Month: April 2017

We have changed the logic of initializing POI data in 3D Wayfinder. This gives up to 80% faster project initialization for medium and large projects. In very large projects, the increase is even larger – more than 90%.

After data is loaded from the API 3D Wayfinder system had to setup the 3D scene. That also included generating polygons and textures for each POI. These included a POI icon or the name of the POI on a billboard (facing the user all the time). POIs without icons needed to have the name displayed but the only way to display a text in 3D space is to generate or load a image. So we used a canvas element to draw these names. But this is a costly procedure. 

Now we create only these images that are flagged as “Always visible” at the start. So the startup time is a lot faster. Check the following comparison table. That gives faster loading of 3D projects. 

* Project doesn’t have any “Always visible” POIs

Initialization time before and after change compared with medium and Large projects:

Initializing is only a part of the whole loading. Loading the data and 3D models from server is another component of the whole loading process, so the afterall loading process is better about 5-55% (with connection 20Mb/s).

We have added new feature in navigation to our administration panel for creating sub-groups. This brings whole new possibilities for wayfinding and other areas.

Any location or POI (Place of Interest) can belong to one or many groups. So for example “Adidas” can be found under “Sport”, “Clothing” and “Footwear”. In many cases there has been need for sub groups. For example “McDonald’s” belongs to group Fastfood, which at the same time belongs to group Food.

Now we have in 3D Wayfinder Administration Panel option for groups, where it is possible to mark its parent group. This gives a powerful tool for filtering locations and in many cases is very useful. For example retail stores can show the whole product directory, so visitors can browse for the needed product group and then see where it is located in store or find the shortest way to it.

To create and manage sub-groups you have to open “Groups” in 3D Wayfinder Administration panel. Then for each group you can choose its parent group.

This feature is not available in our old Administration panel, so you have to log in to new Admin application.

Be careful not to create loops!

Groups can be accesses also by our Javascript API, so it is possible to use group browsing in embedded 3D Wayfinder application or wayfinding template.