Get Your 3D Model

All 3D models should be in the FBX, glTF or OBJ format and have materials supported by Overte.

Get Your 3D Model from 3D Content Stores

There are many online 3D content websites that contain models that you can purchase or get for free. Keep the following in mind when sourcing 3D models from such sites:

• Check Licensing Terms: Make sure you check a model's licensing terms before you use it. It is your responsibility to ensure that you have sufficient rights to use the content.

  When you make a 3D model available on your Overte server, visitors are getting the links to those files in the same way as they would when viewing an image on a website. You should be comfortable that you have the rights to re-distribute the 3D content.

• Check Materials: You might find that the model may be missing its textures. If that happens, first check to see if the textures are included.

  If a model loads into Overte and doesn't look right, you may also find error information in the Interface logs. See Where do I find the Interface log files?

Create Your Own 3D Model

You can create your own 3D model using 3D modeling software such as Blender or Maya. Use any software of your choice as long as:

• The 3D model is in the FBX, glTF or OBJ format.

• The 3D model materials are supported by Overte. Use our materials guide to make sure that your materials load correctly.

Best Practices

Making 3D models for Overte (and VR) is different than making models for films, videos, and games.

• 3D models for VR are rendered twice (for both right and left eyes): This means that the number of polygons on your model and the number of materials you use will affect your performance.

• Most VR headsets run at 90Hz or higher: You’ll have to keep your framerate at 90fps and be cautious about your model’s size. Models that are too big or very complex can slow down the framerate and make people feel nauseous.

We've listed the best practices for creating 3D models for Overte (and VR).

Property	Best Practice
Polycount	Your count should resemble that of a model for a tablet game, not too high, but not too low either. For example 50000 Polygons should be more than enough for a detailed avatar.
Edge Loops	Remove edge loops that are not needed.
Mesh	Clean the mesh to make sure there are no N-gons and no coplanar faces. Any good 3D modelling software should do this on export.
Materials	Always try to create Atlas maps. When every piece of your content shares the same material and UV space, it is an Atlas map. For example, if you create a robot, all its pieces should share one UV map, instead of giving its hands, feet, or face separate materials and UV maps.
Materials	Overte’s engine only supports one UV mapping per material.
Textures	PNG, JPEG and JPG files are recommended, but we also support TGA, TIF and TIFF formats.
Textures	Choose the color types wisely to minimize the size of the final file.
Textures	PNG-8 has only ON/OFF transparency, has a palette of colors (256 colors, like GIF), and can be used to mask transparency.
Textures	For more color resolution, you can use PNG-24. For translucent mask or transparent textures, use PNG-32.
Textures	Do not use PNG-48 or PNG-64, as neither are supported by Overte.
Textures	When loaded in the engine, textures are automatically resized to a grid of 128x128. Pick sizes which are multiples of 128 to not waste any memory.
Textures	While textures are automatically downscaled if they don't fit into the texture memory, it makes sense to use a resolution as low as possible to lower file sizes and lower the strain on low-end machines from downscaling and recompressing the textures. For example a 4096x4096 texture should be plenty for a detailed avatar. Normal maps, emission maps, etc. don't need to be nearly as high resolution as the main color texture.
Draw Calls	Draw calls happen before something gets rendered on screen. 1 model w/ 1 material = 1 draw call There are no definitive measures for a desirable polycount. You need to balance between draw calls and polys. Fewer draw calls means more room for polys. Smaller textures means more room for higher poly models.
Baking	Baking assets can be very effective at lowering loading times and lowering strain on the target CPU. Baked textures can be loaded straight into the video memory without the CPU having to read and compress them beforehand. (As long as they don't need to be downscaled.) Baked models might profit from slightly lower filesizes. See Bake Your Content.