This writer allows FME to write large 3D datasets for use in the Cesium virtual globe environment. For more information on Cesium, see https://cesiumjs.org/.
Cesium 3D Tiles Product and System Requirements
|
Format |
Product |
Operating System |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Reader/Writer |
FME Desktop License |
FME Server |
FME Cloud |
Windows |
Linux |
Mac |
|
Writer |
Available in FME Professional Edition and higher |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
- More about FME Licenses and Subscriptions.
- More about FME Desktop Editions and Licenses.
The 3D Tiles format allows Cesium to efficiently display very large datasets of 3D objects, such as an entire city. The dataset is divided into a hierarchy of tiles, and Cesium will only render tiles that are visible from the current viewpoint.
A 3D Tiles dataset consists of a single JSON file, tileset.json, which outlines the tile structure of the 3D dataset. Each tile will refer to additional files that contain features, attributes and geometries and textures.
Writer Overview
The Cesium 3D Tiles writer produces a separate tileset for each FME feature type. All features with a single feature type will be part of the same 3D scene.
The writer will distribute features among a hierarchy of tiles using a quad-tree structure. When rendering the dataset, Cesium will use a selection algorithm to determine which tiles should be displayed, based on the position and zoom level of the current view:
- When the view is zoomed in, the leaf nodes of the tree will be displayed, showing fully detailed features.
- When the view is zoomed out, a higher level tile is displayed instead of the lower level tiles, showing a representative subset of the features which would be displayed at a closer zoom. This allows Cesium to manage the amount of geometry and texture information that must be rendered at any time.
The distribution of features among the tiles is handled automatically by the 3D Tiles Writer.