Gaussian splat demo: in the browser, or streamed

A 3D scan of the royal treasury at Medinet Habu, Egypt, made of millions of small coloured blobs (a Gaussian splat). On a capable computer it runs right in the visitor's browser. On a phone, an old laptop or a browser that cannot draw it, the page offers the same scene as an Eagle 3D Streaming stream instead - drawn on a GPU machine and sent as video. This page explains how the page decides, and how to test both paths.

1. What happens when the page opens

  1. Can this browser draw it at all? The page checks for WebGL 2, the browser graphics feature the splat needs. No WebGL 2: the page does not try - it shows "Your browser does not support this scene. Watch it as a stream instead" with a button.
  2. It loads the scene into the browser - about 63 MB, once (the browser keeps it afterwards). A progress bar shows how far it is.
  3. It measures the first 5 seconds. When the scene appears, the page counts frames. The current frame rate is shown at the bottom right.
  4. Too slow? Under 20 frames per second on average, it offers the stream: "Your device is slow here (N frames a second). The streaming version runs on our machine and plays smoothly." The visitor chooses: Watch the streaming version or Stay here.
  5. Any time, the Switch to the streaming version button (top right) opens the stream.
The visitor's deviceWhat they get
Desktop or laptop with a dedicated graphics cardRuns in the browser (52 frames per second measured on an RTX 3070). No stream.
Recent phone or a laptop with good integrated graphicsUsually runs in the browser; offered the stream if it drops under 20 fps.
Old laptop, low-end phone or tabletOffered the stream after the first 5 seconds.
Browser without WebGL 2 (very old browsers, graphics switched off)Offered the stream straight away; the scene is not loaded.

2. The streamed version

The stream is the same page, running inside an app on an Eagle 3D Streaming machine with a graphics card, sent to the visitor as 1920 x 1080 video. The picture appears about 17 seconds after the link is opened (the app starts first). Drag to turn, scroll or pinch to zoom - exactly as in the browser version. Nothing has to be installed and no WebGL is needed on the visitor's side.

3. How to test it

To testDo thisExpect
The browser pathOpen the demo page on a computer with a graphics cardLoading bar, then the scene; frame rate at the bottom right stays above 20; no offer appears
The "too slow" offerChrome: DevTools (F12) > Performance > CPU: 6x slowdown, then reload. Or open it on an old laptop or phoneAfter about 5 seconds: "Your device is slow here..." with Watch the streaming version
The "no WebGL 2" offerChrome: Settings > System > turn off Use graphics acceleration, restart Chrome, open the pageThe offer straight away, no loading
The stream itselfPress Switch to the streaming version, or open the streamed link directlyVideo in about 17 seconds; drag and zoom work

Credits

Scene: "Medinet Habu Royal Treasure 2" by liquiduslabs, reconstructed from Open Heritage data, licensed CC BY 4.0. Viewer: PlayCanvas (MIT).

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