A phone held in a living room showing an armchair placed in the room through augmented reality

AR product visualization

AR product visualization and 3D models for augmented reality

Q: What is AR product visualization?

It is a 3D model of your product that a customer can place in their own room through a phone camera, at the size the product really is. The model opens from the product page in the browser, so nothing has to be installed, and the customer sees whether the piece fits before ordering it.

Q: Do customers need to install an app?

No. The model opens through the browser: Quick Look on iPhone and iPad, Scene Viewer on Android. You get an embed for the product page, and the AR button appears only on devices that support it.

Q: Which file formats do we get?

GLB and USDZ as a pair, because Android and the web read GLB while Apple devices read USDZ. You also keep the heavy source model, which is what the silo renders, the room scenes and any animation come out of.

Q: Can you turn our existing 3D model into an AR file?

Usually yes, and it is the cheapest way in. Most models built for renders are far too heavy for a phone, so we retopologise the geometry, bake the detail into textures, fix the scale and export the pair. A road bicycle we did came down from thirty megabytes to under six with no visible difference.

Q: How heavy can an AR model be?

Under five megabytes is the target and under ten the ceiling. Past that phones stall on the download, and the customer leaves before the model appears. Compression and baked textures are what keep a detailed product inside that budget.

Q: How much does an AR model cost?

Work is billed at 20 USD per hour. If you already have a model, optimising it and exporting the AR pair is a few hours of work. If the product has to be modelled first, that part is quoted like any modelling project, from about 40 USD for a simple piece. A full catalogue is quoted as a batch, where the price per product drops.

Your product standing on a customer’s floor, at true size, with no app to install. We build or rebuild the model as a light GLB and USDZ pair that loads in a second on a phone and still looks like the product.

Get a quote in 1 business day

GLB and USDZone pair covers Android and iPhone

Under 5 MBthe weight a phone loads without waiting

No app neededit opens from the browser

$20 per hourfor turning an existing model into AR files

What an AR ready 3D model has to be

An AR model is the same product as the render, rebuilt to load on a phone and to hold up when a customer walks around it.

GLB and USDZ

One pair of files covers everything: GLB for Android and the web, USDZ for iPhone and iPad through Quick Look.

True to size

Modelled in real metres, so a sofa placed in a room is the sofa that will arrive, and the customer stops guessing.

Light enough to load

Compressed geometry and baked textures under a few megabytes. A phone that waits ten seconds loses the sale.

Materials that survive

Metal, glass, fabric and plastic read correctly under the lighting of a real room, not just in a studio render.

A viewer you can embed

The model, a poster frame and the code for your product page, so the button works on the site you already have.

The same asset for images

The high poly source stays with you for silo renders, room scenes and animation, and the AR file is exported from it.

Why a render model is not an AR model

A model built for renders

Millions of polygons, because a render farm can take it
Textures at 4K and 8K per part
Lighting baked into the studio, not the object
Hundreds of megabytes, no chance on a phone

A model built for AR

Retopologised to what a phone can draw at 60 frames
Textures atlased and compressed, detail baked in
Physically based materials that react to any room
A few megabytes, loading before the customer scrolls away

Both come out of the same project. We build the heavy model for the images, then rebuild it light for the phone, and the two stay in sync when the product changes.

A few AR models you can try right here

These are the delivered files, not videos of them. Drag to turn a model, and on a phone the AR button puts it on your floor at real size.

Drag to rotate

Road bicycle, 5.8 MBFrame, groupset, spokes and cables. The original scene was thirty megabytes, which no phone would wait for, so the geometry was compressed to a fifth of that with no visible difference.

Drag to rotate

Convertible laptop, 2.6 MBHinge, ports, keyboard and a screen that has to look like glass rather than a black rectangle.

Drag to rotate

Robot vacuum, 5 MBThe model a shopper drops on their own floor to see whether it fits under the sofa, which is the question that stalls the order.

Open this page on your phonePoint the camera at the code. The same models open on the phone, and there the AR button drops them on the floor in front of you at real size.

What decides whether AR works on a phone

Most AR files fail for the same handful of reasons, and all of them are decided while the model is being built.

Real world scale. The model is built in metres. If the scale is guessed, a shopper places a chair that is ten centimetres too wide and finds out after delivery.

Polygon budget. A phone renders a fraction of what a render farm does. Detail that cannot be seen at arm’s length is baked into the texture instead of modelled.

Texture weight. Atlased maps and compression keep the file small. This is usually where the megabytes hide, not in the geometry.

Two formats, two rule sets. GLB takes compressed geometry, USDZ does not, so the pair is exported and tested separately rather than converted and hoped for.

Contact with the floor. A shadow under the product and a correct pivot point are what make it sit in the room instead of hovering above it.

How an AR model project runs

What we start from

Your CAD, an existing 3D model or drawings and photos, plus the dimensions the product actually has.

Rebuild for the phone

Retopology, UVs and a polygon budget chosen for the device, with the detail baked from the heavy model.

Materials and scale

Physically based materials, real metres, a pivot at the base and a contact shadow that grounds the object.

Export and test

GLB and USDZ, opened on real iPhone and Android devices, because the two formats break in different places.

Handover

The files, a poster frame and the embed code for your product page, plus the heavy source model for images.

AR model price and timing

What it costs depends on where you start. Work is billed at 20 USD per hour.

Your modela few hours

Optimisation only

You already have a 3D file. We retopologise it, bake the textures, fix the scale and export the GLB and USDZ pair.

From $40plus optimisation

Model and AR files

The product does not exist in 3D yet. It is modelled from CAD, drawings or photos, then rebuilt light for the phone.

Per cataloguequoted as a batch

A whole range

Dozens of products with shared materials and a repeatable pipeline, which is where the price per item drops.

Turnaround is two to four days for a single product when the model exists, and the modelling time on top when it does not. Send the file or the drawings and the estimate comes back in one business day.

See the full price list

AR product visualization FAQ

What is AR product visualization?

Do customers need to install an app?

Which file formats do we get?

Can you turn our existing 3D model into an AR file?

How heavy can an AR model be?

How much does an AR model cost?

Have a Question?

We will be more than glad to help. Just send us your project details and we will consult you on the best solution to choose or provide a lightning-fast estimation.

sales@ufo3d.com +1 415 426 7110