Universal Volumetric

The open source Universal Volumetric (".uvol") compressed interchange format for streaming mesh sequences. This project also includes a cross-platform player implementation using h.264 video for texture.

The initial version focuses on performance. Currently, single material mesh sequences of any length are supported. The next version will focus on higher compression ratio, streamability and integration into USD and glTF.

The current implementation uses the MIT-licensed Corto codec from CNR-ISTI Visual Computing Group, which has fast compression and especially fast decompression characteristics.

Collaborators Wanted!

If you are proficient in C++, python, JS, Unity/C#, or you want to support this project creatively or financially, please get in touch!

Example

This tech was built in partnership with Wild Capture and others. You can see an example on Wild Capture's site, here: http://wildcapture.co/volumetric.html

Current uvol files consist of a .uvol binary, manifest file and video texture. Future versions will embed everything into the uvol binary or in a single MP4 container.

Currently playback works in WebGL with three.js and Unity. Android and iOS are in development, Unreal support is on the roadmap (intrepid C++ developers should be able to port this in a day by reading the source from other examples, since the core codec is C++ based).

Requirements

For encoding, you will need Node.js 12+ and Python 3 installed.

For decoding, currently WebGL is supported (especially three.js), Unreal and Unity will come in the next release.

You will need a mesh and texture sequence in OBJ/PNG or OBJ/PLY.

Encoded .uvol files are cross platform, but currently the decoder is written for the web only. Want Unity, Unreal, examples in PlayCanvas and Babylon, etc? Submit and issue and sponsor our project: https://opencollective.com/xrengine

Or you can get in touch with the maintainer directly for any questions about who, what, where and how: shawmakesmagic@gmail.com

Or find us on Discord! https://discord.gg/2amVGBE3a3

Encoding

Mesh

First, you need a .ply sequence. If you have a .obj sequence, you can convert to to ply using this command:

bash src/encoder/make_plys.sh

Next, put your ply files in the src/encoder/encode folder. If you want to change this path, you can do so by modifying Encoder.js (NOTE: this will be moved to an argument in the next version).

Run the encoder on the meshes:

node ./src/Encoder.js example.uvol

If you want to set a specific framerange or frame rate, you can set that as well

// Extended Example: 25 FPS, 500 frames
node ./src/Encoder.js example.uvol 25 0 499

Texture

Texture is stored as an H264 video.

Due to inadequacies in iOS frame sync (as well as multithreaded framesync issues in Unity) we are baking the frame number directly into the texture. This frame sync is 8px high, 128px wide. After some experimentation, we found that this is resistant to aliasing and macroblocking in video. However, it might cause issues with your textures unless you pre-process your textures be offset by 8 px from the bottom of your image. The next version will autoscale your UVs to have 8px available at the bottom.

Encoding frame counter to texture

python3 src/encoder/texture_encoder.py

Encoding image sequence to MP4

ffmpeg -r 30 -s 1024x1024 -i src/encoder/encode/tex%05d.png -vcodec libx264 -crf 25 example.mp4