I3S Data Source

I3S (Indexed 3D Scene Layer) is an open 3D data format developed to efficiently stream large, heterogeneous 3D geodata – whether on the web, on mobile devices, or on the desktop. It is very commonly used in the ArcGIS world, but is openly and independently specified as an OGC Community Standard. The I3S data source makes it possible to integrate I3S services into the VC Publisher and thus into the VC Map. Integrated I3S services can be used for the visualization of 3D objects (e.g. building shells), Integrated Mesh (Reality Capture Mesh), Point, Point Cloud, and Building Scene Layer (BIM-based building models).

Please note that the I3S data source only supports I3S REST Services. The provision of I3S as SLPK (Scene Layer Package) is not supported. Furthermore, the I3S service must provide the data in the coordinate system EPSG:3857. Other coordinate systems supported on the ESRI side are not supported by Cesium and therefore by the VC Map. The I3S service must also comply with CORS policies in order to be integrated into the VC Publisher.

The following table provides an overview of the options:

Option	Description
Name	Name of the Datasource.
Description	Description of the Datasource (optional).
Bounding Box	Describes the bounding box of the data. Clicking the button "Edit Bounding Box" opens a new map window where a bounding box can be defined interactively. Clicking the button "Draw new extent on map" activates the bounding box mode, allowing the user to define a bounding box by clicking twice on the map (e.g., top-right and bottom-left corners of the bounding box). The coordinates of the bounding box are automatically adopted in EPSG 4326. Clicking the button "CLOSE" closes the map window.
URI	URI of the datasource.

Option

Description

Name

Name of the Datasource.

Description

Description of the Datasource (optional).

Bounding Box

Describes the bounding box of the data.
Clicking the button "Edit Bounding Box" opens a new map window where a bounding box can be defined interactively. Clicking the button "Draw new extent on map" activates the bounding box mode, allowing the user to define a bounding box by clicking twice on the map (e.g., top-right and bottom-left corners of the bounding box). The coordinates of the bounding box are automatically adopted in EPSG 4326.
Clicking the button "CLOSE" closes the map window.

URI

URI of the datasource.

Further information regarding the URI

The URI must point to an I3S REST Service. The URI must end with "SceneServer". A valid URI looks as follows: https://../MODELADO_3D_MADRID/SceneServer.

Screen Space Error

Defines the error in pixels to determine the Hierarchical Level of Detail (HLOD) (Note: This is not the CityGML LoD concept!). The HLOD is required for efficient streaming of the 3D objects. It defines whether a tile is sufficiently detailed for the current view and is loaded, or whether the more detailed children of the current tiles are loaded. Normally the default settings (16) can be retained.

Screen Space Error (mobile)

Defines the screen space error for mobile devices. For good performance on mobile devices, it is recommended to set the screen space error for mobile devices higher than for non-mobile devices. The default value is 32.

Apply Symbology

Enable this option if the symbology of the I3S data source should be parsed and applied to the layers.

Calculate Normals

Enable this option if the normals of the 3D objects in the I3S data source should be recalculated. Determines whether flat normals are generated for I3S geometries that do not have normals.

Show Features

Enable this option to display the features of the I3S data source.

Has Batch Table

Enable this option to use the Batch Table, which contains the attributes of the 3D objects from the I3S data source. The Batch Table allows the attributes of the 3D objects to be stored and managed more efficiently, especially when the I3S data source contains a large number of 3D objects.

Enable Light Color

Enable this option to take the light color of the 3D objects in the I3S data source into account. Otherwise, the default light color will be used.

Light Color

Define the light color to be applied to the 3D objects in the I3S data source. This option is only available when the "Enable Light Color" option is enabled. A color can be selected here using a hexadecimal code or color picker, which will be applied to the 3D objects.

After all settings have been made, the data source must be saved. It can then be viewed as a 2D map or as an overlay of a terrain layer in the preview (button 'Activate Map').

Data Preview

The data preview allows a visual check of the configured data source before publication. It displays the data in the map window using the selected projection and within the defined extent. Users can interactively pan and zoom the map to review the display.
Changes to the data source or the extent are applied to the preview after clicking “Reload Map.”