Background
One of the challenges of sharing photogrammetry models on-line is that there aren’t a lot of sites that allow viewing and uploading of very high definition models. Most of the time, this doesn’t really matter. Viewers just want to get a sense of the wreck, move it around, zoom in a few different areas, etc.
Over the past year, I have been working on and building a lot of really high definition models that take a lot of compute time. Until recently, I wasn’t able to share the results of those models other than screenshots from the software program that I use to create them (Metashape).
Earlier this year, I was contacted by a company named Atomontage which specializes in storing and displaying photogrammetry models. Their “normal” use case is medical, gaming, etc. but they were interesting in working together on some underwater models.
High Resolution Models
Typically, I build a “medium” resolution model and then, if I want to provide more detail, I build what Metashape refers to as an “Ultra High Quality” model. An example of this is the P-38 wreck off of Torrey Pines in San Diego. Unfortunately, this wreck has had people steal ammo and generally just destroy it either intentionally or unintentionally. It helps to have an accurate record of the wreck over a period of time.
I built a number of different versions of this wreck with different resolutions. Here is a summary:
- Medium Quality : 2.8M faces
- High Quality : 8.4M faces
- Ultra High Quality : 85M faces (yes, a 10x increase)
I then generally upload a version to Sketchfab for mobile devices that has been reduced to about 800,000 faces and a version for desktop computers that is about 8,000,000 faces. Sketchfab is actually a really nice service and I can easily upload models directly from the Metashape program using an API. However, I am limited both my account and by the technology.
Below are two screenshots from Metashape of the ammo can area near the front of the wreck (try to ignore the color differences).
The Medium Quality is on the left and Ultra High Quality is on the right. If you look at larger versions of these, you can see the difference. As mentioned, for most uses, it isn’t that important but if you want to display the really high resolution version online, choices are limited.
There is also the area where the wolf eel “posed” for me.
High Def Model Options
If I do want to share really high definition models with other people, there are a few options:
- Provide the model and “native” Metashape viewer – this requires the other person to get the (free) Metashape Viewer but it also requires me to share my actual model
- Upgrade my Sketchfab Account – I believe there is a “pro” or maybe “commercial” version that requires me to pay a lot more and allows larger size uploads
- Construkted Reality – I spent a brief time looking at this option, but didn’t fully evaluate it so I can’t judge the pros / cons
- Atomontage – When they reached out to me, I researched their technology and website and noticed that they are doing some very innovate development of the technology for many different areas (medical, art, gaming, etc.). They use “Virtual Matter” (streamed microvoxels) instead of triangles and also allow “montages” which are collections of detailed 3D objects in the cloud. The technology progressively streams in and renders higher details as you zoom in.
Atomontage
I’ve been working with the team at Atomontage for the past 9+months and have uploaded a number of very high resolution models into a “montage” which is publicly viewable. They also created a case study. The link is below or you can click on the graphic.
https://www.atomontage.com/use-cases/underwater-wreck-photogrammetry-brett-eldridge/
They also produced a cool YouTube video of the models:
If you want to see the on-line models, you will need to use Google Chrome (for now). It is available at the link below (or just click on the graphic):
https://client.atomontage.app/experience/wrecked-in-my-revo
Below are some screen captures of the experience on Atomontage of my “montage” along with some additional screen captures that show the incredible amount of details available on-line with this new tool:
And here are some details (note that WordPress doesn’t seem to have the option for full-size images as part of the Tiled Gallery presentation):
Mobile!
One of my early feedback points was that they needed a solution for mobile devices. If I believe my Google Site Kit stats, then 66% of the people who access my site are on mobile (and it is trending upwards). This was, obviously, not a big surprise to the team at Atomontage. They have recently released a mobile app to view the on-line high definition models.
The mobile app works well but not seamless.
My two biggest requests at this point are (1) support for native Safari browsers on desktop computers and (2) support for the same on mobile. Right now the issues are not related to Atomontage but instead related to how mobile devices work. However, the team at Atomontage is making great strides in making high definition 3D photogrammetry models available on-line.
