Verge3D Asset Compression — Soft8Soft
Description: Verge3D supports loading assets compressed using the XZ/LZMA compression. Find out how to enable this feature on this page.

# Faster Loading with Asset Compression

In Verge3D, scene files may be compressed using the highly effective LZMA compression algorithm, thus allowing to significantly reduce the size of the files. At the same time, LZMA offers fast decompression on the browser side. Typical compression rates observed for Verge3D scenes are: 20x for the .gltf files and 6x for the .bin files.

- When to Use It
- Exporting Compressed Files
- Loading Compressed Files
- Checking Your Files
- Enabling Compression for Code-Based Apps

#

## When to Use It

Using asset compression is especially recommended in the following cases:

- .gltf/.bin or .glb scene files are relatively big so that the effect from compression is significant in terms of size reduction;
- you expect slow connections and every kilobyte counts;
- the standard server-side GZIP compression is not enabled or not satisfactory, or you don't even have any access to the server to setup GZIP for Verge3D scene files.

Size comparison for a sample file: raw vs GZIP-compressed vs LZMA-compressed

#

## Exporting Compressed Files

Verge3D supports loading of scene files compressed in the .xz file format, which incorporates the LZMA compression algorithm. To enable creating .xz files automatically upon export, you can simply turn on the corresponding option in the export settings.

Blender
3ds Max
Maya

#

## Loading Compressed Files

The compressed .xz files (for example, my_awesome_app.gltf.xz and my_awesome_app.bin.xz) should appear near the original ones. What is left is to enable loading them in your app. To do this, go to Puzzles...

...and switch to the init tab:

Drag out the configure application puzzle from the Initialization category, if it is not already present in the workspace, and turn on the compressed assets checkbox on it:

Finally, click the Save button. That's it!

#

## Checking Your Files

To ensure that your app now actually loads compressed assets, run your app (either from App Manager or from a website where it is deployed). Open the browser console and switch to the Network tab.

Reload your app so that the console starts displaying files from the beginning. Find the scene files in the list - if everything is ok, they should end with .xz.

Alternatively, you can check whether the compressed assets are enabled by using the performance profile feature.

#

## Enabling Compression for Code-Based Apps

If you don't want to use Puzzles for some reason, follow these steps to enable asset compression for your apps.

Simply change:

`const SCENE_URL = 'my_awesome_app.gltf';`

to:

`const SCENE_URL = 'my_awesome_app.gltf.xz';`

in your_awesome_app.js file.

The same applies to .glb and .glb.xz files if they are used instead of .gltf/.bin.

## Got Questions?

Feel free to ask on the forums!