File formats & loading

Orby is optimized for glTF / GLB, SVG extrusion, and live font extrude. You can also drop a saved .orby scene (settings + embedded model). Other formats load via Three.js loaders but may need extra care for materials and scale.

• What should I use for AI-generated or game assets?

  GLB is the best default — single file, PBR materials, animations, and extensions like transmission for glass. Export from Meshy, Tripo, Blender, etc. as glTF 2.0 when you can.

• SVG logos and flat artwork

  Drop an SVG to extrude filled paths into 3D meshes. Use Object → SVG Extrude for depth, per-color layers, and surface presets. Complex strokes-only artwork may need cleanup in a vector editor first.

  The UI for multi-depth and per-color extrude is still rough around the edges — not as polished as we'd like yet. If you poke at the layer and depth controls for a minute or two, you'll usually get the hang of it.

• .gltf with external files

  A lone .gltf JSON file often cannot find its bins and textures. Drop the whole export folder so sidecar files resolve — same idea as FBX + PNGs.

• USDZ (experimental)

  Barely tested. Orby may load text USDA stages inside USDZ. Most USDZ packages use binary USDC and appear empty in the browser — prefer GLB.

• Model looks tiny, huge, or off-center

  Orby auto-frames on load. Use F to refocus, or transform tools (W / E / R) if you need manual placement. Some FBX/OBJ exports use different unit scales — zoom and framing usually recover a usable view.

• Materials look flat or wrong compared to another viewer

  Check display mode under Object → Display (Shaded vs Unlit vs Clay). Object → Shader Lab presets temporarily replace materials — turn them off to see the imported glTF look again. Marketplace assets often pack transparency into atlases; see Transparency & glass below.

Shader Lab

Object → Shader Lab replaces imported mesh materials with stylized looks — physical chrome and glass, animated procedural shaders, retro pixel filters, painterly screen-space passes, and geometry FX. Turn it off or pick None to restore your original glTF materials. Shader Lab is still under active development.

• Preset families

  Physical / env-driven: True Chrome, Glass, Holo Glass, Crystal Gem — follow HDRI strength, rotation, and blur; keep Render Backdrop on for reflections and refraction. Animated procedural: Flow Field, Plasma, Neon Edge, Thermal, Holographic, and similar — tune Intensity, Scale, and Master Hue; use Pause shader animations to freeze motion. Retro / screen pixels: EGA, GBA, Mega Drive, NES, Game Boy, C64, Apple II, Intellivision, and VGA-style presets. Dither & ASCII: neutral and tritone Bayer crush, crosshatch, raster, and ASCII variants. Artistic post: Watercolour, Sketch, Gouache, Vectrex. Geometry FX: Wire Pulse, Dust Field — some rebuild or augment mesh data when applied.

• Post-processing interaction

  Shader Lab runs through its own material and screen-space path — stacking it with Camera effects (depth of field, bloom, film grain, tone mapping, lens flare, and similar) can produce unexpected results. Combinations stay enabled on purpose so you can experiment; see the disclaimer above. If a grade looks broken, disable Shader Lab or turn off post FX one at a time to isolate the culprit.

• Debugging materials

  If a model looks wrong and you suspect Shader Lab: disable it or switch to None, then check Object → Display (Shaded vs Unlit). Shader Lab overrides PBR until you turn it off — it is not a permanent edit to the imported file.

• HDRI and backdrop

  True Chrome and Glass follow the current environment. Animated presets can be paused while HDRI rotation and lighting still update. Physical glass presets need the backdrop visible — see HDRI & lighting.

HDRI & environment lighting

A 360° environment image lights the scene and drives reflections on metals, glass, and chrome looks. HDRI presets and controls live under the Studio tab.

• Built-in presets vs custom uploads

  Presets ship as JPEG environments — graded and tuned for fast load and a small download. You can upload your own .jpg, .png, .hdr, or .exr: JPEGs behave like a finished sky; .hdr / .exr keep a wider brightness range so sun and windows can punch harder on metal and glass (lower Intensity and Exposure if it blows out).

• Layout and backdrop

  Use a 2:1 equirectangular map. Render Backdrop draws the HDRI behind the scene; when off, only your background color shows but the HDRI still lights the model. Rotate the environment to change highlight direction; Blurriness softens reflections.

• Custom HDRI session limits

  Custom uploads are session-only — they reset mood tints to neutral and are not saved in copied scene JSON. Re-upload after a refresh if you need the same file again.

• Shader Lab and HDRI

  Physical Shader Lab presets (True Chrome, Glass, and similar) follow the current HDRI. See Shader Lab for preset families, post-FX interaction, and debugging tips.

Exports

Exports render the current view and settings on your GPU. Heavy post-processing and high resolution increase time and memory use. If your machine can handle it, bump Camera → Quality → Render Quality to Ultra before you export — higher internal resolution and full-quality passes make PNGs and video noticeably crisper.

• PNG still (1× / 2×, transparency)

  Matches the viewport grade and effects. 2× is sharper but slower and uses more memory. Transparency exports the alpha channel when enabled — hide the ground/base if you need a clean plate.

• Fisheye lens and PNG

  Opaque PNG and MP4 exports include fisheye when the effect is on. Transparent PNG export is not supported yet with fisheye — alpha readback can show missing geometry, black patches, or a broken frame. Turn off Fisheye Lens or disable transparency for PNG sequences.

• SVG vector (silhouette & flat color)

  Vector exports trace the visible silhouette or flat fills — they are not a substitute for a 3D mesh export. Tune detail level if paths are too heavy or too coarse for your target app.

• GLB from SVG extrude

  Available when the source was an imported SVG. Exported meshes use opaque GLB materials for predictable shading in other viewers and AR pipelines.

• Video (MP4 / PNG sequence)

  Turntable or orbit camera paths; control length, spins, FPS, resolution, and encode quality. Encoding uses browser APIs — very long or 4K runs can fail on low memory; try shorter clips or lower resolution. PNG sequences download as a zip of numbered frames.

• Export failed or file won’t open

  Note your browser and OS in a bug report. Safari and mobile GPUs can be stricter than desktop Chrome. Disable the heaviest effects temporarily, reduce export size, and close other heavy tabs before retrying.

Camera & FX

Framing, motion, and cinematic post live under the Camera tab. Look Filter thumbnails under Camera → Look Filters apply bundled grade + FX combos; None resets those defaults.

• Auto Orbit & turntable

  Press Space to cycle camera Auto Orbit (Off → Slow → Fast). Turntable export uses the same orbit path for MP4 and PNG sequences — see Exports.

• Isometric Camera

  RTS-style locked view with presets; optional pan via Unlock. Orbit, roll, and fisheye are disabled while isometric mode is on.

• Handheld shake

  Procedural camera shake on top of orbit (Off / Subtle / Strong). Useful for live preview — not baked into PNG still exports.

• Fisheye lens

  Barrel distortion post effect after the full grade stack. Included in opaque PNG and MP4 exports when enabled — transparent PNG has known limitations; see Exports.

• Light Rays

  Volumetric god rays under Camera — follow the virtual sun direction used by Lens Flare rotation and height. Decorative; can add GPU cost on weak hardware.

• Gobo (Studio lights)

  The key light under Studio → Lights supports patterned shadow projection — palm, leaf, tree, and other presets. Drag with Alt + right-click to rotate the light rig; Shift + right-click rotates the HDRI dome.

Transparency & glass

• Flicker, sorting, or “see-through” layers

  Real-time engines sort draw calls — not every triangle. When many transparent surfaces share one mesh/material, order artifacts are common in WebGL/Three.js, especially on marketplace downloads with blended atlases.

• What to try in Orby

  Under Object → Advanced, try Transparency Mode and Stabilize Layered Transparency. These change draw order but cannot fix assets where unrelated surfaces were baked into one blended material.

• Transmission / refractive glass in glTF

  Thin glass often uses KHR_materials_transmission. When present, it reads from the file’s material properties rather than global scene overrides.

• Further reading

  glTF alpha modes · Three.js — Transparency

SVG extrude

• Controls

  Under Object → SVG Extrude: Depth sets global extrusion; Bevel Amount rounds corners (can be finicky on fonts and logos); Angle controls normal smoothing; Flip Direction inverts front/back; Color Override replaces fill colors; per-color depth/position rows tune layered logos; Detail and Surface tune mesh quality and procedural shading.

• Scene JSON

  SVG extrude settings are included when you Copy Scene Settings or save a .orby file. They are not stored on this support page — only in your local session.

Font extrude

Type live text and extrude it into 3D — no SVG required. Open Object → Type Creator on the Object tab.

• Editor & fonts

  Edit text in the live preview, pick family and weight, adjust tracking, kerning, line height, and alignment. Load custom .ttf / .otf files or use built-in families. Some browsers can access local system fonts when you allow it in the panel prompt.

• Generate & tune

  Hit Generate to build the mesh, then tune Depth, Bevel Amount, normal smoothing Angle, fill color, and Detail — same spirit as SVG extrude, but font outlines use a different bevel path. Bevels on type can blow out on tight curves; try lower bevel or turn bevel off — see the SVG / bevel note in the disclaimer.

• Reveal animations

  After generation, play slide-in and other reveal types with scrub, loop, and duration controls on the Object tab.

• Scene JSON

  Font extrude settings are included in Copy Scene Settings and .orby saves. Switching from an SVG session to font generation resets SVG-specific extrude state — by design, so old SVG tweaks do not leak into a fresh text mesh.

Orby Mobile

Orby Mobile is a phone-friendly preview — load a model, pick an environment, apply style presets, and export a still. The full desktop studio adds every import format, custom HDRI uploads, the complete Shader Lab catalog, font and SVG extrude, animation playback, turntable video, scene JSON, and the full Camera & FX stack.

• What Mobile supports

  GLB and GLTF import only. Bundled HDRI presets, a curated subset of Shader Lab looks, Look Filter FX rails, material sliders, and PNG export. Touch-first UI with bottom sheets instead of the desktop shelf.

• What stays on desktop

  FBX, OBJ, STL, SVG, font extrude, custom HDRIs, turntable MP4, transparent PNG workflows at full quality, transform gizmos, histogram/curve editing, and many Shader Lab presets (Flow Field, Vectrex, ASCII, Dust Field, and others) are desktop-only for now.

Performance

Orby is a real-time GPU renderer. Frame cost comes from your mesh complexity, shadow maps, screen-space effects, and how many full-quality passes you stack — not just sliders in one panel.

• High-poly meshes

  Triangle count matters before any effect is turned on. Dense photogrammetry, CAD exports, and AI meshes with heavy subdivision can choke integrated GPUs and older laptops even at rest. If orbit feels sticky with effects off, try a decimated export, hide optional parts in the source file, or use Clay / Unlit while framing, then switch back to Shaded for the final look.

• Shadow-casting 3-point lights

  Under Studio → Lights → Shadows, enabling Cast Shadows makes spotlights render shadow maps every frame. That is powerful for product shots but expensive — especially with soft shadows and when multiple lights cast at once. Per-light shadow toggles add up quickly. At Low Render Quality, global shadows limit casting to the key light only (fill and rim stay off). Medium and Ultra allow all three.

  Shadow Quality (Low → Ultra) sets shadow map resolution and filtering. Ultra uses very large maps and softer PCF — beautiful on desktop, brutal on low-end hardware. Start at Medium; only go High or Ultra when you are polishing a still or export.

  On the Studio HDRI block, Receive Shadows + AO adds a ground catcher under the model so contact shadows and occlusion read on the backdrop. Turn it off when you do not need floor contact — it is extra geometry and compositing work each frame.

• Ambient occlusion

  Camera → Ambient Occlusion runs screen-space AO (N8AO) as an extra post pass. It deepens creases and ground contact but costs GPU time on top of bloom, depth of field, and shadows. It is off by default for a reason. If the toggle stays disabled, check Camera → Quality → Render Quality — the Low tier forces AO off to save performance (your saved settings return when you move back to Medium or Ultra).

• Ultra settings (global and per-effect)

  Camera → Quality → Render Quality → Ultra is the top tier: higher device pixel ratio (sharper internal resolution), full-resolution bloom, and no automatic shutoff of depth of field, bloom, AO, or FXAA. Medium lowers pixel ratio and runs bloom at half resolution; Low goes further and disables several heavy passes entirely while keeping your slider values saved.

  Several Camera effect blocks also have their own Quality → Ultra (depth of field, bloom, anamorphic bloom, lens flare). Stacking Render Quality Ultra with multiple per-effect Ultra modes is the fastest way to tank frame rate — fine for a hero frame, rough for live orbiting on a weak GPU.

• Lens flare

  Camera → Lens Flare simulates glare and streaks from bright areas in the scene. On lower-spec machines it can drag performance noticeably — default quality is High (Low → Ultra available). Try Medium or Low first, or disable flare while working and enable it only for the final PNG or video export.

• Cheaper vs heavier color & post effects

  Light: exposure, contrast, saturation, tint, temperature, fade, luminance tone curve. Medium: vignette, clarity, sharpness, Fresnel. Heavy: depth of field, bloom, lens dirt, film grain, chromatic aberration, FXAA, histogram/auto-exposure — plus AO and lens flare when enabled. Turning an effect on is usually the biggest step; cranking intensity changes the look more than the cost.

• Practical recovery checklist

  If Orby feels slow: set Camera → Quality → Render Quality to Medium or Low; disable Cast Shadows or drop shadow quality; turn off AO, lens flare, DOF, and bloom; disable Shader Lab on heavy geometry-FX presets; shrink the browser window; avoid 2× PNG export on a struggling GPU. Re-enable one cinematic layer at a time when you are close to final.

Scene settings

Copy Scene Settings / Paste Scene Settings — clipboard JSON for lighting, camera, effects, tone curve, Look Filters, and panel toggles. Settings only; no embedded mesh. Paste on the landing page or via the in-app loader.

Save .orby Scene / Load .orby Scene — a separate JSON archive with your settings and embedded model (also droppable on the landing page). Both stay local to your browser — nothing is uploaded to Orby servers.

Privacy reminder

Models and HDRIs you load stay in the browser. Issue reports only send the text you submit in the form (plus anti-abuse metadata described in our Privacy Policy).