. Recursive Ray Tracing of a sphere, which incorporates the effects of diffuse interreflection, limited depth-of-field and area light Learn more about the process of computer graphics rendering on sources. Generated using a custom Java renderer. Wikipedia. Tim Babb, 2018. Wikipedia license. 3D Engine Overview Offline rendering Offline rendering makes use of a technique called Ray Tracing to achieve the photorealism and ultra high precision seen in today’s films and product visualizations. Ray Tracing aims to replicate the way light interacts with objects and reflects to your eyes in the real world. This simulation of physical properties is what creates realistic surfaces, lighting phenomenon, accurate reflections and shadows. This level of quality comes at a high computational cost and is usually carried out on large server farms and can take several minutes or even hours to produce a single high-resolution image of complex scenes. Ray Tracing is commonly used in offline rendering, where as most of today’s real-time renderers rely explicitly on Rasterization. For Illustration of the Ray Tracing algorithm for rendering an image. more information on the differences see Nvidia’s article here. Henrik, 2018. Wikipedia license. 3D Engine Overview Real-time rendering The power of real-time rendering really shines in interactive experiences where the action on screen in not predetermined. Rasterization is a real-time rendering technique used in today’s video games and simulators. Rasterization is hardware accelerated by the Graphics Processing Unit or “GPU” in your computer to achieve a constant frame rate with smooth interactions and fluid animations. Rendering complex scenes at this pace on today’s hardware requires some tradeoffs in physical accuracy compared to an offline renderer where speed is less of a constraint. Visit Scratchapixel for an in-depth breakdown of a Rasterization Principle of the geometrical perspective projection. implementation. Joachim Baecker, 2005. Wikipedia license Office 3D Engine 3D Engine Overview Real-time rendering in Office Supported 3D File Formats File Extension Meshes Materials UVs Textures Vertex Colors Animation Office is using a real-time Rasterization renderer to create the GLB Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes resulting images you see when you insert a 3D model. FBX Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes glTF or “GL Transmission Format” is the open source 3D file OBJ Yes Yes Yes Yes No No format used by Office to store and render all 3D models. PLY Yes No No No Yes No Many different 3D file formats can be imported and are automatically converted to glTF before rendering in Office, STL Yes No No No No No because of this it is important to understand the feature set of 3MF Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No the glTF specification. Each supported 3D file format has its own limitations that need to be considered when authoring content. Click the links in the table above to jump to the export guide for each format in the Content Creation section. GLB is the binary version of glTF which allows you to store complex 3D assets in a single file for maximum portability. GLB is recommend when exporting to the glTF format for Office. 3D Engine Overview Performance targets The hardware and the resolution of the screen used to view or present your 3D documents will have a direct impact on what fidelity of models you will be able to display while remaining performant. This table defines some conservative targets to aim for when acquiring or authoring 3D content for a range of hardware. When in doubt, target models to the Mid-Range profile for a balance of fidelity and performance. Low End Mid-Range High End Processor and Graphics i3 i5, Integrated Graphics i7/i9, Discrete GPU Triangle Count Maximum 25k 40k 60k Texture Count Maximum 5 9 12 Texture Resolution Maximum 512x512 2048x2048 4096x4096 Texture Resolution Average 256x256 1024x1024 2048x2048 3D file sizes should be kept below 50mb whenever possible. Draw Calls Maximum 4 6 8 Large 3D file sizes will directly affect the size of your documents Joint Count Maximum 40 100 180 and make them less portable. Share large documents easily using a Joint Count Mapped to Vertices Maximum 20 50 100 cloud service such as OneDrive or SharePoint. Multiple Texture Passes per Material Not Recommended Yes Yes 3D Engine Overview Office 3D feature support 3D Feature Office on *Windows PC Office on **Mac 3D Model Support Mesh Primitives with Physically Based Rendering (PBR) Office 2019 Office 2019 Depending on the version of Office you are working Metallic Roughness material workflow Office 365 Subscription Office 365 Subscription with, there will be differences in the available 3D Points and Lines Primitives - - features. Animated 3D Model Support Skinned skeletal animation Office 365 Subscription - Office 365 receives regular updates and will provide Node transform animation - - access to the latest features as they become available. Morph Target animation - - glTF Extension Support 3D features are supported on: Office 2019 Office 2019 KHR_materials_pbrSpecularGlossiness • Office for Mac Office 365 Subscription Office 365 Subscription • Office for Windows Office 2019 Office 2019 KHR_materials_unlit • Office Mobile for Windows 10 Office 365 Subscription Office 365 Subscription *Supported Windows PC Versions: Win7 (with latest updates), Win8 and Win10 **Mac 2012 or greater with OS X Sierra or greater Documents authored with 3D content will still be viewable by users on the web clients or previous versions of Office. However, 3D models will be displayed as images with no embedded animation or interaction capabilities. Sourcing Assets Acquiring 3D Assets for Office Sourcing Assets Acquiring 3D assets overview There are a couple of options to consider when acquiring 3D content, each has its own advantages depending on your needs. Online marketplace Vendors Advantages Advantages • Plenty of pre-made content in many different art styles • Completely custom assets built to your specifications • Assets ready for immediate download • glTF compliant and performant • Attractive pricing • Assets can be owned outright when the proper agreement is in place Disadvantages Disadvantages • You may not be able to find a suitable asset • Lead time • Assets may require modifications to be glTF compliant and performant • Requires more time investment up front and during development • Licensing terms may prevent the intended usage • High quality vendors can come at a high cost Sourcing Assets Online marketplace search terms