TileFormats
Batched3DModel

Batched 3D Model

# Batched 3D Model

# Overview

Batched 3D Model allows offline batching of heterogeneous 3D models, such as different buildings in a city, for efficient streaming to a web client for rendering and interaction. Efficiency comes from transferring multiple models in a single request and rendering them in the least number of WebGL draw calls necessary. Using the core 3D Tiles spec language, each model is a feature.

Per-model properties, such as IDs, enable individual models to be identified and updated at runtime, e.g., show/hide, highlight color, etc. Properties may be used, for example, to query a web service to access metadata, such as passing a building's ID to get its address. Or a property might be referenced on the fly for changing a model's appearance, e.g., changing highlight color based on a property value.

A Batched 3D Model tile is a binary blob in little endian.

# Layout

A tile is composed of two sections: a header immediately followed by a body. The following figure shows the Batched 3D Model layout (dashes indicate optional fields):

# Padding

A tile's byteLength must be aligned to an 8-byte boundary. The contained Feature Table and Batch Table must conform to their respective padding requirement.

The binary glTF must start and end on an 8-byte boundary so that glTF's byte-alignment guarantees are met. This can be done by padding the Feature Table or Batch Table if they are present.

The 28-byte header contains the following fields:

Field name	Data type	Description
`magic`	4-byte ANSI string	`"b3dm"`. This can be used to identify the content as a Batched 3D Model tile.
`version`	`uint32`	The version of the Batched 3D Model format. It is currently `1`.
`byteLength`	`uint32`	The length of the entire tile, including the header, in bytes.
`featureTableJSONByteLength`	`uint32`	The length of the Feature Table JSON section in bytes.
`featureTableBinaryByteLength`	`uint32`	The length of the Feature Table binary section in bytes.
`batchTableJSONByteLength`	`uint32`	The length of the Batch Table JSON section in bytes. Zero indicates there is no Batch Table.
`batchTableBinaryByteLength`	`uint32`	The length of the Batch Table binary section in bytes. If `batchTableJSONByteLength` is zero, this will also be zero.

The body section immediately follows the header section, and is composed of three fields: Feature Table, Batch Table, and Binary glTF.

# Feature Table

Contains values for b3dm semantics.

More information is available in the Feature Table specification.

See Property reference for the b3dm feature table schema reference. The full JSON schema can be found in b3dm.featureTable.schema.json.

# Semantics

# Feature semantics

There are currently no per-feature semantics.

# Global semantics

These semantics define global properties for all features.

Semantic	Data Type	Description	Required
`BATCH_LENGTH`	`uint32`	The number of distinguishable models, also called features, in the batch. If the Binary glTF does not have a `batchId` attribute, this field must be `0`.	✅ Yes.
`RTC_CENTER`	`float32[3]`	A 3-component array of numbers defining the center position when positions are defined relative-to-center, (see Coordinate system).	🔴 No.

# Batch Table

The Batch Table contains per-model application-specific properties, indexable by batchId, that can be used for declarative styling and application-specific use cases such as populating a UI or issuing a REST API request. In the binary glTF section, each vertex has a numeric batchId attribute in the integer range [0, number of models in the batch - 1]. The batchId indicates the model to which the vertex belongs. This allows models to be batched together and still be identifiable.

See the Batch Table reference for more information.

# Binary glTF

Batched 3D Model embeds glTF 2.0 (opens new window) containing model geometry and texture information.

The binary glTF (opens new window) immediately follows the Feature Table and Batch Table. It may embed all of its geometry, texture, and animations, or it may refer to external sources for some or all of these data.

As described above, each vertex has a batchId attribute indicating the model to which it belongs. For example, vertices for a batch with three models may look like this:

batchId:  [0,   0,   0,   ..., 1,   1,   1,   ..., 2,   2,   2,   ...]
position: [xyz, xyz, xyz, ..., xyz, xyz, xyz, ..., xyz, xyz, xyz, ...]
normal:   [xyz, xyz, xyz, ..., xyz, xyz, xyz, ..., xyz, xyz, xyz, ...]

Vertices do not need to be ordered by batchId, so the following is also OK:

batchId:  [0,   1,   2,   ..., 2,   1,   0,   ..., 1,   2,   0,   ...]
position: [xyz, xyz, xyz, ..., xyz, xyz, xyz, ..., xyz, xyz, xyz, ...]
normal:   [xyz, xyz, xyz, ..., xyz, xyz, xyz, ..., xyz, xyz, xyz, ...]

Note that a vertex can't belong to more than one model; in that case, the vertex needs to be duplicated so the batchIds can be assigned.

The batchId parameter is specified in a glTF mesh primitive (opens new window) by providing the _BATCHID attribute semantic, along with the index of the batchId accessor (opens new window). For example,

"primitives": [
    {
        "attributes": {
            "_BATCHID": 0
        }
    }
]

{
    "accessors": [
        {
            "bufferView": 1,
            "byteOffset": 0,
            "componentType": 5126,
            "count": 4860,
            "max": [2],
            "min": [0],
            "type": "SCALAR"
        }
    ]
}

The accessor.type must be a value of "SCALAR". All other properties must conform to the glTF schema, but have no additional requirements.

When a Batch Table is present or the BATCH_LENGTH property is greater than 0, the _BATCHID attribute is required; otherwise, it is not.

# Coordinate system

By default embedded glTFs use a right handed coordinate system where the y-axis is up. For consistency with the z-up coordinate system of 3D Tiles, glTFs must be transformed at runtime.

Vertex positions may be defined relative-to-center for high-precision rendering, see Precisions, Precisions (opens new window). If defined, RTC_CENTER specifies the center position that all vertex positions are relative to after the coordinate system transform and glTF node hierarchy transforms have been applied.

# File extension and MIME type

Batched 3D Model tiles use the .b3dm extension and application/octet-stream MIME type.

An explicit file extension is optional. Valid implementations may ignore it and identify a content's format by the magic field in its header.

# Property reference

Batched 3D Model Feature Table

# Batched 3D Model Feature Table

A set of Batched 3D Model semantics that contain additional information about features in a tile.

Properties

	Type	Description	Required
extensions	`object`	Dictionary object with extension-specific objects.	No
extras	`any`	Application-specific data.	No
BATCH_LENGTH	`object`, `number` `[1]`, `number`	A `GlobalPropertyInteger` object defining an integer property for all features. See the corresponding property semantic in Semantics.	✅ Yes
RTC_CENTER	`object`, `number` `[3]`	A `GlobalPropertyCartesian3` object defining a 3-component numeric property for all features. See the corresponding property semantic in Semantics.	No

Additional properties are allowed.

Type of each property: Property

# Batched3DModelFeatureTable.extensions

Dictionary object with extension-specific objects.

Type: object
Required: No
Type of each property: Extension

# Batched3DModelFeatureTable.extras

Application-specific data.

Type: any
Required: No

# Batched3DModelFeatureTable.BATCH_LENGTH ✅

A GlobalPropertyInteger object defining an integer property for all features. See the corresponding property semantic in Semantics.

Type: object, number [1], number
Required: Yes

# Batched3DModelFeatureTable.RTC_CENTER

A GlobalPropertyCartesian3 object defining a 3-component numeric property for all features. See the corresponding property semantic in Semantics.

Type: object, number [3]
Required: No

# BinaryBodyReference

An object defining the reference to a section of the binary body of the features table where the property values are stored if not defined directly in the JSON.