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

[Johannes Kröger (WhereGroup)]

Hi Martin,

thank you so much, this helps a lot!

Would it alright if I added this information to 
https://docs.qgis.org/latest/en/docs/user_manual/working_with_3d_tiles/3d_tiles.html#what-are-3d-tiles 
? Marketing-wise it would be a bit negative ("partial XX support" sounds 
worse than plain "3D Tiles support"), but I think for users it would be 
super helpful.

When you say "gltf 2.0 assets" this includes both text (.gltf) and 
binary (.glb) encodings, right?

Yeah it seems like there is a lot of "flavours" of 3D Tiles in addition 
to the standards. So confusing. D:

Pirmin's repo has been of great help already. I haven't had much luck 
with pg2b3dm but currently I am evaluating mago-3d-tiler fairly 
successfully and I will share my findings if they are worthy.

Cheers, Hannes


On 8/19/25 15:10, Martin Dobias wrote:
> 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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