draco3d

What is draco3d?

The draco3d npm package is a library for compressing and decompressing 3D geometric meshes and point clouds. It is designed to improve the storage and transmission efficiency of 3D graphics data.

What are draco3d's main functionalities?

Compression

This feature allows you to compress 3D meshes to reduce their size. The code sample demonstrates how to use the draco3d library to encode a mesh into a compressed format.

const draco3d = require('draco3d');
const encoderModule = draco3d.createEncoderModule();
const encoder = new encoderModule.Encoder();
// Assume mesh is a valid mesh object
const encodedData = encoder.EncodeMeshToDracoBuffer(mesh);
console.log('Encoded data size:', encodedData.byteLength);

Decompression

This feature allows you to decompress 3D meshes that were previously compressed using the draco3d library. The code sample demonstrates how to decode a compressed mesh buffer back into a mesh object.

const draco3d = require('draco3d');
const decoderModule = draco3d.createDecoderModule();
const decoder = new decoderModule.Decoder();
// Assume buffer contains compressed mesh data
const buffer = new decoderModule.DecoderBuffer();
buffer.Init(new Int8Array(compressedData), compressedData.length);
const geometryType = decoder.GetEncodedGeometryType(buffer);
if (geometryType === decoderModule.TRIANGULAR_MESH) {
  const mesh = new decoderModule.Mesh();
  decoder.DecodeBufferToMesh(buffer, mesh);
  console.log('Decompressed mesh:', mesh);
}

Point Cloud Compression

This feature allows you to compress point clouds to reduce their size. The code sample demonstrates how to use the draco3d library to encode a point cloud into a compressed format.

const draco3d = require('draco3d');
const encoderModule = draco3d.createEncoderModule();
const encoder = new encoderModule.Encoder();
// Assume pointCloud is a valid point cloud object
const encodedData = encoder.EncodePointCloudToDracoBuffer(pointCloud);
console.log('Encoded point cloud size:', encodedData.byteLength);

Point Cloud Decompression

This feature allows you to decompress point clouds that were previously compressed using the draco3d library. The code sample demonstrates how to decode a compressed point cloud buffer back into a point cloud object.

const draco3d = require('draco3d');
const decoderModule = draco3d.createDecoderModule();
const decoder = new decoderModule.Decoder();
// Assume buffer contains compressed point cloud data
const buffer = new decoderModule.DecoderBuffer();
buffer.Init(new Int8Array(compressedData), compressedData.length);
const pointCloud = new decoderModule.PointCloud();
decoder.DecodeBufferToPointCloud(buffer, pointCloud);
console.log('Decompressed point cloud:', pointCloud);

Other packages similar to draco3d

three

Three.js is a popular JavaScript library for creating and displaying 3D graphics in the browser. While it does not focus on compression, it provides extensive functionality for rendering, animating, and interacting with 3D models. It can be used in conjunction with draco3d for handling compressed assets.

potree

Potree is a WebGL based point cloud renderer for large point clouds. It is designed for visualizing large point cloud datasets efficiently. Unlike draco3d, which focuses on compression, Potree is more about rendering and visualizing point clouds.

gltf-pipeline

gltf-pipeline is a library for optimizing glTF assets. It includes features for compressing geometry, textures, and animations. While it offers some compression capabilities similar to draco3d, it is specifically tailored for the glTF format and includes additional optimization features.

README

News

Version 1.0.0 release

The latest version of Draco brings many new enhancements to improve the development experience:

• Stable API release
• Support for npm Javascript package management
• Javascript based encoder
• Generalized metadata for meshes and point clouds
  • Now supporting material properties included along with encoded file
• Improved compression rates:
  • 15% better compression on smaller models
  • 40% better compression of normals
• Performance improvements (~10% faster encoding, decoding)
• Reduced GPU memory usage:
  • Option to store decoded quantized attributes
  • Support for triangle strip connectivity on decoded meshes
• iOS 9 Javascript decoder
• Bitstream specification now available

Description

Draco is a library for compressing and decompressing 3D geometric meshes and point clouds. It is intended to improve the storage and transmission of 3D graphics.

Draco was designed and built for compression efficiency and speed. The code supports compressing points, connectivity information, texture coordinates, color information, normals, and any other generic attributes associated with geometry. With Draco, applications using 3D graphics can be significantly smaller without compromising visual fidelity. For users, this means apps can now be downloaded faster, 3D graphics in the browser can load quicker, and VR and AR scenes can now be transmitted with a fraction of the bandwidth and rendered quickly.

Draco is released as C++/Javascript source code that can be used to compress 3D graphics as well as decoders for the encoded data.

NPM Package

The code shows a simple example of using Draco encoder and decoder with Node.js. draco_encoder_node.js and draco_decoder_node.js are modified Javascript encoding/decoding files that are compatible with Node.js. draco_nodejs_example.js has the example code for usage.

How to run the code:

(1) Install draco3d package :

$ npm install draco3d

(2) Run example code to test:

$ cp node_modules/draco3d/draco_nodejs_example.js .
$ cp node_modules/draco3d/bunny.drc .
$ nodejs draco_nodejs_example.js

The code loads the Bunny model, it will first decode to a mesh and then encode it with different settings.

References

Bunny model from Stanford's graphic department https://graphics.stanford.edu/data/3Dscanrep/