[QGIS-Developer] Exact specification of the 3D Tiles support in QGIS?

[Martin Dobias]

Hi Hannes

QGIS currently has partial support for 3D Tiles 1.0 and partial support for
3D Tiles 1.1.

In more detail:
- "b3dm" is supported, but "i3dm" / "pnts" / "cmpt" tile content is not
supported yet
- CRS: 3D Tiles spec generally expects data to be in EPSG:4978, see [1].
Other CRS may be specified in metadata in 3D Tiles 1.1, see [2] but we have
not seen it used much yet
- only explicit tiling is supported (implicit tiling is an addition in 3D
Tiles 1.1)
- from 3D Tiles 1.1, QGIS supports gltf 2.0 assets as tile content (in
addition to "b3dm") - because Google's 3D tiles use it

I remember I looked at those datasets when adding 3D Tiles support, but
there were a couple of issues:
- usage of custom CRS - this is not common in 3D Tiles, and the CRS is not
specified in the metadata. I _think_ other viewers like CesiumJS would also
fail to show such dataset, as this was only supported by their specific 3d
viewer
- usage of implicit tiling not yet supported in QGIS
- tiles that claim to be "b3dm" are actually composite ("cmpt") not yet
supported in QGIS

For tile generation, check out some links at
https://github.com/pka/awesome-3d-tiles

Cheers
Martin

[1]
https://github.com/CesiumGS/3d-tiles/tree/main/specification#coordinate-reference-system-crs
[2]
https://github.com/CesiumGS/3d-tiles/blob/main/specification/Metadata/Semantics/README.adoc#overview-3

On Tue, Aug 19, 2025 at 11:24 AM Johannes Kröger (WhereGroup) via
QGIS-Developer <qgis-developer at lists.osgeo.org> wrote:

> Howdy!
>
> I am struggling with 3D Tiles in QGIS and wonder if someone could provide
> information as to which kinds of 3D Tiles exactly are supported.
>
> For example:
>
>    - 1.0? 1.1? Both?
>    - Explicit or implicit tiling? Both?
>    - EPSG:4979? EPSG:4978? Custom CRS?
>
> I could get *none* of the 3D Tiles offered on
> https://3dtilesnederland.nl/3d-tilesets/ under "WGS 84" to show up in
> QGIS: 1.0 (b3dm) or 1.1 (glb), explicit or implicit tiling.
>
> If you try different datasets from the "Amersfoort / RD New + NAP height"
> section there in the 1.0 Explicit column, some might work (e.g. Cesium ion
> Rotterdam Wilhelminakade – Textured or "FME (Safe Software) Rotterdam
> Stadsdriehoek LoD2"), others won't (e.g. "pg2b3dm Amsterdam BAG v20231008"
> shows up misaligned and with gaps in 3D; "VCS (Virtual City
> Systems) Rotterdam" or "pg2b3dm Rotterdam Ommoord" do not show up at all).
>
> Are there specific tile generators that are ideal for creating (big) 3D
> Tiles datasets for QGIS?
>
> Cheers, Hannes
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