Cesium Integration

What is Cesium?

*Cesium JS is an open-source JavaScript library designed for creating 3D globe and map visualization applications in web browsers. It leverages WebGL technology to deliver high-performance hardware-accelerated graphics rendering, ensuring cross-platform and cross-browser compatibility without additional plugins. The library supports three display modes for geographic data: 2D, 2.5D, and 3D. Cesium is capable of loading and visualizing massive amounts of 3D models, imagery, terrain elevation data, and vector data. Widely used in fields such as traffic management, urban planning, and terrain simulation, it provides robust capabilities for geospatial data visualization.

  • You can create software through Cesium (digital city boards, etc...)

  • You can also use SaaS software such as Cesium ion to develop your own applications and introduce geographic information data into the UE engine. ↓

Bullet points of Cesium

  • Bullet Point1: Cesium is an online service akin to streaming media, requiring [an active internet connection]. To access data, you must use the Access Token provided by Cesium. Note that the Access Token is not stored in the D5 archive; you will need to log in to your team's account to load the data.

  • Bullet Point2: Cesium data needs to be [loaded in real time] & will not be stored in [D5 project archive], so every time you open a project, you need to wait for a while before it can be displayed.

  • Bullet Point3: The logic of Cesium is to keep overlaying different types of data sources under the same coordinate system, which can be understood as a 3D version of PS layer, and there are various types of data (layers): 3d, flat map, etc.

D5 Render Team Management backend - Deploy team Cesium token

  1. Log in to the official Cesium website and register for a Cesium account.

LogoCesium: The Platform for 3D GeospatialCesium

  1. Go to Backend → My Assets. This page displays all available [GIS data sources] for the account. Users can upload their own model data or survey data (Please exercise caution when uploading data from Mainland China), or add more official GIS data from the Asset Depot. *Please note that if you use Cesium for commercial purposes, you must purchase a Cesium license subscription.

  1. Access backend→Access Tokens, create an Access Token，

3.1 The system will have a default Access token, which can access all data under that account.

3.2 Users can create custom Access tokens and set permissions for custom Access tokens to only open certain data sources.

3.3 Check all permissions

  1. Access the D5 Team Management backend as an administrator, go to Assets/Resources → Cesium

Select an Access token created in the Cesium management backend, click Create Shared Token on the “Assets/Resources → Cesium” page, and paste the copied token. After successful creation, log in with your current Team account, and you will be able to access the GIS data source authorized by the shared Access token through the Cesium plugin in your local D5 project.

Using Cesium in D5 Render

  1. After the team administrator has configured the shared Cesium plugin, open D5 Render and click on the Cesium plugin in the top menu.

  1. Open the CESIUM plugin, either through the Map component or by directly entering the latitude and longitude coordinates of the project location. The CESIUM plugin will create a 【geographic anchor point】 centered on the current latitude and longitude, and then the user needs to select which types of data sources to load in the 【geographic anchor point】 D5 scene.

*【Geographic Anchor】 is a limited range centered on a fixed latitude and longitude coordinate. Any data outside this range will not be displayed in D5 Render. The selectable range of data sources is determined by the settings configured by the administrator in the CESIUM management backend.

  1. Click [Add] to include a tree-structured geographic information anchor point in the scene resource list.

*Please note that resources are loaded progressively from the network, which may result in a brief blank period at the start while data is being retrieved. To optimize this process, it is recommended to hide or remove the default terrain in the D5 scene, elevate the camera height, and wait for the data to load.

  1. Users can then overlay their own design data on top of the Cesium data. After importing the model and adjusting its position and materials, they can achieve a seamless integration of the design with the real-world geographic environment. Users can further render videos and images based on these results.

  1. Modify parameters in Cesium anchor data

5.1 Click on the data source under the tree structure to modify the parameters in the parameter panel on the right. Adjustable parameters:

  • Maximum Screen Space Error: 0-100, 0 represents loading the highest precision data source

  • Range Limit: After enabling, you can set the width and height of the rectangle range.

  • LOD Transition

5.2 Click on the top level of the Cesium geolocation anchor tree structure, then click on “Reselect” in the parameter panel on the right to modify the data source and center point coordinates currently loaded for the geolocation anchor. After confirming the modifications, the scene will refresh.

CESIUM Video Operation Process

Please download to check the clear video: https://we.tl/t-tbiiN5v0g7

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