Optimizing your project

• Best Practices
• Best practices
• Getting Started
• Mattercraft

The following tips will help to ensure that your content, and subsequently the experience itself, is being optimized effectively.

Optimizing 3D models

3D Models are great for encouraging user engagement and interaction, but can increase the size of a project exponentially if not used carefully.

Optimize the geometry

3D models with a higher polygon count will produce a larger file when exported.

Reducing the polygon count of a cube

The model's polygon count can be reduced through manual optimization of the mesh.

Alternatively, many 3D software and online solutions (such as the ones below) offer built-in tools that perform basic mesh optimization.

Export texture files at a lower resolution

Even if a 3D model has a low polygon count, the texture files can still lead to the model having a large storage size. Finding a balance between a texture file's most suitable resolution and its file size is especially important when developing for certain devices.

Comparison of textures 512px x 512px vs 1024px x 1024px

For example, textures should be as small as possible for a mobile AR experience (e.g 512px x 512px) due to smaller screen sizes.

A 3D website on the other hand may benefit from a slightly larger texture (1024px x 1024px) as the difference in quality may be more noticeable, depending on the asset.

Although a balance (and trial and error) is important, we'd always recommend keeping the file size for assets as low as possible.

Useful 3D model optimizing tools

Below is a list of helpful websites or softwares which you can use to optimize your 3D models.

Click on the tool title to be taken to the relevant third party website.

Optimizing videos

Videos help to boost user engagement, but can increase the size of a project if not optimized when preparing for exporting, or when being used in your project.

Most softwares have an Export for Web checkbox when exporting videos. Make sure this is enabled when exporting videos for web experiences.

Use streamed videos instead of local video files

If an imported video is particularly large, it will increase the overall project's final size too. To avoid this, videos can be hosted externally and streamed in to your project by using the video's hosted URL in the Source property in a video component.

If videos are not particularly large, or streaming a video into the project is not possible, you can use the following tips to optimize your local video files.

Export videos at a lower bitrate

Video files have a bitrate property, which is the amount of data the file stores and processes over a set amount of time.

Reducing the video's bitrate will reduce its final quality, but will also decrease its file size.

Try exporting your video at different bitrates until you find an acceptable balance between quality and file size.

Export videos at a lower resolution

Videos that won't be the primary focus of a scene can be exported at a lower resolution, as a reduction in quality will be less noticeable.

We'd recommend that videos do not exceed 1920px in either dimension for the best compatibility.

Use custom dimensions to trim unused areas of the frame

The dimensions of videos which contain a large amount of blank space can be trimmed to remove unnecessary areas of the frame, resulting in a video with smaller dimensions and therefore a smaller file size.

Trimming the dimensions of a video by removing empty space.

Use shorter, loop-able videos where possible

Videos that are comprised of a short, looping section of video can be exported as a single looped section, and be set to loop within Mattercraft.

Useful video optimizing tools

Below is a list of helpful websites or softwares which you can use to optimize your videos.

Click on the tool title to be taken to the relevant third party website.

Optimizing images

Export images at a lower resolution

The resolution of digital images is determined by their pixels per inch (PPI) setting, which sets the image's pixel density. The higher this PPI is, the sharper the image will appear.

Reducing an image's pixel density value will reduce its overall resolution and result in a smaller file size.

Comparing image resolution

In the diagram above, the UI content on the left was exported at 1024px x 1024px, while the UI content on the right was exported at 512px x 512px. Though the latter produced a significantly lower file size, the reduction in image quality is not noticeable due to its small scale relative to the scene.

The standard resolution for digital images is usually 72 PPI.

Use .JPG images instead of .PNG images

The .PNG file format uses a lossless form of data compression, meaning that as a file's size is reduced, its original quality is maintained. This compression method results in larger file sizes than those exported to file formats that use lossy data compression, such as .JPG.

A .PNG image (left) next to a .JPG image (right)

The images above were exported with the same settings and resolution, with different formats. The image on the left is a .PNG image with a file size of ~303 KB, while the image on the right is a .JPG image with a file size of ~90 KB.

Useful image optimizing tools

Below is a list of helpful websites or softwares which you can use to optimize your images.

Click on the tool title to be taken to the relevant third party website.

Optimizing audio

Export audio files at a lower bitrate

Audio files have a bitrate property, which is the amount of data the file stores and processes over a set amount of time.

Reducing the video's bitrate will reduce its final quality, but will also decrease its file size.

Try exporting your audio at different bitrates until you find an acceptable balance between quality and file size.

Trim long audio tracks

Long audio files that are comprised of a shorter, looping audio track can be exported as a single looped section instead. You can then use Mattercraft to loop the audio in your project.

Using a shorter audio clip and looping it in Mattercraft

Useful audio optimizing tools

Below is a list of helpful websites or softwares which you can use to optimize your audio.

Click on the tool title to be taken to the relevant third party website.