Faster Loading of 3D Projects

April 25, 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 Before After Setup Gain Total Gain
Medium 765 ms 174 ms 77,25% 5.63%
Large 6563 ms 1039 ms 84,17% 11.52%
Very large 26710 ms 403 ms* 6627% 54.86%

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

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

wayfinder_loading_speed_increased_grapgh

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).

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