Export 360 VR Experiences from CityEngine

A 360 VR Experience (.3vr) is a file format to publish and consume panoramic images of CityEngine scenes and web scenes. These panoramic images are consumable in browsers (users look around with mouse), mobiles (users look around with gyro/touch), and virtual reality (VR) headsets (users look around by turning their head).

At its core, the CityEngine 360 VR Experience exporter is an automated way to take a series of viewport snapshots based on camera bookmarks. These snapshots are combined into panoramic images (one for each bookmark). The exported 360 VR Experience can then be consumed either locally or through the cloud after uploading.

You can also do the following with 360 VR Experiences:

• View 360 VR Experiences on desktop, mobile devices, and VR.
• Create and publish 360 VR Experiences from web scenes directly in a web browser.

360 VR Experience export

The exporter converts CityEngine scenarios or layer compositions into 360 VR Experience scenarios; turning CityEngine camera bookmarks in to 360 VR Experience viewpoints. It then writes everything into a single 360 VR Experience (.3vr) file.

To create a 360 VR Experience, do the following:

1. Open the CityEngine scene.
2. Setup bookmarks and give them meaningful names.
3. Optionally, enable the camera Bookmark gizmos view option in View settings > Bookmark gizmos to visualize the position of your camera viewpoints.
4. Open the 360 VR Experience export wizard by clicking File > Export > CityEngine > Export 360 VR Experience.
5. Adjust the export settings.

   Output Path	Specify where to save the 360 VR Experience (.3vr) file. If you plan to upload it to ArcGIS Online, a subdirectory of the current CityEngine project is recommended.
   Experience Name	The title of the panoramic image.
   Alternatives	None—Offer no alternatives. The exporter will use the current layer and object visibility and take a panoramic image for each bookmark. Scenarios—Use the scene scenarios as 360 VR Experience scenarios. Layer Compositions—Specify the composition of scene layers—which scene layers to include in an 360 VR Experience scenario. The default state is initialized with the layer visibility. Use the Layer Composition Operations for modification.
   Render Settings	Choose the render settings to use when exporting the panoramas. Default Settings—Choose the default render settings. {Viewport}—Choose a viewport to export its render settings defined in the View settings .
   Bookmarked Views	Choose which camera bookmarks to include. This will decide the number of unique points-of-view available in the panoramic image.

6. Click Finish.

   The 360 VR Experience can now be viewed locally or uploaded to the cloud, such as ArcGIS Enterprise or ArcGIS Online.

Share 360 VR Experience to ArcGIS Online or ArcGIS Enterprise

Note:

Although you can share 360 VR Experience items to ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Enterprise, they can currently only be viewed in ArcGIS Online. See View 360 VR Experiences stored in ArcGIS Enterprise for workarounds to this limitation.

To share a 360 VR Experience, do the following:

1. Export the 360 VR Experience to a folder in your current CityEngine project, such as the \model\ folder.
2. Sign in to ArcGIS Enterprise or ArcGIS Online.
3. In the Navigator window, right-click the 360 VR Experience (.3vr) file and choose Share as....
4. Choose option Upload package to my ArcGIS Online or Portal account and type a name for the experience.
5. Fill in the required fields for Item Description.
6. Choose the access permission of the item in the Sharing tab.
7. Click Analyze to validate your 360 VR Experience for any errors or issues.

   You must validate and resolve all errors before you can save it to disk or share it to ArcGIS Online or ArcGIS Enterprise. If any issues are discovered, an error will be reported. You have to fix the error before you can continue.

8. Click Share to upload your web scene package to ArcGIS Online or ArcGIS Enterprise.
9. Click My Content in Navigator to see your uploaded 360 VR Experience.

Preview 360 VR Experiences

To preview a 360 VR Experience locally in your browser, do the following:

1. Export the 360 VR Experience to a folder in your current CityEngine project , such as the \model\ folder.
2. In Navigator, right-click the 360 VR Experience (.3vr) file and click Open in browser.

   The 360 VR Experience opens in your default browser.