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Needle Cloud
Manage and optimize 3D files
and host your spatial web apps.
Your 3D files, ready for the web.
Upload your 3D assets in a variety of formats, including GLTF, USD, FBX and VRM . We prepare them for various usecases using our state-of-the-art optimization pipeline.
You can embed them in your website, share links with others, or download them for further use.
Here are some examples:
Magically optimized
The web is all about performance. Our pipeline automatically generates multiple levels of detail for meshes and textures, and loads them only when needed. This way, your users get the best experience, no matter the device.
Our optimization presets allow you to choose what's right for your project: from hero assets for product showcases, to scene props that are part of a complex assembly.
Flexible workflows
You upload a file, you get URLs for all the versions. Use them in your app, or share them with others. When you upload a new version, the URLs stay the same – so content is always up-to-date.
You can also download optimized files as glTF, ready for any engine or platform.
Host your spatial web apps made with Needle Engine
Spatial Web Hosting
Bringing your spatial web apps online is now easier then ever. Say goodbye to manual server setups – host your apps directly on Needle Cloud.
Upload a new version with a single click, right from Needle Engine for Unity and Blender. Our global CDN ensures your apps load fast, no matter where your users are.
FAQ – frequently asked questions
Needle Cloud arrow_upward
Needle Cloud is an online service provided by Needle designed to host, manage, optimize, and share 3D assets and spatial web applications. Instead of setting up and managing your own web server infrastructure, you can use Needle Cloud to get your Needle Engine projects online.
Key features and functions:
- Spatial Web Hosting: Directly deploy and host web applications built with Needle Engine (from Unity or Blender integrations, or via CLI) onto Needle's infrastructure. This makes your projects accessible via a public URL without manual server setup.
- Asset Management & Optimization: Upload 3D assets in various formats (glTF, GLB, FBX, USD, VRM, etc.). Needle Cloud automatically processes and optimizes these assets (e.g., creating multiple levels of detail for meshes and textures) to ensure fast loading and good performance on the web.
- Content Delivery Network (CDN): Hosted assets and applications benefit from Needle's CDN, ensuring fast access for users globally.
- Sharing & Version Control: Easily share links to your hosted assets or applications. The platform supports uploading new versions while keeping URLs consistent, and allows tagging specific versions (e.g., 'main', 'experimental') for review workflows.
- Automation (CLI): Offers a command-line interface (CLI) to automate uploading and optimization, allowing integration into existing CI/CD pipelines.
- Privacy & Security: Designed for private management of assets, not as a public marketplace or social network. Options for password protection on hosted apps are available.
Needle Cloud makes hosting, sharing, and optimizing your 3D projects easy. It removes the need for you to set up and manage your own web servers and CDNs, handles complex 3D asset optimization for fast web delivery, and provides easy ways to share projects with the world.
No. Needle Engine exports standard web projects (HTML, JS, CSS, glTF assets). You can host these projects on any web server or hosting platform you choose (like Netlify, Vercel, GitHub Pages, itch.io or your own server).
Needle Cloud is an optional, convenient service provided by Needle to streamline this process, especially for asset optimization and quick sharing.
You can upload assets and projects using the Needle Cloud website. After you sign up, you can simply drop your assets on the page to upload and optimize them.
If you're managing a lot of assets, you can use the Needle Cloud Command Line Interface (CLI) for automation. The CLI is particularly useful for integrating Needle Cloud into your existing deployment workflows.
You can upload projects to Needle Cloud via our Unity and Blender integrations. Both of them have Needle Cloud built-in and uploading a new version of an app is just a click away.
You can also upload projects using the Needle Cloud website. After you sign up, drop your built project folder (containing a static website with a index.html and its dependencies) on the page to upload it.
Or you can deploy directly from CI environments like Github using the Needle Cloud CLI: Automated Deployments
Needle Cloud is primarily designed for 3D assets used in realtime projects. It accepts common formats like glTF, GLB, FBX, USD, VRM, OBJ. We optimize these files for efficient web usage – glTF/GLB with various optimization levels.
Cloud Optimization uses the same powerful pipeline that ships with our Needle Engine integrations.
Optimization in Needle Cloud refers to automatically processing your uploaded 3D assets to make them load faster and perform better on the web. This includes tasks like:
- Mesh simplification (creating multiple level-of-detail meshes) for progressive loading
- Texture resizing (creating different resolutions) for progressive loading
- Mesh compression with GPU optimized formats (Draco, Meshopt)
- Texture compression with GPU optimized formats (KTX/Basis Universal, WebP)
- Converting different 3D model formats to the web-standard glTF/GLB
- Ensuring assets are delivered efficiently via our Content Delivery Network (CDN).
No. Needle Cloud is primarily a private and secure hosting and asset management platform for your own projects and team workflows. Your assets are not publicly discoverable, it's not a marketplace, and it doesn't try to be a social platform.
Yes. Needle Cloud is designed for private 3D asset management and hosting. You manage access to your account and assets. Hosted applications and assets have options for password-protected sharing.
Needle Cloud is compliant with GDPR regulations, ensuring your data is handled securely and privately.
Creating an account on Needle Cloud is free. For commercial use of Needle Engine and Needle Cloud you need a Pro license, which gives you full access to our suite of tools and services.
For pricing details, please refer to the pricing page.
Needle Cloud and Needle Engine can be used independently, but they are designed to work together seamlessly.
- Needle Cloud is a web service used to host, optimize, and share 3D assets and apps made with Needle.
- Needle Engine is the runtime and tooling, with integrations into Unity and Blender, used to create rich, interactive 3D web apps.
3D assets uploaded to Needle Cloud can be linked into apps made with Needle, and into other realtime applications. Apps made with Needle can be hosted in Needle cloud.
Needle optimizes your 3D models using a combination of best practices and technology developed by us. We created a technique we call Progressive Loading to get your content on screen much faster. It functions similar to lazy loading for images on a webpage.
Instead of having to wait for the entire high-quality model to download, we create a number of progressively simplified versions upfront, that load almost immediately. Then, we continue downloading the higher-quality details in the background and seamlessly swap them in once they arrive.
This has a number of benefits:
- Your users see something sooner
No more staring at blank spaces waiting for big files to finish downloading. - Your application loads faster
The overall experience is much more responsive, even on slower connections. - High-quality details are preserved
We're not reducing the quality of your models – they stay as high-quality as you made them. Simplified versions are used during loading, or when users look at them from a distance, but as soon as they get close, we swap in the full detail version.
Think of it like loading an image on a webpage: you might see a somewhat blurry version first that quickly gets sharper. We bring that same instant preview experience to 3D models.
Needle Engine arrow_upward
Needle Engine is a flexible, web-based runtime designed for creating interactive 3D apps and spatial websites. It emphasizes fast iteration speeds and aims to bridge the gap between artist-friendly tools like Unity and Blender and modern web development practices.
Needle Engine builds upon the three.js library.
Yes! Needle Engine is designed for the web. This means users can access your apps directly in their browser without needing to install anything. This is a key advantage of using Needle Engine, as it allows for easy sharing and distribution.
Any device that has a modern browser. Needle Engine is designed for cross-platform compatibility and works in any browser with WebGL2 support. Apps made with it run on mobile phones, desktops, VR headsets and AR devices, and even future devices as long as they have a browser.
For immersive experiences in VR and AR, we leverage WebXR where available. Scenes are also compatible with AR on iOS via our interactive on-the-fly USDZ conversion for QuickLook, supported on iOS, iPadOS and visionOS.
- Browsers: Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge, Brave, Quest Browser, Samsung Browser, QQ Browser, ...
- Desktop platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux, ChromeOS, ...
- Mobile platforms: iOS, iPadOS, Android, Steam Deck, ...
- VR and AR devices: Meta Quest, Pico, Valve Index, Hololens, Magic Leap, Apple Vision Pro, ...
Needle provides a powerful Unity Package to integrate with Needle Engine. You can use Unity's visual tools to set up scenes, and export them to the browser through Needle Engine. You can use PBR materials, animations and sequencing, lighting and lightmaps, physics, custom components, and more.
Needle Engine is a modern alternative to Unity's WebGL builds, but with a focus on fast iteration and web-native features like WebXR. On average, apps made with Needle load at least 10x faster than Unity WebGL equivalents.
Needle Engine provides a powerful Blender Add-On to integrate with Needle Engine. This integration allows users to set up and export complex 3D scenes directly from Blender to the web. It supports exporting models, materials, animations. The Add-On adds features like timelines, sequencing and animator state machines to Blender, and includes easy tools to create beautiful lightmapped scenes with a few clicks.
Yes. Needle Engine can be used directly via its npm package within standard web development workflows (e.g., with Vite, React, Vue, Svelte). It also offers a convenient Web Component (<needle-engine>) that allows embedding 3D scenes directly into HTML with minimal code.
Read More: Needle Engine Web-Component documentation Read More: Needle Engine Examples on Stackblitz
Probably yes. You can create your 3D scene in any software that supports exporting to glTF, and either upload exported files directly to Needle Cloud or integrate the scene with a Needle Engine web project. You'll add components and interactivity via programming, if needed.
Read More: Needle Engine web component documentation Read More: Needle Engine examples on Stackblitz
Needle Engine brings together several key technologies that are required to build today's modern 3D web apps.
- Development Environment: Needle Engine is built with TypeScript, and uses vite and node.js as development environment. This allows you to use hot reloading and fast iteration speeds, similar to other modern web development frameworks.
- Rendering: Needle uses the popular three.js library for rendering.
- Component System: Needle provides a component-based architecture for building interactive experiences. This allows you to create reusable components and attach them to objects in your scene, similar to other game engines.
- Built-In Functionality: Needle Engine provides many built-in components that can be used to create interactive experiences. These components are designed to be easy to use and can be added to objects in your scene without writing any code.
- Physics: We use Rapier.js for physics simulation, which is an efficient physics engine that works well in the browser.
- Networking: Needle Engine has built-in networking capabilities, powered by WebRTC and Peer.js, running on our own networking stack.
- Custom Components: New components can be created in TypeScript or JavaScript. We automatically generate UI for Unity and Blender so that you can easily assign and configure them in the editor.
- Data: The core asset format we use is glTF 2.0. Beyond the standard glTF features and Khronos extensions, we're using custom extensions (called vendor extensions) to store rich scene and component data like lighting settings, physics data, audio, video and much more.
- Integrations: Needle Engine has integrations for Unity and Blender, which allow you to create and export 3D scenes directly from these applications. The integrations provide a seamless workflow for artists and developers, allowing them to use the tools they are already familiar with while taking advantage of the powerful features of Needle Engine.
Yes. Needle Engine fully supports Physically-Based Rendering workflows (PBR). We support many sophisticated glTF material extensions like clearcoat, transmission, IOR, specular, iridescence, anisotropy, volume and dispersion for rich visual effects and realistic results.
Needle also provides fine-grained control over lighting and shadows of your scene and assets. You can use modern tonemapping algorithms like AgX and ACES, and add a wide range of post-processing effects like bloom, depth of field, color grading, and more to your scene.
Yes, when using the Unity integration, custom unlit shaders created with Shader Graph can be exported to the web, allowing artists to create custom visual effects without writing code.
Roadmap: Vote for MaterialX support in Needle Engine for even more seamless workflows.
Needle Engine supports image-based lighting, real-time light sources and baked lighting. Image-based lighting (IBL) uses high-dynamic-range (HDR) images to create realistic lighting and reflections with near-zero performance impact. It can be used with or without real-time lights. Real-time lights can be point, spot, or directional light sources.
Needle also allows fine-grained control over shadows, including enabling shadow casting and receiving on a per-object basis. Lightmaps can be baked and exported from our Unity and Blender integrations.
Additionally, reflection probes are also supported, and you can add post-processing effects like bloom, depth of field, and color grading to enhance the visual quality of your scenes.
Yes. Networking is a built-in feature in Needle Engine, and many of our components support networking out of the box. Our networking stack can be used at no additional cost across all supported platforms.
We provide both no-code components and scripting APIs for creating multi-user experiences with synchronized world states, networked objects, persistent storage, and integrated voice chat and screensharing capabilities.
These features allow creating real-time collaborative applications, virtual worlds, multiplayer games, and other interactive experiences where multiple users can interact with the same 3D environment, or where a user can come back to the same state of the world later.
Yes! Needle Engine supports AR on Android and iOS right from the browser, with full WebXR support on both platforms.
Android: Full WebXR AR support in Chrome and Firefox browsers.
iOS: Needle Engine now provides full WebXR support on iPhone and iPad through App Clip technology (powered by ARKit). Users can experience your WebXR AR content instantly via QR codes, links, or smart app banners without installing an app. No code changes required – your existing WebXR scenes work automatically on iOS, bringing iOS AR on par with Android.
visionOS: On Apple Vision Pro, we automatically use interactive USDZ/QuickLook for AR experiences, leveraging Apple's native 3D format. This feature is powered by Needle Engine's Everywhere Actions, allowing for rich interactivity on all platforms.
Learn More: iOS WebXR with App Clips Learn More: AR Documentation Learn More: Everywhere Actions
Everywhere Actions are components that ship with Needle Engine and are available in the Unity integration. They allow creating common interactions, like playing audio or animations on click, changing materials, toggling visibility or having objects look at the camera, without writing code.
They are called Everywhere Actions because they work on all platforms, including the limited interactivity environment of iOS AR (QuickLook/USDZ).
Yes, Needle Engine includes support for real-time physics simulation. You can add Rigidbody components and various collider types (box, sphere, mesh) to objects within the Unity or Blender integrations, and these physics properties will be exported and simulated in the web runtime.
Yes. Needle Engine allows for animation workflows ranging from simple object animations, over character state machines, to choreographing and sequencing many different clips and assets.
You can animate characters, lights, cameras, component properties, and materials. When using the Unity integration, both Animator controllers (for state machines) and Timelines (for sequencing) are exported into web-ready formats, including Animation, Audio, Activation, Control, and Signal tracks. Some features are limited, like blend tree and sub-statemachine support.
Technically, animation in Needle Engine is made possible by the KHR_animation_pointer glTF extension and our own extensions for timelines, sequencing, audio, video and more.
Yes! Needle Engine uses a component-based workflow. You can create custom components using TypeScript or JavaScript, and attach them to objects in your scene.
When using the Unity/Blender integration, there's a system where you write TypeScript code, and a compiler automatically generates corresponding C# components / panels in Unity/Blender for easy assignment and property inspection in the editor. This allows you to leverage the editor's visual tools while still writing custom logic in TypeScript.
No. Needle Engine is designed to be accessible to artists and developers alike. You can create interactive experiences using Visual Tools like our Unity and Blender integrations, and use Everywhere Actions for common interactions without writing code. A lot of projects can be made without any coding at all.
If you want to create more complex interactions, you can write custom scripts in TypeScript or JavaScript. Our scripting API is designed to be intuitive and easy to use, even for those new to programming. We also provide AI assistance for coding help, and a lot of examples to get you started.
Needle Engine incorporates an automatic optimization pipeline. This optimization pipeline can improve load times tremendously, even for very complex scenes, without you having to do anything.
Here's how it works:
- We automatically create multiple levels of detail (LODs) for all meshes and textures in your scene. These LODs are in separate files, so they can be loaded progressively. This means that when a user first loads your scene, they see a low-resolution version of the model, and as they get closer, the higher-resolution versions are loaded in the background.
- We compress all 3D assets using state-of-the-art, industry-proven compression algorithms like Draco for meshes and KTX2 or WebP for textures. Together with progressive loading, this ensures faster load times, vastly lower memory usage, and better runtime performance.
- At runtime, we use GPU instancing and automated batched rendering for additional performance.
You'll need Node.js (LTS versions recommended) for managing your web project, previewing, and building. A code editor like Visual Studio Code is needed for writing code and adjusting the HTML UI of your app. For texture optimization, installing KTX Utility is recommended.
Download Node.js Download Visual Studio Code Learn More: Getting Started with Needle
Needle Engine has different plans. You can get started for free, and keep using Needle for free for non-commercial use, with our logo visible. For commercial use, you'll need a Pro license. All licenses include Needle Cloud usage.
Exensive documentation and examples are available:
- Documentation: docs.needle.tools
- Tutorials: Video guides on our YouTube channel.
- Samples: 100+ open-source example projects.
- Showcase: Projects made with Needle by our customers.
- AI Assistant: Available in the Needle Cloud team page, and in our forum. Our AI assistant is trained on our documentation and can help you with questions about Needle Engine, Unity, Blender, and more.
For offline AI usage we offer llms.txt / llms-full.txt files for download.
Yes! We provide a free AI assistant that knows all about our docs on Needle Cloud, and in our forum. They are pretty good at helping you with you with coding and questions.
Additionally, we provide llms.txt and llms-full.txt files that you can pass as context to your own AI models.
Ask questions in the forum Sign in and then go to your team page to chat with our AI
We have an active and supportive community. Connect via:
- Discord Server: discord.needle.tools
- Community Forum: forum.needle.tools including the Needle AI assistant
- Social Media: Twitter/X or YouTube
- AI Assistant: Available in the Needle Cloud team page, and in our forum. The AI assistant is trained on our documentation and can help you with questions about Needle Engine, Unity, Blender, and more.
Apps made with Needle can be hosted anywhere. Needle Engine projects are often static web sites – that means they don't require any server code, only file hosting. So projects can be deployed wherever you can host files, for example on a web server, cloud storage, or hosting platform. Of course, you can also bring your own server-side code.
Needle Cloud is our recommended hosting solution, designed to work seamlessly with Needle Engine. It includes a Content Delivery Network (CDN) for fast global access. It also provides easy deployment options from Unity and Blender, and allows managing 3D assets and web apps with your team.
Other options include:
- Hosting Services: Services like Needle Cloud, Netlify, Vercel, GitHub Pages, Cloudflare Pages, itch.io, or Glitch are excellent choices and often have free tiers. Needle's editor integrations include direct deployment options to some of these services.
- Cloud Storage: Cloudflare R2, AWS S3, Google Cloud Storage, Azure Blob Storage and others can serve pages globally via CDN, similar to Needle Cloud.
- Web Servers: Deploy to Apache, IIS, or other servers capable of serving static content.
- On-Premises: You can host apps made with Needle on your own servers and infrastructure.
- As part of other websites: You can seamlessly integrate Needle within existing web applications made with any framework – React, Vue, Angular, Svelte, Next.js, etc.
Yes. Needle Engine runs as part of a standard web page or web application. It does not handle authentication directly, but you can implement authentication using standard web practices and connect it to your app.
How it works:
- Your surrounding web application – the page where Needle is used – handles the authentication flow (e.g., redirecting to an OAuth provider like Google, Azure AD, Auth0, Okta; or handling JWT tokens).
- Once the user is authenticated, your application's frontend code has access to user information or tokens.
- You can use this authentication status to:
- Control access to the Needle Engine experience itself.
- Pass user information or tokens to Needle Engine components and scripts if needed, for example to personalize the experience or make authenticated API calls from within the 3D scene
- Secure backend API calls made from your Needle application using bearer tokens or session cookies.
Essentially, Needle Engine operates within the security context established by your broader web application.
Yes. Needle Engine applications are web applications running JavaScript in the browser. You can use standard browser APIs like fetch() or libraries like axios within your custom Needle Engine components to:
- Fetch data from any RESTful API, GraphQL endpoint, or similar
- Send data back to your servers, for example to save user progress, submit high scores, update state.
- Connect to backend services for real-time updates using WebSockets or other protocols if needed.
Your backend can be built with any technology (Node.js, Python, Java, .NET, etc.) and connect to any database (SQL, NoSQL). Needle Engine interacts with it via standard web API calls.
For some of your backend needs, Needle's built-in networking might already be enough – for example, for storing a persistant world state across sessions. Consult the documentation for more details on how to choose the right approach for your use case.
Yes. Scalability involves multiple aspects:
- Website Load Times: Needle uses best practices for the modern web and modern formats, like compressed glTF and progresssive loading, to optimize load times and rendering performance. This means that many users can simultaneously access websites made with Needle, same as other static websites. Using a CDN like Needle Cloud improves load times for globally distributed users as well.
- Rendering Performance: Performance depends on scene complexity, target hardware, and optimizations. Needle builds on Three.js, benefiting from its performance characteristics. Needle does many optimizations out of the box, and you can additionally optimize your assets within Unity or Blender (reducing triangle count, draw calls, texture sizes) if needed.
- Networking and Multiplayer: Needle's built-in networking uses WebRTC (PeerJS), which is suitable for shared sessions with ~16-32 concurrent users, depending on scene complexity and server performance. For larger-scale concurrency (hundreds/thousands of users), you would typically need a dedicated server architecture or integrate with third-party scalable networking solutions. Needle's networking components might serve as a starting point and you can later switch to solutions for massive-scale scenarios if needed.
- Backend Scalability: If your application relies heavily on server-side code, the scalability of that backend infrastructure is a separate but critical factor for handling many users. This depends on your backend technology and architecture. For example, using serverless functions or microservices can help scale your backend to handle many concurrent users.
Usecases arrow_upward
Yes! Needle Engine is exceptionally well-suited for building interactive product configurators for the web.
Our workflow, leveraging powerful editors like Unity and Blender, allows you to set up complex product variations, material swaps, animations, and conditional logic visually. You can then easily connect these 3D configurations to your web UI, built with standard HTML/CSS/JS or frameworks like React, Vue, Svelte, or others.
Key strengths for configurators include:
- Handling complex 3D scenes and asset variations efficiently.
- Optimized performance for smooth interaction on the web.
- Ability to integrate seamlessly into existing e-commerce platforms or websites.
- Robust scripting capabilities (TypeScript/JavaScript) for custom logic.
- Built-in supoort for AR on Android and iOS, allowing users to visualize products in their environment.
So yes, building sophisticated, performant product configurators is a core use case we designed Needle Engine to handle effectively.
Yes, you can definitely create games with Needle, specifically targeting the web platform. If you're familiar with building games in Unity or Blender, you'll find our workflow very natural.
You can leverage many familiar game development concepts:
- Building interactive scenes and levels visually.
- Animation systems (including state machines exported from Unity).
- Scripting complex game logic using TypeScript or JavaScript.
- Multi-user support for networked games.
- Physics integration.
Needle Engine provide the core capabilities needed to build engaging games, educational content, promotional games, or other interactive experiences directly for browsers and spatial web platforms.
Yes, showcasing one or many products is a great use case for Needle Engine, especially if you need more than just basic model rotation.
While simple viewers can be achieved with tools like <model-viewer>, Needle Engine allows you to build much richer and more interactive experiences for users:
- High-fidelity visuals: Leverage advanced materials, lighting, and shadows.
- Complex animations: Showcase product features with intricate animations or exploded views.
- Interactivity: Allow users to trigger animations, swap parts (like in a configurator), or interact with specific components.
- Performance: Our optimization pipeline and progressive loading ensure even detailed models load quickly.
- AR Integration: Easily add WebXR capabilities to view products in Augmented Reality.
- Interactive USDZ export: Create engaging AR views for iOS Quick Look.
So, if you need to go beyond static display and create truly engaging, performant, and interactive product showcases on the web, Needle Engine is an excellent choice.
Yes! Through Progressive Web App (PWA) capabilities, your Needle app can run even without internet, and even be installed on devices if needed.
The typical workflow:
- Create your app using Needle Engine.
- Add the Needle PWA plugin.
- On the presentation device (kiosk, tablet, PC), open the application's URL once while online. All assets will automatically be cached.
- The device can now be taken offline. The PWA will run reliably from the local cache, providing a seamless experience. You can also install the PWA on the device – adding it to the home screen or desktop – for easier launching.
Learn More: Creating a PWA for Needle Engine In Depth: What is a PWA (MDN docs)
Yes, apps made with Needle Engine can be configured to run offline by turning them into Progressive Web Apps (PWAs), or by embedding them in native frameworks like Flutter.
With a single line of code, you can turn your app into a PWA, which allows it to be run offline and even be installed on devices. This is done by leveraging the browser's capabilities to cache assets and serve them locally – battle-tested technologies that most browsers have adopted. Service workers and the Cache API allow fine-grained control over what gets cached and when, so you can ensure that your app is always available, even without an internet connection.
Here's the concept:
- You enhance your Needle Engine web project with PWA capabilties. This adds a Service Worker and a Web App Manifest.
- When a user visits online for the first time, the Service Worker installs and caches the app's assets.
- On subsequent visits, even without internet, the Service Worker serves the cached files, enabling offline operation. The PWA can also be installed by users for easier access.
- If needed, this PWA can be wrapped in a native app container (like Tauri, Electron, Capacitor or Trusted Web Apps) for distribution through app stores.
Learn More: Creating a PWA for Needle Engine Learn More: PWABuilder for App Store distribution
Yes! Needle Engine is well-suited for building games for Facebook Instant Games. Our engine exports standard, performant web projects compatible with the platform's requirements, and we provide built-in support to streamline the process.
Our integration enables the following features:
- Adds the SDK: Automatically adds script tags to add the Facebook Instant Games SDK.
- Automatic initialization: Uses
FBInstant.initializeAsync()andFBInstant.startGameAsync(). - Loading progress: Report loading progress using
FBInstant.setLoadingProgress(...). - Manage configurations: Creates or updates the required config files in your build output.
Licensing and Compliance arrow_upward
We take data privacy and compliance seriously. Our practices regarding data collection, usage, and user rights are detailed in our privacy policy. Key aspects for our compliance with GDPR and CCPA include:
- Data Minimization: We strive to collect only the data necessary to provide and improve our services.
- User Rights: We provide mechanisms for users to access, modify, or delete their data.
- Transparency: Our privacy policy clearly outlines our data practices.
For specific details on data processing agreements (DPAs) or compliance related to your region, please review our Privacy Policy. Feel free to contact us if you have further questions.
You own the content and intellectual property that you create using Needle Engine. Our End User License Agreement (EULA) grants you a license to use our software, but the applications, assets, code, and experiences you build belong to you, subject to the terms outlined in the EULA. We recommend reviewing the EULA for the specific legal definitions regarding ownership and licensing.
Yes, you can use Needle Engine for commercial projects. However, please note that our free version is intended for non-commercial use only. For commercial projects, you will need to obtain a Pro license.
We implement industry-standard security measures to protect the infrastructure hosting Needle Cloud and the data stored within it. This includes aspects like:
- Secure connections (HTTPS).
- Authentication and authorization controls.
- Regular infrastructure monitoring, updates, and backups.
- Best practices for data storage security.
While we provide a secure platform, you are also responsible for securing your own accounts (for example, using strong passwords) and managing permissions appropriately. For details on specific security practices or compliance certifications, please refer to our official documentation or contact our enterprise support.
Needle Engine has different plans. You can get started for free, and keep using Needle for free for non-commercial use, with our logo visible. For commercial use, you'll need a Pro license. All licenses include Needle Cloud usage.
For large teams or companies with custom licensing requirements, we recommend our Enterprise plan. This plan includes additional support (SLA), and agreements and features tailored to your needs.
Yes, our Enterprise offerings often include features tailored for larger organizations, such as:
- Volume Licensing and dedicated support channels: Scalable licenses and support channels of your choice.
- Custom Agreements: Possibility for tailored Service Level Agreements (SLAs) or Data Processing Agreements (DPAs). Our default SLA is one day of support per month.
- Pipeline and Workflow Integration: Support for integrating Needle Engine into your existing development and deployment pipelines.
- On-Premises Optimization: Possibility for on-premises or private cloud deployment of Needle Engine and Needle Cloud, depending on your needs.
Please reach out to our sales or enterprise team to discuss your specific needs.
Needle Engine itself exports standard web projects that can be self-hosted on any web server infrastructure.
Needle Cloud, our managed optimization and hosting service, is offered as a cloud-based SaaS (Software as a Service) platform. While standard plans run on our infrastructure, we understand some enterprises have specific requirements for on-premise or private cloud deployments.
Please contact us to discuss possibilities and requirements for dedicated or self-hosted arrangements.
You can always find the most current versions of our legal documents on our website. Please refer to these links for the definitive terms:
These documents govern your use of Needle Engine and related services.
Yes, we strongly support the educational community! We offer free or significantly discounted licenses for eligible students, educators, and academic institutions for non-commercial, educational purposes.
Our goal is to make Needle Engine accessible for learning, teaching, and research in the exciting field of web-based 3D development. You can apply for an educational license through our website. Please include details about your institution and studies.
We offer discounted licenses for non-profit organizations and startups. If you are a non-profit organization and would like to use Needle Engine, please reach out to us to discuss your needs and eligibility.
We love seeing creators showcase what's possible with Needle Engine! If you're using Needle Engine to create tutorials, reviews, technology demonstrations, or other content for platforms like YouTube, Twitch, or blogs, you might be eligible for our Content Creator license, even if your channel is monetized.
Needle in comparison to other solutions arrow_upward
Compare Needle with other 3D web solutions across a range of features. This comparison highlights the strengths and capabilities of each platform to help you make an informed decision for your next web 3D project.
Direct Comparisons
Looking for a specific comparison? Check out these head-to-head platform comparisons:
Needle vs. Babylon.JS Needle vs. PlayCanvas Needle vs. React-Three-Fiber Needle vs. 8th Wall Needle vs. A-Frame Needle vs. Spline Needle vs. Godot Needle vs. Verge3D Needle vs. Unreal Engine Needle vs. Sketchfab Needle vs. Rooom Needle vs. Spatial.io Needle vs. RapidPipeline Needle vs. Adobe Aero Needle vs. Reality Composer Pro Needle vs. Galacean EngineMore comparisons
Needle vs. three.js vs. <model-viewer> Needle vs. three.js vs. Unity WebGL Needle vs. three.js vs. Babylon.JS Needle vs. three.js vs. PlayCanvas Needle vs. three.js vs. React-Three-Fiber Needle vs. three.js vs. 8th Wall Needle vs. three.js vs. A-Frame Needle vs. three.js vs. Spline Needle vs. three.js vs. Godot Needle vs. three.js vs. Verge3D Needle vs. three.js vs. Unreal Engine Needle vs. three.js vs. Sketchfab Needle vs. three.js vs. Rooom Needle vs. three.js vs. Spatial.io Needle vs. three.js vs. RapidPipeline Needle vs. three.js vs. Adobe Aero Needle vs. three.js vs. Reality Composer Pro Needle vs. three.js vs. Galacean Engine Needle vs. <model-viewer> vs. Unity WebGL Needle vs. <model-viewer> vs. Babylon.JS Needle vs. <model-viewer> vs. PlayCanvas Needle vs. <model-viewer> vs. React-Three-Fiber Needle vs. <model-viewer> vs. 8th Wall Needle vs. <model-viewer> vs. A-Frame Needle vs. <model-viewer> vs. Spline Needle vs. <model-viewer> vs. Godot Needle vs. <model-viewer> vs. Verge3D Needle vs. <model-viewer> vs. Unreal Engine Needle vs. <model-viewer> vs. Sketchfab Needle vs. <model-viewer> vs. Rooom Needle vs. <model-viewer> vs. Spatial.io Needle vs. <model-viewer> vs. RapidPipeline Needle vs. <model-viewer> vs. Adobe Aero Needle vs. <model-viewer> vs. Reality Composer Pro Needle vs. <model-viewer> vs. Galacean Engine Needle vs. Unity WebGL vs. Babylon.JS Needle vs. Unity WebGL vs. PlayCanvas Needle vs. Unity WebGL vs. React-Three-Fiber Needle vs. Unity WebGL vs. 8th Wall Needle vs. Unity WebGL vs. A-Frame Needle vs. Unity WebGL vs. Spline Needle vs. Unity WebGL vs. Godot Needle vs. Unity WebGL vs. Verge3D Needle vs. Unity WebGL vs. Unreal Engine Needle vs. Unity WebGL vs. Sketchfab Needle vs. Unity WebGL vs. Rooom Needle vs. Unity WebGL vs. Spatial.io Needle vs. Unity WebGL vs. RapidPipeline Needle vs. Unity WebGL vs. Adobe Aero Needle vs. Unity WebGL vs. Reality Composer Pro Needle vs. Unity WebGL vs. Galacean Engine Needle vs. Babylon.JS vs. PlayCanvas Needle vs. Babylon.JS vs. React-Three-Fiber Needle vs. Babylon.JS vs. 8th Wall Needle vs. Babylon.JS vs. A-Frame Needle vs. Babylon.JS vs. Spline Needle vs. Babylon.JS vs. Godot Needle vs. Babylon.JS vs. Verge3D Needle vs. Babylon.JS vs. Unreal Engine Needle vs. Babylon.JS vs. Sketchfab Needle vs. Babylon.JS vs. Rooom Needle vs. Babylon.JS vs. Spatial.io Needle vs. Babylon.JS vs. RapidPipeline Needle vs. Babylon.JS vs. Adobe Aero Needle vs. Babylon.JS vs. Reality Composer Pro Needle vs. Babylon.JS vs. Galacean Engine Needle vs. PlayCanvas vs. React-Three-Fiber Needle vs. PlayCanvas vs. 8th Wall Needle vs. PlayCanvas vs. A-Frame Needle vs. PlayCanvas vs. Spline Needle vs. PlayCanvas vs. Godot Needle vs. PlayCanvas vs. Verge3D Needle vs. PlayCanvas vs. Unreal Engine Needle vs. PlayCanvas vs. Sketchfab Needle vs. PlayCanvas vs. Rooom Needle vs. PlayCanvas vs. Spatial.io Needle vs. PlayCanvas vs. RapidPipeline Needle vs. PlayCanvas vs. Adobe Aero Needle vs. PlayCanvas vs. Reality Composer Pro Needle vs. PlayCanvas vs. Galacean Engine Needle vs. React-Three-Fiber vs. 8th Wall Needle vs. React-Three-Fiber vs. A-Frame Needle vs. React-Three-Fiber vs. Spline Needle vs. React-Three-Fiber vs. Godot Needle vs. React-Three-Fiber vs. Verge3D Needle vs. React-Three-Fiber vs. Unreal Engine Needle vs. React-Three-Fiber vs. Sketchfab Needle vs. React-Three-Fiber vs. Rooom Needle vs. React-Three-Fiber vs. Spatial.io Needle vs. React-Three-Fiber vs. RapidPipeline Needle vs. React-Three-Fiber vs. Adobe Aero Needle vs. React-Three-Fiber vs. Reality Composer Pro Needle vs. React-Three-Fiber vs. Galacean Engine Needle vs. 8th Wall vs. A-Frame Needle vs. 8th Wall vs. Spline Needle vs. 8th Wall vs. Godot Needle vs. 8th Wall vs. Verge3D Needle vs. 8th Wall vs. Unreal Engine Needle vs. 8th Wall vs. Sketchfab Needle vs. 8th Wall vs. Rooom Needle vs. 8th Wall vs. Spatial.io Needle vs. 8th Wall vs. RapidPipeline Needle vs. 8th Wall vs. Adobe Aero Needle vs. 8th Wall vs. Reality Composer Pro Needle vs. 8th Wall vs. Galacean Engine Needle vs. A-Frame vs. Spline Needle vs. A-Frame vs. Godot Needle vs. A-Frame vs. Verge3D Needle vs. A-Frame vs. Unreal Engine Needle vs. A-Frame vs. Sketchfab Needle vs. A-Frame vs. Rooom Needle vs. A-Frame vs. Spatial.io Needle vs. A-Frame vs. RapidPipeline Needle vs. A-Frame vs. Adobe Aero Needle vs. A-Frame vs. Reality Composer Pro Needle vs. A-Frame vs. Galacean Engine Needle vs. Spline vs. Godot Needle vs. Spline vs. Verge3D Needle vs. Spline vs. Unreal Engine Needle vs. Spline vs. Sketchfab Needle vs. Spline vs. Rooom Needle vs. Spline vs. Spatial.io Needle vs. Spline vs. RapidPipeline Needle vs. Spline vs. Adobe Aero Needle vs. Spline vs. Reality Composer Pro Needle vs. Spline vs. Galacean Engine Needle vs. Godot vs. Verge3D Needle vs. Godot vs. Unreal Engine Needle vs. Godot vs. Sketchfab Needle vs. Godot vs. Rooom Needle vs. Godot vs. Spatial.io Needle vs. Godot vs. RapidPipeline Needle vs. Godot vs. Adobe Aero Needle vs. Godot vs. Reality Composer Pro Needle vs. Godot vs. Galacean Engine Needle vs. Verge3D vs. Unreal Engine Needle vs. Verge3D vs. Sketchfab Needle vs. Verge3D vs. Rooom Needle vs. Verge3D vs. Spatial.io Needle vs. Verge3D vs. RapidPipeline Needle vs. Verge3D vs. Adobe Aero Needle vs. Verge3D vs. Reality Composer Pro Needle vs. Verge3D vs. Galacean Engine Needle vs. Unreal Engine vs. Sketchfab Needle vs. Unreal Engine vs. Rooom Needle vs. Unreal Engine vs. Spatial.io Needle vs. Unreal Engine vs. RapidPipeline Needle vs. Unreal Engine vs. Adobe Aero Needle vs. Unreal Engine vs. Reality Composer Pro Needle vs. Unreal Engine vs. Galacean Engine Needle vs. Sketchfab vs. Rooom Needle vs. Sketchfab vs. Spatial.io Needle vs. Sketchfab vs. RapidPipeline Needle vs. Sketchfab vs. Adobe Aero Needle vs. Sketchfab vs. Reality Composer Pro Needle vs. Sketchfab vs. Galacean Engine Needle vs. Rooom vs. Spatial.io Needle vs. Rooom vs. RapidPipeline Needle vs. Rooom vs. Adobe Aero Needle vs. Rooom vs. Reality Composer Pro Needle vs. Rooom vs. Galacean Engine Needle vs. Spatial.io vs. RapidPipeline Needle vs. Spatial.io vs. Adobe Aero Needle vs. Spatial.io vs. Reality Composer Pro Needle vs. Spatial.io vs. Galacean Engine Needle vs. RapidPipeline vs. Adobe Aero Needle vs. RapidPipeline vs. Reality Composer Pro Needle vs. RapidPipeline vs. Galacean Engine Needle vs. Adobe Aero vs. Reality Composer Pro Needle vs. Adobe Aero vs. Galacean Engine Needle vs. Reality Composer Pro vs. Galacean Engine
Web-first runtime integrated with Unity and Blender plugins, complemented by Needle Cloud for optimization and hosting. Needle | Low-level JavaScript library for creating 3D graphics directly in the browser using WebGL. three.js | A Google-developed web component for easily embedding interactive 3D models (glTF/GLB) and AR experiences into HTML pages. <model-viewer> | The WebGL export target for the Unity game engine allows deployment of Unity projects to web browsers using WebGL and WASM. Unity WebGL | Open-source engine/framework with integrated visual tools, focusing on ease of use and comprehensive features for games and applications. Babylon.JS | Combines an open-source engine with a proprietary cloud-based visual editor focused on collaborative game and interactive web app development. PlayCanvas | A React renderer for three.js, enabling declarative building of 3D scenes using React components and hooks. React-Three-Fiber | A commercial platform specializing in high-quality, markerless WebAR experiences, featuring a cloud editor and advanced tracking capabilities. 8th Wall | An open-source web framework for building VR/AR experiences using a familiar HTML-based entity-component system built on top of three.js. A-Frame | A web-based, real-time collaborative 3D design tool focused on creating interactive web experiences without requiring coding knowledge. Exports self-contained web packages or specific formats. Spline | A feature of the free and open-source Godot Engine, allowing projects to be compiled to WebGL and Wasm for browser deployment, though with some limitations. Godot | A commercial toolkit for creating interactive 3D web experiences directly from Blender, 3ds Max, or Maya using visual scripting (Puzzles). Verge3D | High-fidelity engine primarily for native games/apps. Web strategy focuses on Pixel Streaming (server-side rendering) or exporting assets (glTF) for use in other web engines. Unreal Engine | Leading online platform for publishing, sharing, discovering, and embedding 3D/VR/AR models, featuring a high-quality universal web viewer. Sketchfab | An enterprise-focused web platform offering integrated no-code/low-code tools for creating 3D/AR/VR experiences like virtual showrooms, product presentations, and events. Rooom | A web-based platform focused on creating and hosting social 3D environments accessible via web and VR. Spatial.io | A specialized commercial tool (Cloud & CLI) focused on advanced, automated 3D model optimization and conversion for web and other platforms. RapidPipeline | An Adobe Creative Cloud application (iOS app & Desktop beta) for creating interactive mobile AR experiences with a no-code, visual workflow, aimed at designers. Adobe Aero | Apple's advanced visual authoring tool integrated with Xcode for creating 3D scenes and spatial computing experiences for Apple platforms (especially visionOS) using RealityKit. Reality Composer Pro | An open-source, TypeScript-based engine from Ant Group, designed with a mobile-first philosophy for performant web apps, offering code-first or editor workflows. Galacean Engine | |
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Core Platform & Workflow | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Solution Type | 3D Engine Cloud Platform Optimization Tool Web Component Needle Solution Type:
3d-engine, cloud-platform, authoring-tool, optimization-tool, web-component A comprehensive suite including a runtime engine, cloud services for optimization/hosting, authoring via Unity/Blender plugins, and embeddable web component output. | 3D Engine three.js Solution Type:
3d-engine A foundational JavaScript library providing tools to draw 3D scenes using WebGL. | Web Component <model-viewer> Solution Type:
web-component A custom HTML element (<model-viewer>) designed for simple 3D model display and AR. | 3D Engine Unity WebGL Solution Type:
3d-engine, authoring-tool Allows exporting projects built with the Unity Editor to run in browsers via WebGL/Wasm. | 3D Engine Web Component Babylon.JS Solution Type:
3d-engine, web-component, authoring-tool A comprehensive framework providing an engine, rendering capabilities, and integrated tools like the Node Material Editor and Inspector. | 3D Engine Cloud Platform PlayCanvas Solution Type:
3d-engine, cloud-platform, authoring-tool An open-source runtime engine coupled with a proprietary, web-based collaborative visual editor platform. | 3D Engine React-Three-Fiber Solution Type:
3d-engine Acts as a React renderer, mapping React components to underlying three.js objects. | Cloud Platform 3D Engine 8th Wall Solution Type:
cloud-platform, authoring-tool, 3d-engine A comprehensive platform providing AR tracking engine, cloud-based IDE (Cloud Editor, Niantic Studio), hosting, and specialized AR features. | Framework Web Component A-Frame Solution Type:
Framework, web-component A framework that allows creating 3D/VR/AR scenes using custom HTML tags (web components) built upon three.js. | 3D Engine Cloud Platform Web Component Spline Solution Type:
3d-engine, cloud-platform, authoring-tool, web-component An online platform for 3D design and animation, with direct export options for web integration. | 3D Engine Godot Solution Type:
3d-engine, authoring-tool Allows exporting projects made in the Godot Editor to run in browsers using WebGL/Wasm. | 3D Engine Framework Verge3D Solution Type:
3d-engine, authoring-tool, Framework A toolkit comprising a WebGL-based engine and tools for exporting/adding interactivity (Puzzles) from DCC software. | Unreal Engine Solution Type:
authoring-tool Primarily an authoring tool for creating experiences delivered via Pixel Streaming. No longer supports direct WebGL/Wasm client export. | Cloud Platform Sketchfab Solution Type:
cloud-platform A platform focused on hosting, discovering, and viewing 3D assets, providing an embeddable viewer. | Cloud Platform 3D Engine Rooom Solution Type:
cloud-platform, authoring-tool, 3d-engine An all-in-one platform ('Enterprise Metaverse') providing a CMS, visual editors, hosting, and underlying rendering technology for business use cases. | Cloud Platform Spatial.io Solution Type:
cloud-platform, authoring-tool A platform for building, hosting, and experiencing shared social 3D spaces ('metaverse'). | Optimization Tool Cloud Platform RapidPipeline Solution Type:
optimization-tool, cloud-platform A dedicated tool for optimizing 3D assets, available as a cloud service or command-line interface (CLI). | Cloud Platform Adobe Aero Solution Type:
authoring-tool, cloud-platform A tool for authoring AR experiences, leveraging Adobe Cloud for asset management and sharing. | Reality Composer Pro Solution Type:
authoring-tool A visual editor for creating RealityKit scenes, tightly integrated with Xcode for Apple platform development. | 3D Engine Galacean Engine Solution Type:
3d-engine, authoring-tool An open-source engine with an accompanying visual editor, focused on mobile web performance. |
| Made for the web | Needle Made for the web:
Yes Built from the ground up for the web, focusing on fast loading, efficient rendering, and cross-platform web deployment. | three.js Made for the web:
Yes A foundational technology designed specifically for creating 3D graphics on the web. | <model-viewer> Made for the web:
Yes Focuses on ease of use, optimized loading (lazy loading, poster), and performance for web display. | Unity WebGL Made for the web:
No Unity is a desktop- and mobile-first engine. It has a WebGL export option, but it's not from its core designed for the web. Often requires significant manual optimization for web performance and load times. | Babylon.JS Made for the web:
Yes Specifically designed and optimized for high-performance web rendering. | PlayCanvas Made for the web:
Yes Designed and optimized for web deployment, particularly for games and interactive ads. | React-Three-Fiber Made for the web:
Yes Leverages React's performance features and three.js's web focus. | 8th Wall Made for the web:
Yes Specifically optimized for delivering AR experiences through mobile web browsers. | A-Frame Made for the web:
Yes Aims to make WebXR development accessible and performant on the web. | Spline Made for the web:
Yes Focuses on creating optimized interactive experiences specifically for the web, with tools to analyze and improve performance. | Godot Made for the web:
No Web is an export target, not the primary design focus. Performance and features may lag behind native builds. | Verge3D Made for the web:
Yes Generates optimized output suitable for web deployment, mostly for product visualization use cases. | Unreal Engine Made for the web:
No A high-end engine designed for native performance. Web deployment relies on asset export or streaming. | Sketchfab Made for the web:
Yes The platform automatically processes and optimizes uploaded models for efficient web viewing. | Limited Rooom Made for the web:
Limited Viewers suitable for business applications. Load times are relatively high, since the viewer builds on Unity's WebGL platform. | Limited Spatial.io Made for the web:
Limited Designed for accessibility across web browsers and VR, balancing fidelity with performance for social experiences. Load times are relatively high because it builds on Unity's WebGL platform. | RapidPipeline Made for the web:
Yes Its core purpose is to produce assets highly optimized for web and AR/VR delivery. | Adobe Aero Made for the web:
No Does not run in the web. Experiences are displayed via the Adobe Aero app. | N/A (Native Apple) Reality Composer Pro Made for the web:
N/A (Native Apple) Optimized exclusively for performance on Apple hardware (iOS, macOS, visionOS). | Galacean Engine Made for the web:
Yes Explicitly designed with a mobile-first philosophy for high performance on the web. |
| Typical Workflows | Unity Editor Blender Editor Code HTML Asset Upload Needle Typical Workflows:
Unity Editor, Blender Editor, Code, HTML, Asset Upload Primary workflow involves using Unity or Blender as the authoring environment, exporting scenes and logic. Custom scripts (TypeScript/JavaScript) extend functionality. | Code three.js Typical Workflows:
Code Development is code-centric, writing JavaScript to define scenes, materials, and interactions. | HTML <model-viewer> Typical Workflows:
HTML Used by adding the `<model-viewer>` tag to an HTML page and configuring via attributes. | Standalone Editor Code Unity WebGL Typical Workflows:
Standalone Editor, Code Projects are developed using the Unity Editor with C# scripting and visual tools. | Code Web Editor Babylon.JS Typical Workflows:
Code, Web Editor Supports both code-based development (TypeScript/JavaScript) and visual tools like the Node Material Editor and Inspector for scene/material configuration. | Web Editor Code PlayCanvas Typical Workflows:
Web Editor, Code Primarily authored using the web-based visual editor, with scripting in JavaScript for custom logic. | React Components React-Three-Fiber Typical Workflows:
React Components Development is code-centric, building scenes declaratively using JSX and React components. | Web Editor Code 8th Wall Typical Workflows:
Web Editor, Code Development occurs in the Cloud Editor or Niantic Studio using JavaScript, HTML, CSS, often integrating with libraries like A-Frame or three.js. | HTML Code A-Frame Typical Workflows:
HTML, Code Scenes are built primarily using HTML-like tags, with custom logic implemented in JavaScript components. | Web Editor Spline Typical Workflows:
Web Editor Primarily a visual design tool where scenes and interactions are built using a graphical interface. Logic is handled through an event/state system. | Standalone Editor Code Godot Typical Workflows:
Standalone Editor, Code Development uses the integrated Godot Editor, with scripting primarily in GDScript or C#. | DCC Integration Visual Scripting Verge3D Typical Workflows:
DCC Integration, Visual Scripting Workflow centers around preparing scenes in Blender, 3ds Max, or Maya, then adding interactivity using the Puzzles visual editor. | Standalone Editor Visual Scripting Code Unreal Engine Typical Workflows:
Standalone Editor, Visual Scripting, Code Content creation uses the Unreal Editor with Blueprints (visual scripting) or C++. | Asset Upload Sketchfab Typical Workflows:
Asset Upload Users upload pre-made models and configure viewer settings (materials, lighting, annotations). | Web Editor Visual Editor Rooom Typical Workflows:
Web Editor, Visual Editor Content Management System and visual tools for creating experiences without coding. | Web Editor Unity Integration Spatial.io Typical Workflows:
Web Editor, Unity Integration Users build and customize spaces using intuitive, integrated visual tools and templates. | Asset Upload CLI RapidPipeline Typical Workflows:
Asset Upload, CLI Operates as an automated step in a content pipeline via API, CLI, or web interface. | Standalone Editor Adobe Aero Typical Workflows:
Standalone Editor Designed for designers, uses a visual interface on iOS or Desktop (beta) to assemble scenes and add interactivity without coding. | Standalone Editor Reality Composer Pro Typical Workflows:
Standalone Editor Provides a visual interface within Xcode for assembling scenes, materials, and basic behaviors. Complex logic requires Swift code. | Standalone Editor Code Galacean Engine Typical Workflows:
Standalone Editor, Code Supports both direct coding using TypeScript and development via the Galacean Editor. |
| Use with Unity | Needle Use with Unity:
Yes Deep integration with Unity Editor via dedicated plugin, allowing export of scenes, C# scripts (transpiled), materials (Shader Graph), animations, and components. | three.js Use with Unity:
No No direct integration. Solutions like Needle make integrating with three.js seamless. | <model-viewer> Use with Unity:
No Consumes glTF files, which can be exported from Unity. | Unity WebGL Use with Unity:
Yes This IS the Unity workflow, targeting WebGL output. | Babylon.JS Use with Unity:
No No direct integration. Assets from Unity require export (e.g., glTF). | PlayCanvas Use with Unity:
No No direct integration; assets are imported in standard formats (glTF, FBX). | React-Three-Fiber Use with Unity:
No Not related to Unity workflow. | 8th Wall Use with Unity:
No Focuses on web technologies with a custom editor. | A-Frame Use with Unity:
No Not related to Unity workflow. | Spline Use with Unity:
No Exports glTF/USDZ which can be imported into Unity, but there is no direct integration or specific workflow. | Godot Use with Unity:
No Separate engine and workflow. | Verge3D Use with Unity:
No Does not integrate with Unity. | Unreal Engine Use with Unity:
No Separate engine. | Sketchfab Use with Unity:
No Consumes assets exported from various sources, including Unity. | Rooom Use with Unity:
No Imports standard asset formats. | Spatial.io Use with Unity:
Yes Via Spatial Toolkit, offers SDKs for importing assets or integrating experiences built with Unity. | RapidPipeline Use with Unity:
Yes Can optimize assets destined for use in Unity projects. | Adobe Aero Use with Unity:
No Separate ecosystem. | Reality Composer Pro Use with Unity:
No Direct competitor/alternative for native Apple development. | Galacean Engine Use with Unity:
No Separate engine and workflow. |
| Use with Blender | Needle Use with Blender:
Yes Integration with Blender via addon, supporting export of scenes, materials, animations, and custom logic nodes. | three.js Use with Blender:
No No direct integration. Assets from Blender must be exported (e.g., as glTF) and loaded. | <model-viewer> Use with Blender:
No Consumes glTF files, which can be exported from Blender. | Unity WebGL Use with Blender:
No No direct integration; assets are imported in standard formats (FBX, glTF). | Babylon.JS Use with Blender:
Yes Provides an official exporter plugin for Blender to facilitate asset transfer. | PlayCanvas Use with Blender:
No No direct integration; assets are imported in standard formats (glTF, FBX). | React-Three-Fiber Use with Blender:
No Consumes assets (glTF). The `gltfjsx` tool can auto-generate R3F components from glTF files. | 8th Wall Use with Blender:
No Imports standard 3D asset formats like glTF. | A-Frame Use with Blender:
No Consumes glTF assets exported from Blender. | Spline Use with Blender:
No Can import formats like glTF (often exported from Blender) and export glTF, but no direct integration. | Godot Use with Blender:
Yes Godot has strong glTF import capabilities, making Blender a good companion tool. | Verge3D Use with Blender:
Yes Offers excellent, tight integration with Blender as a primary authoring tool. | Unreal Engine Use with Blender:
No Separate engine. | Sketchfab Use with Blender:
Yes Offers a Blender addon for direct uploading, and consumes exported formats. | Rooom Use with Blender:
No Imports standard asset formats. | Spatial.io Use with Blender:
No Imports standard 3D asset formats like glTF. | RapidPipeline Use with Blender:
Yes Can optimize assets exported from Blender (or other DCC tools). | Adobe Aero Use with Blender:
No Imports assets in standard formats (glTF, FBX) or via Adobe Creative Cloud (Photoshop, Substance). | Reality Composer Pro Use with Blender:
No Primarily consumes USDZ format. Assets from Blender need conversion. | Galacean Engine Use with Blender:
No Imports glTF assets exported from Blender. |
| Interactivity Building Blocks | Needle Interactivity Building Blocks:
Yes Includes a rich set of components for common interactions, animations, and UI elements. | Limited three.js Interactivity Building Blocks:
Limited Three.js provides some built-in interactive components, for example loaders and camera controls, in the examples folder, but they require additional development to be used. | <model-viewer> Interactivity Building Blocks:
No Provides built-in features for model display, camera controls, and AR placement, but not for broader interactivity. | Unity WebGL Interactivity Building Blocks:
Yes Full Unity component system available, but WebGL export has limitations with certain features. | Limited Babylon.JS Interactivity Building Blocks:
Limited Offers various built-in behaviors and components for camera controls and similar, but interactions need to be created either through code or graph-based systems. | PlayCanvas Interactivity Building Blocks:
Yes Provides a component-based architecture with pre-built components for common interactions and behaviors. | Limited React-Three-Fiber Interactivity Building Blocks:
Limited Core library focuses on React integration; companion library @react-three/drei provides many ready-to-use components and helpers. | 8th Wall Interactivity Building Blocks:
Yes Provides AR-specific components for common interactions and UI elements in WebAR experiences. | A-Frame Interactivity Building Blocks:
Yes Comprehensive component system with many built-in and community components for interactions, effects, and behaviors. | Spline Interactivity Building Blocks:
Yes Visual design tool with built-in interactive components for common behaviors like drag, hover, click interactions. | Godot Interactivity Building Blocks:
No Limited built-in components, though components are available in the Godot Asset Library. | Verge3D Interactivity Building Blocks:
Yes Visual Puzzles system provides building blocks for common interactions and behaviors without coding. | Unreal Engine Interactivity Building Blocks:
No Components can be created via scripting, but there is no built-in library of interactivity components. | Sketchfab Interactivity Building Blocks:
No Provides annotation system and basic interaction controls, but not a component system for custom behaviors. | Rooom Interactivity Building Blocks:
Yes Provides templates and interactive components for common experiences like product showcases, virtual events, and virtual tours. | Spatial.io Interactivity Building Blocks:
Yes Provides components for social interaction, media sharing, and space customization. | N/A RapidPipeline Interactivity Building Blocks:
N/A Not an authoring platform, focused on asset optimization. | Adobe Aero Interactivity Building Blocks:
Yes Provides a library of behaviors and interactive components for AR experiences without coding. | Reality Composer Pro Interactivity Building Blocks:
Yes Provides components for common AR interactions and behaviors integrated with the broader Apple ecosystem. | Galacean Engine Interactivity Building Blocks:
Yes Offers components for common 3D interactions using engine-toolkit. |
| Extensible with Coding | Needle Extensible with Coding:
Yes Uses TypeScript with full IDE support in both Unity and standalone projects. | three.js Extensible with Coding:
Yes Uses JavaScript or TypeScript for all implementation, giving full control but requiring manual coding. | <model-viewer> Extensible with Coding:
No Allows for JavaScript event handling and basic property manipulation via API, but not for extending core functionality. | Unity WebGL Extensible with Coding:
Yes Uses C# scripts with IL2CPP compilation to WebAssembly, with some limitations compared to native builds. | Babylon.JS Extensible with Coding:
Yes Supports JavaScript or TypeScript development with comprehensive API. | PlayCanvas Extensible with Coding:
Yes JavaScript scripting system with component-based architecture. | React-Three-Fiber Extensible with Coding:
Yes Full scripting via React/JavaScript/TypeScript with hooks-based reactive programming model. | 8th Wall Extensible with Coding:
Yes JavaScript API for creating AR experiences, with integration for Three.js, A-Frame, or Babylon.js. | A-Frame Extensible with Coding:
Yes Can create custom components and systems using JavaScript, or use the entity-component declarative HTML approach. | Limited Spline Extensible with Coding:
Limited Visual event system allows for creating interactive behaviors without coding. Limited JavaScript API for exported scenes. | Godot Extensible with Coding:
Yes GDScript, C#, or visual scripting, with some limitations in web export. | Verge3D Extensible with Coding:
Yes Supports JavaScript programming alongside or instead of the visual Puzzles system. | Unreal Engine Extensible with Coding:
Yes Blueprints visual scripting and C++. | Sketchfab Extensible with Coding:
No Viewer API allows some programmatic control, but not full scripting of custom behaviors inside the viewer. | Rooom Extensible with Coding:
No Primarily a no-code platform with template-based creation system. | Limited Spatial.io Extensible with Coding:
Limited Primary creation is through no-code tools; Unity SDK allows interpreting a C# subset for more advanced applications. | N/A RapidPipeline Extensible with Coding:
N/A Offers command-line interface and API for scripting optimization workflows, not for runtime interactivity. | Adobe Aero Extensible with Coding:
No Uses a no-code trigger and action system for creating interactivity. | Reality Composer Pro Extensible with Coding:
Yes Can be extended with Swift programming, but only for Apple platforms. | Galacean Engine Extensible with Coding:
Yes Uses TypeScript/JavaScript with an entity-component system. |
Engine Capabilities | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Physically-Based Rendering | Needle Physically-Based Rendering:
Yes Supports Physically Based Rendering (PBR), custom shaders (via Unity Shader Graph export), lighting, and post-processing effects. | three.js Physically-Based Rendering:
Yes Supports PBR materials, various shadow types, post-processing effects, and gives fine-grained rendering control. | Limited <model-viewer> Physically-Based Rendering:
Limited Supports PBR materials, environment maps, and basic lighting/shadow options, but no control over per-object shadows, reflection probes, lightmaps or other advanced rendering features. | Unity WebGL Physically-Based Rendering:
Yes Supports URP and HDRP rendering pipelines, but with significant limitations and performance caveats compared to native platforms. | Babylon.JS Physically-Based Rendering:
Yes Offers advanced rendering features including PBR, IBL, advanced lighting and shadowing techniques, and post-processing effects. | PlayCanvas Physically-Based Rendering:
Yes Supports PBR materials, shadows, post-processing effects. | React-Three-Fiber Physically-Based Rendering:
Yes Exposes all of three.js's advanced rendering capabilities (PBR, post-processing etc.) declaratively. | Limited 8th Wall Physically-Based Rendering:
Limited Rendering quality depends on the capabilities of the integrated engine. The Studio material model does not support all common PBR features. | Good A-Frame Physically-Based Rendering:
Good Leverages three.js rendering features like PBR materials, environments, and shadows, accessible via components. | Good Spline Physically-Based Rendering:
Good Supports PBR materials through a layer-based system, lighting (directional, spot, point), shadows, and post-processing effects. | Good Godot Physically-Based Rendering:
Good Supports PBR materials, global illumination (SDFGI, VoxelGI - limitations on web), and various post-processing effects, although web export uses the less feature-rich Compatibility renderer. | Verge3D Physically-Based Rendering:
Yes Leverages three.js features like PBR, aiming to accurately reproduce materials and lighting from the DCC tool. | Unreal Engine Physically-Based Rendering:
Yes High-end rendering capabilities (Nanite, Lumen, PBR) for desktop and high-performance mobile devices. | Limited Sketchfab Physically-Based Rendering:
Limited High-quality PBR rendering, customizable lighting, environments, post-processing effects, and material editor within the platform. No script control over rendering order, shadows, and so on. No in-scene lights. | Good Rooom Physically-Based Rendering:
Good Aimed at producing visually appealing product visualizations and virtual environments. | Moderate Spatial.io Physically-Based Rendering:
Moderate Balances visual quality with the need to support many concurrent users and run smoothly on web/VR. | RapidPipeline Physically-Based Rendering:
Yes Aims to preserve PBR material appearance during optimization. | Adobe Aero Physically-Based Rendering:
No Provides good visual quality optimized for mobile AR, but no advanced PBR features. | Reality Composer Pro Physically-Based Rendering:
Yes Leverages RealityKit's USD-based rendering engine optimized for Apple platforms. | Good Galacean Engine Physically-Based Rendering:
Good Supports PBR materials, shadows, and various effects via core engine and extension libraries. |
| Component System | Needle Component System:
Yes Leverages the component-based architecture of Unity/Blender, extended with custom web-specific components. | three.js Component System:
No Does not enforce an ECS architecture, though one can be implemented on top. | <model-viewer> Component System:
No Internal structure, not exposed as an ECS. | Unity WebGL Component System:
Yes Uses Unity's core GameObject-Component architecture. | Babylon.JS Component System:
Yes Uses an Entity Component System pattern (Nodes and Components). | PlayCanvas Component System:
Yes Built around an Entity-Component system architecture. | React-Three-Fiber Component System:
Yes Inherits React's component model for structuring the 3D scene. | 8th Wall Component System:
Yes Depends on the integrated rendering framework (e.g., A-Frame uses ECS). | A-Frame Component System:
Yes Based on a highly extensible Entity-Component-System architecture. | Spline Component System:
Yes Features a 'Component' system allowing reuse of objects and their properties, aiding in creating design systems within Spline, but differs from traditional ECS architectures. | Godot Component System:
Yes Uses a node-based scene structure, which functions similarly to an ECS. | Verge3D Component System:
No Logic is primarily driven by attaching Puzzles to objects imported from the DCC scene. | Unreal Engine Component System:
Yes Uses the Actor-Component model. | Sketchfab Component System:
No Internal viewer architecture. | Rooom Component System:
No Uses an internal system managed by the platform's CMS/editor. | Spatial.io Component System:
No Uses an internal architecture managed by the platform. | N/A RapidPipeline Component System:
N/A Not applicable. | Adobe Aero Component System:
No Uses triggers and actions to create interactive experiences. | Reality Composer Pro Component System:
Yes Built on RealityKit's Entity Component System. | Galacean Engine Component System:
Yes Built around an Entity-Component-System architecture. |
| Built-in Networking | Needle Built-in Networking:
Yes Built-in real-time networking for multiplayer and collaborative applications. | three.js Built-in Networking:
No Networking capabilities must be added using external libraries. | <model-viewer> Built-in Networking:
No Not designed for networked experiences. | Unity WebGL Built-in Networking:
Yes Supports Unity's networking solutions (Netcode), but web deployment involves specific considerations (e.g., WebSocket transport). | Babylon.JS Built-in Networking:
No Requires external libraries or custom implementation for real-time networking. | PlayCanvas Built-in Networking:
No Requires external libraries or custom implementation for real-time networking, though collaborative editor uses networking tech. | React-Three-Fiber Built-in Networking:
No Requires external libraries for networking. | 8th Wall Built-in Networking:
No Networking needs to be implemented using external libraries or services. | A-Frame Built-in Networking:
No Networking requires external components like `networked-aframe`. | Spline Built-in Networking:
No Supports real-time collaboration within the editor but does not provide features for runtime networking or multiplayer experiences in exported applications. | Godot Built-in Networking:
Yes Includes high-level networking APIs, but web exports have constraints (e.g., no UDP, rely on WebSockets/WebRTC). | Limited Verge3D Built-in Networking:
Limited Networking features can be implemented via JavaScript/Puzzles using external services, but not built-in. | Unreal Engine Built-in Networking:
Yes Pixel Streaming is fundamentally a networking solution. Unreal Engine has robust native networking. | Sketchfab Built-in Networking:
No Doesn't support multi-user experiences. | Rooom Built-in Networking:
Yes Includes networking for shared virtual events and showrooms. | Limited Spatial.io Built-in Networking:
Limited Built-in networking for avatar interactions, voice chat, and shared experiences. Not extensible. | N/A RapidPipeline Built-in Networking:
N/A Not applicable. | Adobe Aero Built-in Networking:
No Designed for single-user AR experiences. | Via Native Frameworks Reality Composer Pro Built-in Networking:
Via Native Frameworks Networking is handled using standard Apple frameworks (e.g., Network.framework). | Galacean Engine Built-in Networking:
No Requires external libraries for networking capabilities. |
| Timelines and Sequencing | Needle Timelines and Sequencing:
Yes Supports timeline-based sequencing, complex animations, animator state machines, blending, and more. | three.js Timelines and Sequencing:
No Basic animation system exists, but no built-in timeline or sequencing system. | <model-viewer> Timelines and Sequencing:
No Can play animations embedded in glTF but has no built-in sequencing system. | Unity WebGL Timelines and Sequencing:
Yes Unity Timeline and Animation systems are supported in WebGL export. | Babylon.JS Timelines and Sequencing:
No Sequencing animations involves programming, not via a timeline or dedicated tools. | Limited PlayCanvas Timelines and Sequencing:
Limited Basic animation system but no comprehensive timeline or sequencing tool. | React-Three-Fiber Timelines and Sequencing:
No Not built in. Timeline and sequencing available through libraries like Theatre.js or custom React animation solutions. | 8th Wall Timelines and Sequencing:
No No built-in timeline or sequencing system, relies on manual animation code or framework features. | Limited A-Frame Timelines and Sequencing:
Limited Basic animation component with support for keyframes, but no comprehensive timeline system. | Spline Timelines and Sequencing:
Yes Includes timeline-based animation system for keyframe animation and sequencing. | Godot Timelines and Sequencing:
No Animation state machines are supported via AnimationTree and AnimationPlayer, however there is no dedicated timeline/sequencing tool. | Verge3D Timelines and Sequencing:
No Sequencing can be programmed using Puzzles, but no dedicated sequencing tools. | Unreal Engine Timelines and Sequencing:
Yes Comprehensive Sequencer timeline system for cinematic sequences and complex animation control. | Sketchfab Timelines and Sequencing:
No Can play animations embedded in models but has no sequencing or timeline system. | Rooom Timelines and Sequencing:
No Basic event-based triggers and animations for interactions, but no comprehensive timeline system. | Limited Spatial.io Timelines and Sequencing:
Limited Basic trigger-based interactions but no comprehensive timeline system in the platform itself. | RapidPipeline Timelines and Sequencing:
No Does not preserve sequencing data from source formats that support sequencing. | Adobe Aero Timelines and Sequencing:
No Basic animation capabilities and directable characters, but no complex sequencing system. | Reality Composer Pro Timelines and Sequencing:
Yes Supports timeline-based animation and sequencing through OpenUSD. | Limited Galacean Engine Timelines and Sequencing:
Limited Basic animation system but limited timeline or sequencing tools. |
| Animation Controls | Needle Animation Controls:
Yes Supports complex animations authored in Unity (Animator, Timeline) or Blender and exports them for the web. | three.js Animation Controls:
Yes Provides core functionalities for keyframe animation playback and morph targets. | <model-viewer> Animation Controls:
Yes Can play animations embedded within the loaded glTF model. | Unity WebGL Animation Controls:
Yes Supports Unity's animation systems (Mecanim, Timeline). | Babylon.JS Animation Controls:
Yes Includes an advanced animation system supporting keyframes, skeletal animation, and blending. | PlayCanvas Animation Controls:
Yes Supports skeletal animation and state graph animations. | React-Three-Fiber Animation Controls:
Yes Leverages three.js's animation system, often managed via React state and hooks. | 8th Wall Animation Controls:
Yes Animation capabilities depend on the chosen rendering engine. | Limited A-Frame Animation Controls:
Limited Includes a built-in animation component and leverages three.js animations. | Spline Animation Controls:
Yes Supports keyframe animation, state-based transitions, and interactive events to trigger animations. | Godot Animation Controls:
Yes Supports Godot's AnimationPlayer, AnimationTree, and related nodes. | Verge3D Animation Controls:
Yes Imports and controls animations created in the host DCC application (Blender, Max, Maya). | Unreal Engine Animation Controls:
Yes Supports complex animations. | Sketchfab Animation Controls:
Yes Plays animations embedded in the uploaded models. | Rooom Animation Controls:
Yes Supports product animations, avatar interactions, and potentially environment animations. | Limited Spatial.io Animation Controls:
Limited Supports avatar animations and basic object animations. | Preserves Animation RapidPipeline Animation Controls:
Preserves Animation Aims to preserve skeletal animations during the optimization process. | Adobe Aero Animation Controls:
Yes Supports imported animations and allows creating simple animations/movements on a timeline. | Reality Composer Pro Animation Controls:
Yes Supports creating and controlling animations within RealityKit scenes. | Galacean Engine Animation Controls:
Yes Supports skeletal animation, blend shapes, and an animation state machine. |
| Animated Materials | Needle Animated Materials:
Yes Supports material animations, shader graph, and procedural material effects. | three.js Animated Materials:
No Supports material animation through code, but not for imported assets. | <model-viewer> Animated Materials:
No Supports materials in the glTF, including basic animation defined in the model, but no dynamic material creation or animation. | Unity WebGL Animated Materials:
Yes Materials are integrated into the animation system. | Babylon.JS Animated Materials:
Yes Rich support for material animation, dynamic textures, and shader effects. | PlayCanvas Animated Materials:
Yes Supports material animation and shader-based effects. | React-Three-Fiber Animated Materials:
Yes Supports animated materials via shader materials and libraries like lamina or through direct Three.js material manipulation. | Via Framework 8th Wall Animated Materials:
Via Framework Depends on the underlying framework used (Three.js, A-Frame, etc.). | A-Frame Animated Materials:
Yes Supports animated textures and shader-based material effects through components. | Spline Animated Materials:
Yes Supports material animation through the timeline system and visual animation tools. | Godot Animated Materials:
Yes AnimationPlayer can animate material properties as well. | Verge3D Animated Materials:
No Supports dynamic material changes through Puzzles, but no animation clips for materials. | Unreal Engine Animated Materials:
Yes Advanced material system with dynamic parameters, material instances, and material functions. | Sketchfab Animated Materials:
No Supports animated textures in uploaded models but no custom material animation creation. | Rooom Animated Materials:
No Limited to pre-built templates and imported animations. | Limited Spatial.io Animated Materials:
Limited Supports animated textures but limited material animation capabilities. | RapidPipeline Animated Materials:
No Preserves animations from source files but does not support animated materials. | Adobe Aero Animated Materials:
No No support for importing animated materials at this point. | Reality Composer Pro Animated Materials:
No Material properties can't be animated, but some shader-based animations are possible. | Galacean Engine Animated Materials:
Yes Supports material animation and shader effects, with focus on mobile performance. |
| Audio Playback | Needle Audio Playback:
Yes Supports spatial audio configured via Unity/Blender components. | three.js Audio Playback:
Yes Includes support for positional audio using the Web Audio API. | <model-viewer> Audio Playback:
No Does not have built-in audio features. | Unity WebGL Audio Playback:
Yes Includes Unity's built-in audio engine. | Babylon.JS Audio Playback:
Yes Features a comprehensive audio engine with support for spatial audio and effects. | PlayCanvas Audio Playback:
Yes Includes features for playing audio sources, including positional audio. | React-Three-Fiber Audio Playback:
Yes Utilizes three.js's audio capabilities, accessible through React components. | 8th Wall Audio Playback:
Yes Audio capabilities depend on the chosen rendering engine. | A-Frame Audio Playback:
Yes Supports positional audio through dedicated components. | Spline Audio Playback:
Yes Supports adding sounds to scenes, including positional audio and background music. | Godot Audio Playback:
Yes Includes Godot's audio engine capabilities. | Verge3D Audio Playback:
Yes Supports audio playback, including positional audio, controlled via Puzzles. | Unreal Engine Audio Playback:
Yes Audio features are part of the engine. | Sketchfab Audio Playback:
No Sketchfab used to support embedded audio in the past, but doesn't support it anymore. | Rooom Audio Playback:
Yes Includes audio capabilities for environments and events. | Spatial.io Audio Playback:
Yes Includes spatial audio for real-time voice communication between avatars. | N/A RapidPipeline Audio Playback:
N/A Not applicable. | Adobe Aero Audio Playback:
Yes Supports adding audio to AR experiences. | Reality Composer Pro Audio Playback:
Yes Leverages RealityKit's spatial audio features. | Galacean Engine Audio Playback:
Yes Basic audio support. |
| Video Playback | Needle Video Playback:
Yes Supports video textures and playback controlled via components. | three.js Video Playback:
Yes Supports using HTML video elements as textures. | <model-viewer> Video Playback:
No Does not directly support video textures. | Unity WebGL Video Playback:
Yes Supports video playback via the VideoPlayer component, but performance can be a concern on WebGL. | React-Three-Fiber Video Playback:
Yes Supports video textures via three.js. | 8th Wall Video Playback:
Yes Supports video textures through integrated rendering engines. | A-Frame Video Playback:
Yes Supports using videos as textures through the asset management system. | Spline Video Playback:
Yes Supports using videos as textures on 3D models. | Godot Video Playback:
Yes Supports video playback using the VideoStreamPlayer node. | Verge3D Video Playback:
Yes Supports video textures controlled via Puzzles. | Unreal Engine Video Playback:
Yes Supported within the streamed Unreal application. | Sketchfab Video Playback:
No Focuses on static and animated 3D models. | Rooom Video Playback:
Yes Supports integrating video content into virtual spaces and events. | Spatial.io Video Playback:
Yes Supports screen sharing and embedding media within spaces. | RapidPipeline Video Playback:
No Not applicable. | Adobe Aero Video Playback:
Yes Supports importing and playing video files within the AR scene. | Reality Composer Pro Video Playback:
Yes Supported via RealityKit. | Galacean Engine Video Playback:
Yes Supports video textures via extension libraries. | ||
| Physics Integration | Needle Physics Integration:
Yes Integrates with physics engines, configured via Unity/Blender components. | three.js Physics Integration:
No Requires integration with external physics libraries like Rapier, Cannon.js, or Ammo.js. | <model-viewer> Physics Integration:
No Focuses on model display, does not include physics. | Unity WebGL Physics Integration:
Yes Includes Unity's built-in physics engines (PhysX/Box2D). | Babylon.JS Physics Integration:
Yes Offers built-in physics integration with plugins for Havok and other engines. | PlayCanvas Physics Integration:
Yes Integrates the ammo.js physics engine (Wasm port of Bullet). | React-Three-Fiber Physics Integration:
Yes Integrates physics through companion libraries like @react-three/rapier or @react-three/cannon. | 8th Wall Physics Integration:
Yes Physics capabilities depend on the chosen rendering engine. | A-Frame Physics Integration:
Yes Physics is added through community components like `aframe-physics-system`. | Spline Physics Integration:
Yes Includes built-in physics simulation capabilities for creating dynamic interactions. | Godot Physics Integration:
Yes Includes Godot's built-in 2D and 3D physics engines. | Verge3D Physics Integration:
Yes Physics can be enabled and controlled via Puzzles visual scripting. | Unreal Engine Physics Integration:
Yes Physics simulation is part of the engine but not exported via glTF. | Sketchfab Physics Integration:
No Focuses on asset display, not physics simulation. | Rooom Physics Integration:
No Only basic interactions/collisions within the platform's scope, not exposed physics engine. | Limited Spatial.io Physics Integration:
Limited Handles basic avatar movement and interactions within the platform constraints. | N/A RapidPipeline Physics Integration:
N/A Not applicable. | Basic Adobe Aero Physics Integration:
Basic Includes simple physics behaviors like collision triggers. | Reality Composer Pro Physics Integration:
Yes Integrates with RealityKit's physics simulation capabilities. | Galacean Engine Physics Integration:
Yes Includes physics integration (e.g., @galacean/engine-physics-physx). |
| glTF 3D Support | Excellent Needle glTF 3D Support:
Excellent Uses glTF as its core runtime format and supports import of various formats (FBX, USD, VRM etc.) which are converted. | three.js glTF 3D Support:
Yes Provides robust support for loading and interacting with the glTF 2.0 standard, but some extensions like material animations or physics are missing. | <model-viewer> glTF 3D Support:
Yes Designed specifically for loading and displaying glTF 2.0 models. | Limited Unity WebGL glTF 3D Support:
Limited Requires installing the UnityGLTF package for glTF import/export. | Excellent Babylon.JS glTF 3D Support:
Excellent Support for the glTF 2.0 standard, including many extensions. | PlayCanvas glTF 3D Support:
Yes Supports import and use of the glTF 2.0 standard. | React-Three-Fiber glTF 3D Support:
Yes Excellent support via three.js and helper libraries like @react-three/drei and gltfjsx. | 8th Wall glTF 3D Support:
Yes Supports loading glTF assets. | A-Frame glTF 3D Support:
Yes Strong support for loading and interacting with glTF models. | Spline glTF 3D Support:
Yes Can import and export models in glTF format for interoperability with other tools. | Excellent Godot glTF 3D Support:
Excellent Godot prioritizes glTF as its primary 3D interchange format. | Verge3D glTF 3D Support:
Yes Uses glTF as an intermediate format and exports glTF-based web applications. | Unreal Engine glTF 3D Support:
Yes Provides an official importer and exporter for glTF assets. | Sketchfab glTF 3D Support:
Yes glTF is the preferred format; platform automatically converts many other formats to optimized glTF for viewing. | Limited Rooom glTF 3D Support:
Limited Supports a subset of glTF as a core format for asset import. | Spatial.io glTF 3D Support:
Yes Supports uploading glTF models for use in spaces. | RapidPipeline glTF 3D Support:
Yes Strong support for glTF as both input and output format, along with many others (FBX, OBJ, USDZ, etc.). | Adobe Aero glTF 3D Support:
Yes Supports importing glTF and GLB files. | Reality Composer Pro glTF 3D Support:
No Focuses on OpenUSD content; glTF requires manual conversion. | Galacean Engine glTF 3D Support:
Yes Built around the glTF standard as the primary asset format. |
| Custom User Interfaces | Needle Custom User Interfaces:
Yes Facilitates creation of UI using standard HTML/CSS and frontend frameworks, integrated with the 3D scene. | three.js Custom User Interfaces:
No UI creation typically involves integrating with HTML/DOM elements or using external UI libraries, no built-in support in three.js. | <model-viewer> Custom User Interfaces:
No Provides basic interaction controls (orbit, pan, zoom) and hotspots. Customization primarily via HTML/CSS/JS API. | Unity WebGL Custom User Interfaces:
Yes Includes Unity UI (UGUI) and UI Toolkit, though these are not specifically optimized for web use cases. | Babylon.JS Custom User Interfaces:
Yes Includes a dedicated 2D GUI system (Babylon GUI) for creating interfaces in 3D space or screen space. | PlayCanvas Custom User Interfaces:
Yes Includes a built-in UI system for creating screen space or world space interfaces. | React-Three-Fiber Custom User Interfaces:
Yes Leverages React for UI, allowing easy mixing of HTML/DOM elements with the 3D scene. | Limited 8th Wall Custom User Interfaces:
Limited UI is typically created using HTML/CSS overlays or the UI system of the chosen rendering engine. | Limited A-Frame Custom User Interfaces:
Limited UI can be created using 3D components (e.g., `aframe-gui`), HTML overlays, or community libraries. | Limited Spline Custom User Interfaces:
Limited UI elements are typically created using 3D text and objects within the scene itself; no dedicated 2D canvas UI system. | Godot Custom User Interfaces:
Yes Features a comprehensive set of Control nodes for building complex UIs. | Verge3D Custom User Interfaces:
Yes UI can be created using HTML elements manipulated by Puzzles. | Unreal Engine Custom User Interfaces:
Yes Features the UMG UI Designer. | Sketchfab Custom User Interfaces:
No Provides the standard viewer UI (controls, annotations) with slight customization options. | Limited Rooom Custom User Interfaces:
Limited Provides templates and customization options within the platform's UI framework. | Spatial.io Custom User Interfaces:
No Provides the user interface for navigation, communication, and interaction within the platform. | N/A RapidPipeline Custom User Interfaces:
N/A Not applicable. | Adobe Aero Custom User Interfaces:
No Custom UI can only be added via 3D objects in the scene. The UI shown to users can't be adjusted. | Reality Composer Pro Custom User Interfaces:
Yes Integrates with SwiftUI for creating user interfaces in spatial contexts. | Galacean Engine Custom User Interfaces:
Yes Built-in 2D UI system but limited options for HTML/CSS integration. |
Web Integration & Deployment | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Web Component | Needle Web Component:
Yes Exports projects as standard web components (<needle-engine> tag) for easy embedding into any HTML page or web application. | three.js Web Component:
No It's a library, not a web component. | <model-viewer> Web Component:
Yes It is fundamentally a web component. | Unity WebGL Web Component:
No Builds are typically embedded using an iframe or custom JavaScript loader, not as a standard web component. | Babylon.JS Web Component:
Yes Offers the Babylon Viewer, a web component for easily embedding models. | PlayCanvas Web Component:
No Embedding typically done via iframe, not as a custom web component. | React-Three-Fiber Web Component:
No Builds React applications, not standalone web components. | 8th Wall Web Component:
No Experiences are typically loaded via the 8th Wall JS library. | A-Frame Web Component:
Yes Its core abstraction relies on custom HTML elements (web components). | Spline Web Component:
Yes Exports can be embedded using iframe or Javascript code snippets, including a React component export and a generic web component ('spline-viewer') for better performance with multiple embeds. The authoring tool itself is not web component based. | Godot Web Component:
No Web exports are typically embedded via iframe or JavaScript loader. | Verge3D Web Component:
Yes Can be embedded into web pages, often via iframe or direct script inclusion. | Unreal Engine Web Component:
No Pixel Streaming requires a custom client player. | Sketchfab Web Component:
Yes Provides iframe/oEmbed code for easy embedding, functioning like a web component. | Rooom Web Component:
No Offers embedding solutions, but not standard web components. | Spatial.io Web Component:
No Experiences are accessed through the Spatial platform/website. | RapidPipeline Web Component:
No Not applicable. | Adobe Aero Web Component:
No Experiences are viewed natively via the Aero app or an iOS App Clip. | Reality Composer Pro Web Component:
No Strictly for native Apple platform development. | Galacean Engine Web Component:
Yes Can be embedded and controlled within standard web pages. |
| PWA Support | Needle PWA Support:
Yes Being web-native, Needle Engine projects can be easily included in Progressive Web Apps for offline capabilities and installation. | three.js PWA Support:
No As a JavaScript library, it can be used within Progressive Web Apps but provides no PWA features itself. | <model-viewer> PWA Support:
No Can be included in Progressive Web Apps but provides no specific PWA features itself. | Limited Unity WebGL PWA Support:
Limited Can be packaged as a PWA from a template, but requires careful handling of caching and large build sizes. | Babylon.JS PWA Support:
No As a web-native JavaScript library, it can be used within Progressive Web Apps but provides no specific PWA features itself. | PlayCanvas PWA Support:
No Web builds can be packaged as PWAs, though no specific PWA features are provided by the engine itself. | React-Three-Fiber PWA Support:
Yes Can be used within React-based Progressive Web Apps but provides no specific PWA features itself. | 8th Wall PWA Support:
No WebAR experiences created with 8th Wall can be integrated into Progressive Web Apps. | A-Frame PWA Support:
No Can be used within Progressive Web Apps but provides no specific PWA features itself. | Spline PWA Support:
No Spline exports can be included within a PWA, but Spline itself doesn't provide specific features for PWA development. | Verge3D PWA Support:
Yes Web apps created with Verge3D can be packaged as PWAs. | Unreal Engine PWA Support:
No Not supported. | Sketchfab PWA Support:
No Embeds work in PWAs; viewer can be used within Progressive Web Apps. | Rooom PWA Support:
No The platform itself is web-based. | Spatial.io PWA Support:
No The platform is web-based. | N/A RapidPipeline PWA Support:
N/A Not applicable. | Adobe Aero PWA Support:
No Focuses on native mobile AR. | Reality Composer Pro PWA Support:
No Not applicable. | Galacean Engine PWA Support:
No Mobile-first design makes it well-suited for PWAs. | |
| HTML/CSS Integration | Excellent Needle HTML/CSS Integration:
Excellent Designed to seamlessly integrate with HTML, CSS, and frontend frameworks (React, Vue, Svelte etc.), allowing blending of 2D UI and 3D content. | three.js HTML/CSS Integration:
Yes Integrates with standard HTML/JavaScript workflows, allowing rendering into a canvas element. | Excellent <model-viewer> HTML/CSS Integration:
Excellent Designed specifically for seamless integration into standard HTML pages. | Difficult Unity WebGL HTML/CSS Integration:
Difficult Communication between the Unity Wasm instance and the surrounding HTML page requires specific JavaScript bridging. | Babylon.JS HTML/CSS Integration:
Yes Designed for the web, allowing integration with standard HTML/CSS and frontend frameworks. | PlayCanvas HTML/CSS Integration:
Yes Allows interaction with HTML/CSS, often used for UI overlays. | Excellent React-Three-Fiber HTML/CSS Integration:
Excellent Seamlessly blends 3D rendered via three.js with standard HTML/DOM elements managed by React. | 8th Wall HTML/CSS Integration:
Yes Allows overlaying HTML/CSS elements for UI. | Good A-Frame HTML/CSS Integration:
Good Designed to be embedded within standard HTML pages. | Good Spline HTML/CSS Integration:
Good Designed to be easily embedded into HTML pages using generated code snippets (iframe or JavaScript). | Difficult Godot HTML/CSS Integration:
Difficult Interaction between the Godot Wasm instance and the webpage requires JavaScript bridging. | Verge3D HTML/CSS Integration:
Yes Puzzles allow interaction with HTML elements, enabling integration with web page UI. | Unreal Engine HTML/CSS Integration:
No Pixel Streaming client allows some UI customization and JS interaction, but doesn't contain features to make this easy. | Sketchfab HTML/CSS Integration:
No Can be embedded in other websites, but can't easily combine web UI and the Sketchfab viewer | Limited Rooom HTML/CSS Integration:
Limited Focus is primarily on experiences within the Rooom platform. | Limited Spatial.io HTML/CSS Integration:
Limited Focus is on the immersive 3D environment within the platform. | N/A RapidPipeline HTML/CSS Integration:
N/A Not applicable. | Adobe Aero HTML/CSS Integration:
No Operates within the native app environment. | Reality Composer Pro HTML/CSS Integration:
No Operates entirely within the native Apple ecosystem. | Galacean Engine HTML/CSS Integration:
Yes Integrates into standard web development workflows. |
| Host Anywhere | Needle Host Anywhere:
Yes The core runtime can be self-hosted on any static server. Needle Cloud features (optimization, hosting, analytics) require the cloud service. | three.js Host Anywhere:
Yes Applications can typically be hosted on static web servers. | <model-viewer> Host Anywhere:
Yes Requires only static hosting for the component and model files. | Limited Unity WebGL Host Anywhere:
Limited Requires hosting for the large build output files (Wasm, data, JS). Servers need specific configuration (compression, headers, wasm). | Babylon.JS Host Anywhere:
Yes Typically deployable on static web servers. | Limited PlayCanvas Host Anywhere:
Limited Builds run on static hosting. The visual editor is a cloud service. | React-Three-Fiber Host Anywhere:
Yes Client-side rendering, deployable on static hosting (like any React app). | 8th Wall Host Anywhere:
No Requires the 8th Wall platform for tracking and hosting. | A-Frame Host Anywhere:
Yes Deployable on static web servers. | Spline Host Anywhere:
Yes Exports are self-contained web packages deployable on static servers. Spline also offers hosting for public URL embeds. | Limited Godot Host Anywhere:
Limited Requires hosting for the exported files (Wasm, pck, JS). Servers need specific configuration (Cross-Origin Isolation headers for threading). | Verge3D Host Anywhere:
Yes Applications can be hosted on standard static web servers. | Unreal Engine Host Anywhere:
No Pixel Streaming requires significant server infrastructure (GPU instances). glTF export requires only static hosting for assets. | Sketchfab Host Anywhere:
No Models and viewer are hosted on Sketchfab's platform. | Rooom Host Anywhere:
No Experiences are hosted on the Rooom platform (cloud or optional on-premise). | Spatial.io Host Anywhere:
No Requires Spatial's backend infrastructure for hosting, networking, and persistence. | RapidPipeline Host Anywhere:
No Assets can be downloaded and hosted elsewhere, but the built-in viewer can only be hosted on the platform. | Adobe Aero Host Anywhere:
No Uses Adobe Creative Cloud for storing assets and sharing experiences. | Reality Composer Pro Host Anywhere:
No Tool is part of the Xcode development environment. | Galacean Engine Host Anywhere:
Yes Deployable on static web servers. |
| Asset Hosting | Needle Asset Hosting:
Yes Needle Cloud provides managed hosting and CDN delivery for optimized assets. | three.js Asset Hosting:
No Requires external hosting for 3D models and other assets. | <model-viewer> Asset Hosting:
No Requires external hosting for the glTF/GLB model files. | Unity WebGL Asset Hosting:
No Requires external hosting for the build files and any dynamically loaded assets. | Babylon.JS Asset Hosting:
No Requires external hosting for assets. | PlayCanvas Asset Hosting:
Yes Assets are hosted as part of the PlayCanvas cloud platform. | React-Three-Fiber Asset Hosting:
No Requires external hosting for assets. | A-Frame Asset Hosting:
No Requires external hosting for assets. | Spline Asset Hosting:
Yes Spline hosts scenes shared via Public URLs. Exported code/files can be self-hosted. | Godot Asset Hosting:
No Requires external hosting for exported build files. | Verge3D Asset Hosting:
No Requires external hosting for the application files and assets. | Unreal Engine Asset Hosting:
No Requires external hosting. | Sketchfab Asset Hosting:
Yes Core function is hosting 3D models which can be accessed via API. | Rooom Asset Hosting:
Yes Assets are hosted as part of the platform service. | Spatial.io Asset Hosting:
Yes Hosts user-uploaded assets and created spaces. | RapidPipeline Asset Hosting:
Yes The cloud service processes assets and can also serve them with a basic viewer. | Adobe Aero Asset Hosting:
No Assets and experiences are stored in the user's Creative Cloud storage but can't be directly served from there. | Reality Composer Pro Asset Hosting:
No Assets are bundled with the application. | Galacean Engine Asset Hosting:
No Requires external hosting for assets. | |
| App Hosting | Needle App Hosting:
Yes Needle Cloud provides managed hosting and CDN delivery for optimized applications. | three.js App Hosting:
No Requires external hosting for the application files. | <model-viewer> App Hosting:
No Requires external hosting for the HTML page and model files. | Limited Unity WebGL App Hosting:
Limited Provides the gaming-focussed Unity Play service, which allow for public hosting of embedded iframes, without much control over design or usage. | Babylon.JS App Hosting:
No Requires external hosting for the application files. Quick experiments can be hosted in the Playground. | PlayCanvas App Hosting:
Yes When using the PlayCanvas cloud services, apps can be hosted on PlayCanvas servers. | React-Three-Fiber App Hosting:
No Requires external hosting for the application files. | Required 8th Wall App Hosting:
Required Using the 8th Wall platform requires hosting on 8th Wall's servers. | A-Frame App Hosting:
No Requires external hosting for the application files. | Godot App Hosting:
No Requires external hosting for exported build files. | Verge3D App Hosting:
No Requires external hosting for the application files and assets. | Unreal Engine App Hosting:
No Requires external hosting. | Sketchfab App Hosting:
No Not applicable – does not support full apps. | Required Rooom App Hosting:
Required Experiences can only be hosted on the Rooom platform. | Required Spatial.io App Hosting:
Required Experiences are hosted on the Spatial platform. | RapidPipeline App Hosting:
No Does not allow hosting full web applications. | Required Adobe Aero App Hosting:
Required Experiences are viewed through the Aero app or an iOS App Clip. | Reality Composer Pro App Hosting:
No Not a hosting platform; used for creating applications. | Galacean Engine App Hosting:
No Not a hosting platform; requires external hosting. | |
Performance & Optimization | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Engine Size | Medium Needle Engine Size:
Medium Optimized runtime aims for minimal footprint, size depends on included features. | Small three.js Engine Size:
Small The core library has a relatively small footprint, though application size depends on usage. | Small <model-viewer> Engine Size:
Small Relatively lightweight as it bundles a subset of three.js. | Large Unity WebGL Engine Size:
Large Core engine compiled to Wasm results in a large base download size. | Medium Babylon.JS Engine Size:
Medium Core engine size is moderate, reflecting its rich feature set. Modular structure allows including only needed parts. | Small/Medium PlayCanvas Engine Size:
Small/Medium Engine core is relatively lightweight, focusing on web performance. | Small React-Three-Fiber Engine Size:
Small Adds minimal overhead on top of three.js and React. | Medium 8th Wall Engine Size:
Medium Includes sophisticated AR tracking libraries. | Small/Medium A-Frame Engine Size:
Small/Medium Includes three.js plus the A-Frame framework layer and components. | Medium/Large (includes runtime) Spline Engine Size:
Medium/Large (includes runtime) Exports include the Spline runtime, which can increase the initial download size compared to solutions using shared runtimes or minimal frameworks. Size depends on scene complexity and export settings. | Medium/Large Godot Engine Size:
Medium/Large Wasm builds can be substantial, though generally smaller than Unity. | Medium Verge3D Engine Size:
Medium Based on three.js plus the Verge3D framework and Puzzles runtime. | Large Unreal Engine Engine Size:
Large Not applicable for client-side web builds. | Medium Sketchfab Engine Size:
Medium The viewer code needs to be loaded. | Medium Rooom Engine Size:
Medium Platform includes rendering, interaction, and other components. | Large Spatial.io Engine Size:
Large Includes rendering, networking, avatar systems, and platform features. | N/A RapidPipeline Engine Size:
N/A Not applicable. | Large Adobe Aero Engine Size:
Large User installs the Aero app. | N/A (OS Framework) Reality Composer Pro Engine Size:
N/A (OS Framework) RealityKit is part of the operating system. | Small/Medium Galacean Engine Engine Size:
Small/Medium Aims for a lightweight runtime suitable for mobile web. |
| Loading Performance | Excellent Needle Loading Performance:
Excellent Rapid development cycles and fast loading times through optimized runtime and asset handling. | Fast three.js Loading Performance:
Fast Core library loads quickly; overall application load time depends heavily on asset sizes and application structure. | Fast <model-viewer> Loading Performance:
Fast Implements strategies like lazy loading and posters for optimized loading experience. | Slow Unity WebGL Loading Performance:
Slow Often suffers from long initial load times due to large Wasm and data files. | Moderate Babylon.JS Loading Performance:
Moderate Load times depend on included features and assets, generally good. | Fast/Moderate PlayCanvas Loading Performance:
Fast/Moderate Generally offers good loading performance, optimized for web delivery. | Fast React-Three-Fiber Loading Performance:
Fast Benefits from React's ecosystem (code splitting etc.) and depends on three.js and asset loading. | Moderate 8th Wall Loading Performance:
Moderate Loading time depends on experience complexity and network conditions. | Fast/Moderate A-Frame Loading Performance:
Fast/Moderate Generally good loading performance, depends on included components and assets. | Moderate Spline Loading Performance:
Moderate Loading times depend heavily on scene complexity, polygon count, texture sizes, and the included runtime. Optimization tools are provided, but complex scenes can experience noticeable load times. | Moderate/Slow Godot Loading Performance:
Moderate/Slow Loading times depend on project size and optimization efforts. | Moderate/Fast Verge3D Loading Performance:
Moderate/Fast Aims for good loading performance, depending on scene complexity. | Low Unreal Engine Loading Performance:
Low Pixel Streaming load time involves connecting to the server. | Medium Sketchfab Loading Performance:
Medium Optimized viewer and asset delivery for quick loading. No GPU compressed formats. | Moderate/Fast Rooom Loading Performance:
Moderate/Fast Advertises fast loading times as a feature. | Moderate Spatial.io Loading Performance:
Moderate Loading times depend on the complexity of the space and number of assets. | Good RapidPipeline Loading Performance:
Good Significantly reduces asset file sizes, leading to faster load times in target applications. | Moderate Adobe Aero Loading Performance:
Moderate Depends on the complexity of the AR experience. | Fast Reality Composer Pro Loading Performance:
Fast Benefits from native code and tight OS integration. | Fast Galacean Engine Loading Performance:
Fast Optimization for fast loading on mobile is a key design goal. |
| Runtime Performance | Excellent Needle Runtime Performance:
Excellent Designed for efficient rendering performance across desktop, mobile, and XR devices. | High three.js Runtime Performance:
High Offers high performance potential due to its low-level access, but optimization is the developer's responsibility. | Good <model-viewer> Runtime Performance:
Good Offers good performance for its primary use case of displaying and interacting with single models. | Variable Unity WebGL Runtime Performance:
Variable Can achieve good performance with heavy optimization, but often less performant than native builds or web-first engines, especially on mobile. | High Babylon.JS Runtime Performance:
High Strong rendering performance, good WebGPU support. | High PlayCanvas Runtime Performance:
High Optimized for efficient runtime performance on web platforms. | High React-Three-Fiber Runtime Performance:
High Maintains the performance of three.js. | Good 8th Wall Runtime Performance:
Good Offers robust and performant AR tracking, overall performance also depends on rendering complexity. | Good A-Frame Runtime Performance:
Good Offers good performance, though the abstraction layer might introduce minor overhead compared to raw three.js for complex scenes. | Good (scene dependent) Spline Runtime Performance:
Good (scene dependent) Performance is generally good for well-optimized scenes but can degrade with high polygon counts, complex materials, numerous objects, or intensive interactions, especially on lower-end devices. | Moderate/Variable Godot Runtime Performance:
Moderate/Variable Web export performance can be lower than native builds due to browser constraints and translation overhead. | High Verge3D Runtime Performance:
High Leverages three.js for efficient WebGL rendering. | High (Streaming) Unreal Engine Runtime Performance:
High (Streaming) glTF performance depends on target engine. Pixel Streaming performance is high (server-rendered) but subject to network latency. | High Sketchfab Runtime Performance:
High Offers good rendering performance for viewing complex models. High memory usage. | Good Rooom Runtime Performance:
Good Optimized for common business use cases like showrooms and product displays. | Moderate Spatial.io Runtime Performance:
Moderate Performance can vary depending on scene complexity, number of concurrent users, and device capabilities. | Good RapidPipeline Runtime Performance:
Good Reduces mesh complexity and draw calls, improving rendering performance in target engines. | Good Adobe Aero Runtime Performance:
Good Leverages native ARKit performance on iOS devices. | High Reality Composer Pro Runtime Performance:
High Optimized for high performance on Apple silicon. | High Galacean Engine Runtime Performance:
High Targets high runtime performance, especially on mobile devices. |
| Smart Asset Optimization | Excellent Needle Smart Asset Optimization:
Excellent Needle Cloud provides significant automated optimization: LOD generation, mesh optimization, extensive texture compression (Basis Universal, WebP, JPG, PNG) and resizing options. | three.js Smart Asset Optimization:
No Supports optimized formats like glTF (with Draco compression, KHR texture transforms etc.), but doesn't perform automatic optimization. | <model-viewer> Smart Asset Optimization:
Yes Handles progressive loading and encourages use of optimized formats like Draco and Basis Universal textures. | Limited Unity WebGL Smart Asset Optimization:
Limited No automatic generation of mesh LODs and other web-specific optimization techniques. Unity provides automatic compression tools: texture compression (ASTC, DXT, ETC). | Babylon.JS Smart Asset Optimization:
Yes Supports optimized formats (glTF, Draco, Basis Universal) and tools like the Inspector can aid optimization workflows. Some geometry/texture optimization possible. | PlayCanvas Smart Asset Optimization:
Yes Editor provides options for texture compression (Basis, DXT, PVRTC, ETC) and model optimization settings. | React-Three-Fiber Smart Asset Optimization:
No Relies on three.js support for optimized formats (glTF/Draco/Basis). | 8th Wall Smart Asset Optimization:
No The platform handles some processing, but optimization relies on preparing assets beforehand. | A-Frame Smart Asset Optimization:
No Relies on users providing optimized assets (e.g., glTF with Draco/Basis). | Limited (Internal) Spline Smart Asset Optimization:
Limited (Internal) Provides tools like polygon reduction guidance, material asset reuse, geometry compression on export, and image quality controls, but lacks explicit support for advanced texture compression formats like Basis Universal or Draco geometry compression visibility. | Godot Smart Asset Optimization:
Yes Offers export options for texture compression (VRAM compression) and other settings. | Verge3D Smart Asset Optimization:
No Optimization relies on export from DCC tools. | Unreal Engine Smart Asset Optimization:
Yes Features like Nanite/Lumen can pre-process assets. glTF exporter offers texture control. | Sketchfab Smart Asset Optimization:
Yes Performs automatic mesh optimization, texture compression (including Basis Universal), and geometry processing upon upload to ensure performant viewing. | Rooom Smart Asset Optimization:
No Basic asset processing upon upload. | Limited Spatial.io Smart Asset Optimization:
Limited Platform performs basic compression on uploaded assets, but no simplification. | Excellent RapidPipeline Smart Asset Optimization:
Excellent State-of-the-art features: advanced mesh decimation, texture baking/compression (including Basis Universal), UV unwrapping, draw call reduction, LOD generation. | Basic Adobe Aero Smart Asset Optimization:
Basic Relies on optimized assets imported from other Adobe tools (like Substance 3D Sampler/Stager) or standard formats. | Reality Composer Pro Smart Asset Optimization:
Yes Works with the optimized USDZ format. Includes Object Capture (photogrammetry) for model creation. | Basic Galacean Engine Smart Asset Optimization:
Basic Supports optimized formats like glTF with Draco/Basis, relies on external tools for complex optimization. |
| Mesh and Texture LODs | Excellent Needle Mesh and Texture LODs:
Excellent Supports automatic mesh simplification, level-of-detail generation and automatic texture compression with multiple quality levels. | three.js Mesh and Texture LODs:
No Basic support for mesh LODs, no built-in system for texture LODs. | <model-viewer> Mesh and Texture LODs:
No Relies on optimization being done in the source glTF file; no dynamic LOD system. | Unity WebGL Mesh and Texture LODs:
No While Unity supports LODGroups, there is no automatic simplification or LOD generation. | Babylon.JS Mesh and Texture LODs:
No No automatic mesh or texture LOD generation, but imported assets can have mesh LODs. | PlayCanvas Mesh and Texture LODs:
Yes Supports mesh LODs and offers texture compression options during asset imports. | React-Three-Fiber Mesh and Texture LODs:
No Inherits Three.js LOD capabilities, requires manual implementation. | 8th Wall Mesh and Texture LODs:
No Relies on optimization being done before asset upload; no dynamic LOD system. | Via Components A-Frame Mesh and Texture LODs:
Via Components Not built-in, but available through community components or manual implementation. | Spline Mesh and Texture LODs:
No Focuses on optimization but does not have a dynamic LOD system. | Godot Mesh and Texture LODs:
No No automatic generation of simplification levels, no web-specific optimizations. | Verge3D Mesh and Texture LODs:
No Basic support carried over from authoring tools, but no dynamic LOD system. | Unreal Engine Mesh and Texture LODs:
Yes Robust LOD system for both meshes and textures with automatic generation options. | Limited Sketchfab Mesh and Texture LODs:
Limited Automatically generates texture LODs for viewing of models. Does not create mehs LODs or GPU-compressed textures. | Rooom Mesh and Texture LODs:
No Platform does automatically apply asset compression, but no additional optimizations happen before upload. Paid optimization services are available. | Spatial.io Mesh and Texture LODs:
No Platform automatically handles compresses textures, but does not generate mesh or texture LODs for uploaded assets. | RapidPipeline Mesh and Texture LODs:
Yes Core functionality is generating optimized meshes and textures with multiple LOD levels. | Adobe Aero Mesh and Texture LODs:
No No LOD or optimization system; relies on initial asset quality. | Reality Composer Pro Mesh and Texture LODs:
No No automatic LOD management or simplification. | Galacean Engine Mesh and Texture LODs:
No No automatic simplifciation or LOD generation. |
XR Support (AR/VR/Spatial) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| VR Support (WebXR) | Needle VR Support (WebXR):
Yes Supports VR headsets via the WebXR standard. | three.js VR Support (WebXR):
Yes Supports VR experiences through the WebXR API. | Limited <model-viewer> VR Support (WebXR):
Limited Supports viewing models in VR via WebXR, without interactivity. | Unity WebGL VR Support (WebXR):
No Unity WebGL does not support WebXR at this point. | Babylon.JS VR Support (WebXR):
Yes Robust support for VR experiences via the WebXR standard. | Via libraries React-Three-Fiber VR Support (WebXR):
Via libraries Supports VR via three.js's WebXR capabilities, using @react-three/xr. | 8th Wall VR Support (WebXR):
No Primary focus is WebAR. | A-Frame VR Support (WebXR):
Yes One of the primary goals of A-Frame is to simplify WebVR development. | Spline VR Support (WebXR):
No Does not directly export WebVR experiences. Requires exporting models (e.g., glTF) and using a VR-capable framework. | Godot VR Support (WebXR):
Yes WebXR support is available but requires custom code. | Verge3D VR Support (WebXR):
Yes Supports VR experiences via WebXR, controllable with Puzzles. | Unreal Engine VR Support (WebXR):
No Very limited experimental support. | Limited Sketchfab VR Support (WebXR):
Limited Built-in support for viewing models in VR via WebXR; no interactivity. | Rooom VR Support (WebXR):
Yes Supports VR viewing for immersive spaces and events. | Spatial.io VR Support (WebXR):
Yes Strong support for accessing spaces via VR headsets for a more immersive experience. | N/A RapidPipeline VR Support (WebXR):
N/A Optimizes assets for use in VR applications. | Adobe Aero VR Support (WebXR):
No Focus is exclusively on mobile AR. | Reality Composer Pro VR Support (WebXR):
No Not supported. | Limited Galacean Engine VR Support (WebXR):
Limited Primary focus is 2D/3D mobile web, not immersive VR. | |
| AR Support (WebXR) | Needle AR Support (WebXR):
Yes Supports markerless WebAR on compatible Android devices via the WebXR standard. | three.js AR Support (WebXR):
Yes Supports AR experiences on compatible Android devices through the WebXR API. | Limited <model-viewer> AR Support (WebXR):
Limited Provides an AR button for viewing models in AR on compatible Android devices (via WebXR), without interactivity. | Unity WebGL AR Support (WebXR):
No Unity's AR Foundation does not support the WebGL build target. | Babylon.JS AR Support (WebXR):
Yes Supports markerless AR on Android via WebXR. | Via libraries React-Three-Fiber AR Support (WebXR):
Via libraries Supports AR via three.js's WebXR capabilities, using @react-three/xr. | 8th Wall AR Support (WebXR):
Yes Provides markerless AR for Android, but requires additional camera permissions and uses more CPU and GPU resources. | A-Frame AR Support (WebXR):
Yes Supports AR via WebXR on compatible Android devices. | Spline AR Support (WebXR):
No Does not directly export WebAR experiences. Exports USDZ for AR Quick Look on iOS, but full WebAR requires external frameworks. | Verge3D AR Support (WebXR):
Yes Supports AR via WebXR on compatible Android devices. | Unreal Engine AR Support (WebXR):
No Not supported. | Limited Sketchfab AR Support (WebXR):
Limited Provides an AR button for viewing on compatible Android devices (WebXR); no interactivity.. | Rooom AR Support (WebXR):
Yes Supports AR viewing, particularly for product presentations. | Spatial.io AR Support (WebXR):
No Primary focus is on virtual spaces (Web/VR), not mobile AR. | N/A RapidPipeline AR Support (WebXR):
N/A Optimizes assets for use in AR applications. | Adobe Aero AR Support (WebXR):
No Requires native app, or users manually enabling Google Play Instant. Does not use WebXR. | Reality Composer Pro AR Support (WebXR):
No Not supported. | Limited Galacean Engine AR Support (WebXR):
Limited Primary focus is 2D/3D mobile web, AR support might be basic or via extensions. | ||
| AR Support (iOS) | Needle AR Support (iOS):
Yes Supports interactive markerless WebAR on iOS devices via WebXR. | Limited three.js AR Support (iOS):
Limited Limited support for static assets in QuickLook via USDZExporter. | Limited <model-viewer> AR Support (iOS):
Limited Provides an AR button for viewing static models in AR on iOS using Apple's AR Quick Look. | Unity WebGL AR Support (iOS):
No Unity's AR Foundation does not support the WebGL build target. | Limited Babylon.JS AR Support (iOS):
Limited Non-interactive USDZ export of static assets via `USDZExportAsync().` | PlayCanvas AR Support (iOS):
No Claims USDZ export but no documentation exists. | 8th Wall AR Support (iOS):
Yes Provides markerless AR for iOS, but requires additional camera permissions and uses more CPU and GPU resources. | A-Frame AR Support (iOS):
No Requires external libraries. | Limited Spline AR Support (iOS):
Limited USDZ files compatible with AR Quick Look on iOS can be exported from the web app. Also provides native Swift embeds for iOS apps. | Godot AR Support (iOS):
No Quick Look is not supported. | Verge3D AR Support (iOS):
Yes Supports AR via WebXR on iOS, including object placement. | Unreal Engine AR Support (iOS):
No Not supported. | Limited Sketchfab AR Support (iOS):
Limited Provides an AR button using AR Quick Look on compatible iOS devices; no interactivity. | Limited Rooom AR Support (iOS):
Limited Supports AR viewing for products on iOS, but not for interactions. | Spatial.io AR Support (iOS):
No Not supported. | N/A RapidPipeline AR Support (iOS):
N/A Optimizes assets for use in AR applications. | Adobe Aero AR Support (iOS):
Yes The primary target platform, offering rich AR experiences via native app or App Clip. | Reality Composer Pro AR Support (iOS):
Yes Creates content for ARKit/RealityKit apps on iOS/iPadOS. | Limited Galacean Engine AR Support (iOS):
Limited Focus is not primarily on AR. | |
| AR Support (visionOS) | Needle AR Support (visionOS):
Yes Explicit support for creating spatial computing experiences deployable on visionOS. | Limited three.js AR Support (visionOS):
Limited Limited support for static assets in QuickLook via USDZExporter. | Limited <model-viewer> AR Support (visionOS):
Limited Provides an AR button for viewing static models in AR on iOS using Apple's AR Quick Look. | Unity WebGL AR Support (visionOS):
No Not supported via the WebGL build target. Native visionOS support exists. | Limited Babylon.JS AR Support (visionOS):
Limited Non-interactive USDZ export of static assets via `USDZExportAsync()`. | PlayCanvas AR Support (visionOS):
No Claims USDZ export but no documentation exists. | React-Three-Fiber AR Support (visionOS):
No Requires custom code. | 8th Wall AR Support (visionOS):
No Focus is on mobile WebAR. | A-Frame AR Support (visionOS):
No Requires external libraries. | Limited Spline AR Support (visionOS):
Limited USDZ files compatible with AR Quick Look on iOS can be exported from the web app. Also provides native Swift embeds for iOS apps. | Godot AR Support (visionOS):
No Not directly supported via web export. | Verge3D AR Support (visionOS):
No No USDZ/QuickLook support. | Unreal Engine AR Support (visionOS):
No Pixel Streaming is a potential path. Native visionOS support exists. | Limited Sketchfab AR Support (visionOS):
Limited Only basic USDZ conversion supported, no interactivity. | Limited Rooom AR Support (visionOS):
Limited Support for 3D models on VisionOS, but not for interactions. | Spatial.io AR Support (visionOS):
No Not supported. | N/A RapidPipeline AR Support (visionOS):
N/A Optimizes assets (e.g., to USDZ) suitable for visionOS. | Limited Adobe Aero AR Support (visionOS):
Limited Requires USDZ export and then embedding the USDZ elsewhere. | Reality Composer Pro AR Support (visionOS):
Yes A primary tool for developing spatial computing experiences for visionOS. | Galacean Engine AR Support (visionOS):
No Not a target platform. |
| AR Tracking Types | Surface Image Needle AR Tracking Types:
Surface, Image Supports World Tracking via the WebXR standard on compatible devices. Image tracking is supported on iOS AR but requires a device-specific flag for Android AR. | Surface three.js AR Tracking Types:
Surface Primarily supports World Tracking via the WebXR API. | Surface <model-viewer> AR Tracking Types:
Surface Supports World Tracking via WebXR (Android) and surface placement via AR Quick Look (iOS). | Unity WebGL AR Tracking Types:
No No built-in AR tracking capabilities in WebGL builds. | Surface Babylon.JS AR Tracking Types:
Surface Supports World Tracking via WebXR, with extensions for other features like image/marker tracking. | Surface PlayCanvas AR Tracking Types:
Surface Supports World Tracking via WebXR. | Surface React-Three-Fiber AR Tracking Types:
Surface Primarily World Tracking via WebXR. | Surface Image Face VPS 8th Wall AR Tracking Types:
Surface, Image, Face, VPS Offers a comprehensive suite of advanced AR tracking capabilities, including location-based VPS. | Surface A-Frame AR Tracking Types:
Surface Supports World Tracking via WebXR. | Surface Spline AR Tracking Types:
Surface Primarily through USDZ export for object placement in AR Quick Look. | Limited (WebXR) Godot AR Tracking Types:
Limited (WebXR) Tracking capabilities depend on the WebXR implementation in the browser. | Surface Verge3D AR Tracking Types:
Surface Supports World Tracking via WebXR. | Unreal Engine AR Tracking Types:
No AR tracking would need to be handled by the custom Pixel Streaming client application. | Surface Sketchfab AR Tracking Types:
Surface Supports World Tracking from inside | Surface Rooom AR Tracking Types:
Surface Supports standard markerless AR for product placement. | N/A Spatial.io AR Tracking Types:
N/A Not an AR-focused platform. | N/A RapidPipeline AR Tracking Types:
N/A Not applicable. | Surface Image Adobe Aero AR Tracking Types:
Surface, Image Leverages ARKit capabilities for various tracking modes. | Surface Face Object Reality Composer Pro AR Tracking Types:
Surface, Face, Object Leverages the full capabilities of ARKit (World, Image, Face, Body, Object, Location Anchors, etc.). | N/A Galacean Engine AR Tracking Types:
N/A Not AR-focused. |
Ecosystem & Support | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Official Support Availability | Needle Official Support Availability:
Yes Dedicated support available for licensed users. | three.js Official Support Availability:
No Support is primarily community-driven. | <model-viewer> Official Support Availability:
No Support primarily through GitHub issues and community channels. | Unity WebGL Official Support Availability:
Yes Paid support options available with Pro/Enterprise plans. | Babylon.JS Official Support Availability:
No Community support is available, but official support is only provided for Enterprise customers. | PlayCanvas Official Support Availability:
Yes Support is included with paid subscription plans. | React-Three-Fiber Official Support Availability:
No Community-driven support. | 8th Wall Official Support Availability:
Yes Support available through paid plans. | A-Frame Official Support Availability:
No Support is community-driven. | Spline Official Support Availability:
Yes Official support channels are typically available for paid subscribers, while community support is available for all users via Discord. | Godot Official Support Availability:
No Support is primarily community-based. Commercial support providers exist. | Verge3D Official Support Availability:
Yes Support is included with the commercial license. | Unreal Engine Official Support Availability:
Yes Paid support and enterprise options available. | Sketchfab Official Support Availability:
Yes Support available, especially for paid plan users. | Rooom Official Support Availability:
Yes Support included with paid plans. | Spatial.io Official Support Availability:
Yes Support available, particularly for paid/enterprise users. | RapidPipeline Official Support Availability:
Yes Support provided as part of the commercial offering. | Adobe Aero Official Support Availability:
Yes Through standard Adobe support channels. | Reality Composer Pro Official Support Availability:
No Community support available through the Apple Developer Program. | Galacean Engine Official Support Availability:
No Support is community-driven, backed by Ant Group's development. |
| Learning Resources | Needle Learning Resources:
Yes Extensive documentation, tutorials, live samples, and active community support. | three.js Learning Resources:
Yes Vast number of official examples, tutorials, books, and community resources available. | Good <model-viewer> Learning Resources:
Good Excellent documentation site serves as the primary learning resource. | Excellent Unity WebGL Learning Resources:
Excellent Abundant learning resources including Unity Learn, tutorials, and community content. | Babylon.JS Learning Resources:
Yes Rich resources including the Playground for live coding, extensive documentation, examples, and tutorials. | Good PlayCanvas Learning Resources:
Good Offers tutorials, example projects, and documentation. | Excellent React-Three-Fiber Learning Resources:
Excellent Extensive examples, helper libraries (@react-three/drei), and community resources. | Good 8th Wall Learning Resources:
Good Offers project library, documentation, and tutorials. | Excellent A-Frame Learning Resources:
Excellent Extensive documentation, examples, a large registry of community components, and active community channels. | Good Spline Learning Resources:
Good Offers official documentation, tutorials (text and video), a library of templates/examples, and an active community forum/Discord server. | Godot Learning Resources:
Yes Good official documentation, tutorials, and a growing number of community resources. | Good Verge3D Learning Resources:
Good Offers documentation, tutorials, and example applications. | Unreal Engine Learning Resources:
Yes Vast library of learning content on the Epic Developer Community and elsewhere. | Good Sketchfab Learning Resources:
Good Help Center, blog, and community forums offer resources. | Good Rooom Learning Resources:
Good Provides resources geared towards using the platform's no-code tools. | Good Spatial.io Learning Resources:
Good Help center, tutorials, and community resources available for creators. | Moderate RapidPipeline Learning Resources:
Moderate Documentation and use case examples available. | Excellent Adobe Aero Learning Resources:
Excellent Leverages Adobe's extensive learning resources (Adobe Learn, tutorials, community). | Excellent Reality Composer Pro Learning Resources:
Excellent Extensive resources including official documentation, WWDC session videos, tutorials, and sample code. | Good Galacean Engine Learning Resources:
Good Offers documentation, examples, and official toolkits. |
| License | Commercial Needle License:
Commercial Commercial license required for full features and deployment. Free evaluation available. | Open Source | Open Source | Commercial Unity WebGL License:
Commercial Uses standard Unity licensing (Free, Plus, Pro, Enterprise tiers based on revenue/funding). | Open Source Babylon.JS License:
Open Source Available under the permissive Apache License 2.0. | Open Source, Commercial PlayCanvas License:
Open Source, Commercial The runtime engine is MIT licensed, but the collaborative editor platform requires a subscription for private projects and advanced features. | Open Source | Commercial | Open Source | Commercial Spline License:
Commercial Spline is a proprietary tool with free and paid subscription tiers offering different feature sets and usage limits. | Open Source | Commercial Verge3D License:
Commercial Requires purchasing a license (Freelance, Team, Enterprise tiers). | Commercial Unreal Engine License:
Commercial Free to use up to a revenue threshold, then royalty-based or custom licensing. | Commercial Sketchfab License:
Commercial Offers free and paid subscription tiers. Acquired by Epic Games. | Commercial Rooom License:
Commercial Commercial platform with tiered pricing, including a free entry-level plan. | Commercial Spatial.io License:
Commercial Offers free access with paid tiers for enhanced features, capacity, or customization. | Commercial | Commercial Adobe Aero License:
Commercial Free to use, but requires an Adobe account and integrates with paid Creative Cloud apps. | Free Reality Composer Pro License:
Free Included free as part of Apple's developer tools. | Open Source |
What people say
Unbelievable Unity editor integration by an order of magnitude, and as straightforward as the docs claim. Wow.
★★★★★— Chris Mahoney, Founder, Our Computer Company. Ex-Unity, Ex-Lamina1 about Needle Engine for UnityThis is amazing and if you are curious about #WebXR with Unity this will help us get there!
★★★★★— Dilmer Valecillos, Developer Advocate for Mixed Reality @Meta, Tutorial Creator about Needle EngineMy workflow has been optimized 10X ever since i started using needle.
★★★★★— Yuzu, Web Game Developer about Needle Engine for BlenderThis is huge for WebXR and shared, immersive 3D experiences! Thank you so much for putting in the work on this! The AR part worked flawlessly.
★★★★★— Marc Wakefield, Augmented Reality Expert about Needle Cloud