Q: Hello, I bought into a similar platform that was here on Appsumo.
I was disappointed to find out an animated GLB that I used on the platform could not have the animation play on iOS.
Here is their support response:
we checked and yes, unfortunately, the issue is caused by the conversion from glb to usdz, which is automatically done when you open an experience on iOS. The Apple native format doesn't support this animation and that's the reason why your model is "stuck".
Would your platform be plagued by this same problem?
Jens_Hololink
May 14, 2024A: Hi,
The reason for this is that many other platforms use Apple's and Google's standard AR web viewer which needs them to convert to usdz. Or they use an app which runs ARKit or ARcore native, which we do not do.
With Hololink you get a 100% web-based platform which runs on our own algorithms. Therefore we support .GLB 100% and all animations will work. We can guarantee that. You ca even add a .GLB with mulitple animations and choose between them in the editor, so that you can have the same model in mulitple scenes, playing different animations in each one.
We do have the one restriction that you need to upload models to our platform in .GLB or zipped .GLTF format. But they will always work.
I would like to suggest that you jump into the editor at https://editor.hololink.io for a test run. This is free and you can try out your models there before deciding whether to purchase a license.
I hope this answered your question. Feel free to ask again if something is unclear.
Regards
Jens
Mila_AppSumoHello there 👋
Hololink supports animated 3D models in GLB files format.
You can upload GLTF files if you .zip the files. 🙂
47Minutes
Verified purchaser
I understand your platform does, as does the other Web AR platform.
The problem is iOS does not support some or all animated AR models. According to that other platform:
issue is caused by the conversion from glb to usdz, which is automatically done when you open an experience on iOS. The Apple native format doesn't support this animation and that's the reason why your model is "stuck".
Is it fair to assume the same conversion would take place with models on Hololink resulting in the loss of animation?
Verified purchaser
I picked up a code to give it a shot.
I am pleased that my animated glb plays just fine. That's awesome.
But it was unexpected that audio included in a scene would not play on my iphone if I had the ringer set to silent via the switch. Other audio (Spotify) and any videos I watch while the ringer is in silent still play the audio just fine. But the hololink required me to take my phone off silent in order to hear the audio. I don't feel that is a normal expectation for a recipient to know and I would have to provide instructions to "make sure your phone isn't on silent". Kind of clunky.
Support indicated this was due to heavy restrictions by Apple in playing music from a browser. But I can browse to a website with audio embedded in the pages and play that audio from the browser just fine while the switch is on silent. So, I don't understand why there couldn't be some sort of mechanism to allow it for the hololink.
So far I'm more impressed than with the other AR tool I picked up. I'll be really happy when you have other triggers like surface and geolocation. We could really use this for corporate meetings and events that we plan for clients. I could see scavenger hunts, special event information made available by scanning into a hololink, there are all sorts of uses we could come up with.