We optimise & rebuild — so it runs at 90fps in a headset.
Engineering CAD is built for precision, not real-time rendering. This is where a 40-million-polygon assembly becomes a lightweight model that still looks — and moves — like the real thing.
Retopology
Dense CAD surfaces are rebuilt into efficient real-time geometry — same silhouette, a fraction of the triangle count.
PBR texturing
Materials — brushed steel, rubber, powder coat — are baked so surfaces read correctly under any headset's lighting.
LOD & batching
Level-of-detail variants and draw-call batching keep frame rate locked even with dozens of machines on scene.
Rig for interaction
Moving assemblies — panels, wheels, arms — are separated and pivoted correctly so they can animate, explode and open later.
Skip this and a "3D viewer" stutters the moment someone puts on a headset — motion sickness, dropped frames, or a demo that just won't load on the trade-show floor tablet. This is the unglamorous engineering work that makes everything after it (interaction, deployment) actually usable.
Where the effort actually goes
Reduction, not modelling
Almost nothing is rebuilt from scratch — the geometry already exists. A production assembly arrives at two to four million triangles and a headset holds roughly 350,000, so the work is deciding which 8 to 15 percent survives. Silhouette and any surface a buyer will stand close to are protected; internal fasteners nobody can see are deleted.
Detail moves into textures
Bolt heads, weld beads, cast texture and tread pattern are rendered out of the high-resolution geometry into normal maps, then applied to a far simpler mesh. This alone accounts for 30 to 40 percent of the reduction and is invisible at any normal viewing distance.
Paint matched to a real sample
We match against a RAL code or a physical sample rather than eyeballing it, because a buyer who knows your machines will notice if the yellow is wrong. Powder coat, galvanised, machined steel and cast surfaces each get their own treatment instead of one generic metal.
Checked at the target frame rate
Every model is tested on the hardware it will actually run on, not on a workstation. A machine that holds 72fps in a headset is a machine somebody can stand beside for ten minutes; one that looks perfect at 45fps is one they take the headset off during.
Common questions
How much of the CAD gets removed?
Typically 85 to 92 percent of the triangle count. Most of it comes from baking surface detail into normal maps and deleting internal components that are never visible with the panels on.
Will the model look worse than a CAD render?
Different rather than worse. A CAD render has unlimited time per frame; a real-time model has about 13 milliseconds. Where the budget goes into silhouette and the surfaces a buyer approaches, a real-time machine reads as convincing — and it can be walked around.
How do you match our paint?
From a RAL code or a physical sample. Colour is measured rather than approximated, because it is one of the few things a buyer familiar with your machines will spot immediately.
Is the geometry dimensionally accurate?
Yes at any scale anyone will view it. Overall dimensions and part positions are preserved exactly; curved surfaces are approximated by triangles with an error typically well under a millimetre on a machine several metres across.
Do we get the optimised files?
Yes, at handover, with no ongoing licence. You can host them, hand them to a dealer, or take them to another studio.