EXTMeshGPUInstancing

EXT_mesh_gpu_instancing prepares mesh data for efficient GPU instancing.

GPU instancing allows engines to render many copies of a single mesh at once using a small number of draw calls. Instancing is particularly useful for things like trees, grass, road signs, etc. Keep in mind that predefined batches, as used in this extension, may prevent frustum culling within a batch. Dividing batches into collocated cells may be preferable to using a single large batch.

NOTICE: While this extension stores mesh data optimized for GPU instancing, it is important to note that (1) GPU instancing and other optimizations are possible — and encouraged — even without this extension, and (2) other common meanings of the term "instancing" exist, distinct from this extension. See Appendix: Motivation and Purpose of the EXT_mesh_gpu_instancing specification.

Properties:

• InstancedMesh

Example

The EXTMeshGPUInstancing class provides a single ExtensionProperty type, InstancedMesh, which may be attached to any Node instance. For example:

import { EXTMeshGPUInstancing } from '@gltf-transform/extensions';

// Create standard mesh, node, and scene hierarchy.
// ...

// Assign positions for each instance.
const batchPositions = doc.createAccessor('instance_positions')
    .setArray(new Float32Array([
        0, 0, 0,
        1, 0, 0,
        2, 0, 0,
    ]))
    .setType(Accessor.Type.VEC3)
    .setBuffer(buffer);

// Assign IDs for each instance.
const batchIDs = doc.createAccessor('instance_ids')
    .setArray(new Uint8Array([0, 1, 2]))
    .setType(Accessor.Type.SCALAR)
    .setBuffer(buffer);

// Create an Extension attached to the Document.
const batchExtension = document.createExtension(EXTMeshGPUInstancing)
    .setRequired(true);
const batch = batchExtension.createInstancedMesh()
    .setAttribute('TRANSLATION', batchPositions)
    .setAttribute('_ID', batchIDs);

node
    .setMesh(mesh)
    .setExtension('EXT_mesh_gpu_instancing', batch);

Standard instance attributes are TRANSLATION, ROTATION, and SCALE, and support the accessor types allowed by the extension specification. Custom instance attributes are allowed, and should be prefixed with an underscore (_*).