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FBX previews in Windows 10: By far the coolest feature...

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almighty_gir ngon master
Built in .FBX preview lol.


[mod edit]: I changed your super-informative title [/mod edit]

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  • kolayamit
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    kolayamit polycounter lvl 13
    great! didn't knew that.
  • thomasp
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    thomasp hero character
    so what happens if you put a really heavy FBX into that folder like a sculpt export and select it? does the explorer survive that? and does it take a break when fetching the scene?

  • lotet
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    lotet hero character
    thats really sweet actually.
  • almighty_gir
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    almighty_gir ngon master
    thomasp said:
    so what happens if you put a really heavy FBX into that folder like a sculpt export and select it? does the explorer survive that? and does it take a break when fetching the scene?

    Not sure actually, there is a loading bar...
  • thomasp
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    thomasp hero character
    well i'm not running W10 but if i did, that would be the first thing to try. :) would not want explorer to lock up or crash or eat all my memory for breakfast because i just touched some humongous file by accident, triggering the preview.


  • igi
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    igi polycounter lvl 12
  • Fuiosg
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    Fuiosg polycounter lvl 5
    pretty sweet... thanks for the tip. Also works on other formats like .obj.
  • Zack Maxwell
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    Zack Maxwell interpolator
    How did you get it to show up inside file browser?
  • Fuiosg
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    Fuiosg polycounter lvl 5
    Click on 'view', then 'preview pane'.
  • Blond
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    Blond polycounter lvl 9
    Hey, you learn something new everyday! But when I think about it, its a pretty normal procedure when you know that they're about to scrap completyl microsoft paint out of their default software and replace it with paint 3D (which proabably uses fbx as standard exporter)
  • Zack Maxwell
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    Zack Maxwell interpolator
    Oooooooohh, that is amazing. It works with image files as well.
  • bounchfx
    "no preview available" on any of them
  • Neox
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    Neox godlike master sticky
    first thing to turn off lol :D 
  • Ashervisalis
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    Ashervisalis grand marshal polycounter
    @bounchfx Yeah, same here, no preview available. Just updated the computer too. 
  • Fuiosg
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    Fuiosg polycounter lvl 5
    you might have to associate the file extension with the app, which is 'View 3d'. If fbx is associated with something else it might not work.

    Also you probably need to have the creators update installed.
  • Axi5
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    Axi5 interpolator
    Anyone know how to increase the orbiting speed?

    Edit:
    It seems to be a massive resource hog. Checking Task Manager after clicking around a few of my folders pushed RAM usage up to just under a GB and made explorer really slow. I hope they fix the performance because it's a really cool little viewer.
  • CreativeSheep
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    CreativeSheep polycounter lvl 8
    I knew about this a while ago; Microsoft is integrating 3D into Windows so you can preview OBJ/FBX formats within Windows10.  Nice feature indeed. 
  • philipp.bogdanovskiy
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    philipp.bogdanovskiy polycounter lvl 5
    That's awesome. Haven't tested it yet, but I suppose does work only for FBX/OBJ. Or am I wrong about this?
  • kreativbloc
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    kreativbloc polycounter lvl 3
    Sweeeeeeeet. Thanks man.
  • Mark Dygert
    That's pretty awesome, but it doesn't work in my version of Win10? Do you have to have a particular version, or enable something? 

     I've always used the Autodesk FBX Reviewer that would open FBX files in a stand alone viewer. It's light weight and opens really quick. It gives you full control around the scene too. It's better than waiting for 3dsMax or Maya to open.

    https://apps.autodesk.com/MAYA/en/Detail/Index?id=6979630331069053932&appLang=en&os=Win64

    EDIT: Got it working, you have to set the default app for FBX files to "View 3D" if you have it set to anything else it doesn't display. Also, no textures or animations so that is kind of a big deal for me, because I use FBX Review to review animations. But still, that's pretty cool!
  • almighty_gir
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    almighty_gir ngon master
    That's pretty awesome, but it doesn't work in my version of Win10? Do you have to have a particular version, or enable something? 

     I've always used the Autodesk FBX Reviewer that would open FBX files in a stand alone viewer. It's light weight and opens really quick. It gives you full control around the scene too. It's better than waiting for 3dsMax or Maya to open.

    https://apps.autodesk.com/MAYA/en/Detail/Index?id=6979630331069053932&appLang=en&os=Win64
    I think someone mentioned that you may have to set .fbx (and .obj as well, i imagine) to default open with "view3d"?
    This isn't something i've done. And i'm not entirely sure when i've started being able to do this, I assumed it was just default behavior added in an update sometime.
  • ClapfootAdam
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    ClapfootAdam polycounter lvl 8
    Right click the fbx and change "Opens With:" to View 3D. Apply, and OK and it ought to work
  • bigodon
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    bigodon polycounter lvl 8
    looks like it only works for fbx, i think objs could use this too
    maybe some day they give options for customize that previews

    anyway, i didn't knew that :p
  • superdenny707
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    superdenny707 polycounter lvl 14
    Coolest. Feature. Ever. 
  • Fuiosg
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    Fuiosg polycounter lvl 5
    it works on.obj. You can even import it into Paint3d for some extremely rudimentary polypainting.

    It seems the creators update is required for all this.
  • fuzzzzzz
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    fuzzzzzz polycounter lvl 5
    quite nice at first time, but honestly do not use that win 10 preview , the processes behind the feature will hang on and will drive your cpu to run at 99% just because a file can't to get read, or the version of the file isn't compatible, or again because the file is too big and the app can't to handle the preview.
    after you associate the obj fbx,format files with view 3d app you will simply run into an endless loop everytime explorer try to preview a 3d file format, and you would again have to lkill the process manually. That's why it important to remove all the format file associated with view 3d app.

    it's funny, when a good tip is just revert his purpose "from it so nice..." to .." its so bad .." disable that men ^^
  • Kapoff
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    Kapoff polycounter lvl 11
    Dudes... DUDES! This is a game changer!

    PS: What must one do to get them TGA  icons to preview in explorer tho?

  • pior
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    pior grand marshal polycounter
    @Kapoff : Assuming that you mean "thumbnail preview as icons" rather than just fixed icons, on Win7 you need SageThumbs for that. On Win10, probably something else.
  • Zack Maxwell
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    Zack Maxwell interpolator
    Got it working, you have to set the default app for FBX files to "View 3D" if you have it set to anything else it doesn't display. Also, no textures or animations so that is kind of a big deal for me, because I use FBX Review to review animations. But still, that's pretty cool!
    I don't know about animations, but textures definitely work.
    Kapoff said:
    Dudes... DUDES! This is a game changer!

    PS: What must one do to get them TGA  icons to preview in explorer tho?

    I'm assuming it would work if you associated .TGA files with Paint3D, but I can't find the physical location of the program anywhere on my computer in order to set that and test it.
  • Joopson
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    Joopson quad damage
    Yep, textures do work for fbx, for me. Cool stuff, but definitely intensive. Will only enable it when I really must.
  • Mark Dygert
    That's pretty awesome, but it doesn't work in my version of Win10? Do you have to have a particular version, or enable something? 

     I've always used the Autodesk FBX Reviewer that would open FBX files in a stand alone viewer. It's light weight and opens really quick. It gives you full control around the scene too. It's better than waiting for 3dsMax or Maya to open.

    https://apps.autodesk.com/MAYA/en/Detail/Index?id=6979630331069053932&appLang=en&os=Win64
    I think someone mentioned that you may have to set .fbx (and .obj as well, i imagine) to default open with "view3d"?
    This isn't something i've done. And i'm not entirely sure when i've started being able to do this, I assumed it was just default behavior added in an update sometime.
    I think it was part of the "Creators Update" that was pushed out a few weeks ago.

  • kmacneil91
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    kmacneil91 polycounter lvl 7
    WHOA! Thanks for sharing this... had no idea!
  • DonSmith
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    DonSmith polycounter lvl 6
    fuzzzzzz said:
    quite nice at first time, but honestly do not use that win 10 preview , the processes behind the feature will hang on and will drive your cpu to run at 99% just because a file can't to get read, or the version of the file isn't compatible, or again because the file is too big and the app can't to handle the preview.
    after you associate the obj fbx,format files with view 3d app you will simply run into an endless loop everytime explorer try to preview a 3d file format, and you would again have to lkill the process manually. That's why it important to remove all the format file associated with view 3d app.

    it's funny, when a good tip is just revert his purpose "from it so nice..." to .." its so bad .." disable that men ^^

    I did the test you suggested on a GTX660 on an old hard drive disk with 32G of Ram.  The files loaded slowly, but once they were loaded, the application was quick.  When loading them, I didn't notice a hit to my RAM usage, but I did see exactly what you saw.  A huge spike to the CPU caused by the preview handler trying to load large 3D objects in preview.  

    I will report this to the Windows team tomorrow.  Thanks for the information!  This is super useful.

    Edit:  One way to get the processes back is to close the instance of explorer.  Once you open it again, it's fine, but if you try to preview 3D Files, you quickly run out of CPU.  Anyone encountering this issue (may not be an issue on some rigs) should close explorer window when done previewing files if they choose to use this feature on large meshes.


  • fuzzzzzz
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    fuzzzzzz polycounter lvl 5
    DonSmith said:
    fuzzzzzz said:
    quite nice at first time, but honestly do not use that win 10 preview , the processes behind the feature will hang on and will drive your cpu to run at 99% just because a file can't to get read, or the version of the file isn't compatible, or again because the file is too big and the app can't to handle the preview.
    after you associate the obj fbx,format files with view 3d app you will simply run into an endless loop everytime explorer try to preview a 3d file format, and you would again have to lkill the process manually. That's why it important to remove all the format file associated with view 3d app.

    it's funny, when a good tip is just revert his purpose "from it so nice..." to .." its so bad .." disable that men ^^

    I did the test you suggested on a GTX660 on an old hard drive disk with 32G of Ram.  The files loaded slowly, but once they were loaded, the application was quick.  When loading them, I didn't notice a hit to my RAM usage, but I did see exactly what you saw.  A huge spike to the CPU caused by the preview handler trying to load large 3D objects in preview.  

    I will report this to the Windows team tomorrow.  Thanks for the information!  This is super useful.

    Edit:  One way to get the processes back is to close the instance of explorer.  Once you open it again, it's fine, but if you try to preview 3D Files, you quickly run out of CPU.  Anyone encountering this issue (may not be an issue on some rigs) should close explorer window when done previewing files if they choose to use this feature on large meshes.


    closing Explorer do not fix anything for me, explorer process do not stop because you close a windows explorer browser.
    explorer still run in background than you have to kill the preview halndler surrogate host process, in order to get back to normal.

  • Joopson
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    Joopson quad damage
    For me, closing the explorer window fixes it. The explorer process isn't the one that seems to handle the loading. It's the "Preview Handler Surrogate Host" process that eats up all the CPU (on my computer, at least) and deals with the preview.

    And closing explorer seems to make it cease more or less immediately.
  • DonSmith
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    DonSmith polycounter lvl 6
    fuzzzzzz said:

    closing Explorer do not fix anything for me, explorer process do not stop because you close a windows explorer browser.
    explorer still run in background than you have to kill the preview halndler surrogate host process, in order to get back to normal.

    Joopson said:
    For me, closing the explorer window fixes it. The explorer process isn't the one that seems to handle the loading. It's the "Preview Handler Surrogate Host" process that eats up all the CPU (on my computer, at least) and deals with the preview.

    And closing explorer seems to make it cease more or less immediately.

    @fuzzzzzz - Yes, killing the preview handler surrogate host process will work.  I'm surprised killing windows explorer doesn't.  I supplied this feedback to the Windows team, and I encourage everyone who encounters windows 10 problems to use the Windows 10 Feedback tool.  You can provide win10 feedback at any time by pressing the start key and typing "feedback".  This will give you the option to load "Feedback Hub".  Login with your windows account and provide feedback on the features you love and hate.

    @Joopson -  This is a less than ideal work around and we have this issue assigned to an engineer who is working to resolve it in upcoming updates.  There unfortunately isn't a release that is flagged for it to be fixed.  If everyone provides feedback on this feature, I assure you, improvements will be made.  I'm not on the Windows team, but we (Microsoft) value this feedback.

    This specific issue is reported as:
    (Model) Preview Panel in Windows Explorer using a lot of CPU

    Please visit the Feedback Hub and upvote this feedback!

    Thanks,
    Don Smith
    Technical Art Director
    Microsoft Global Publishing (XBox)
  • almighty_gir
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    almighty_gir ngon master
    awww this is amazing, Polycount has it's very own Microsoft guy :D
  • pior
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    pior grand marshal polycounter
    So ... essentially, one could report that "After the Creators Update, clicking on a certain file type in Explorer parses it and loads it fully as opposed to merely showing a light preview of it" as a bug, right ?

    Loading a full file (which in the case of sculpts could go up in the hundred of megs or even a few Gigs) when merely selecting its icon sounds a lot like something an OS should never do .... I could imagine that sort of stuff freezing or crashing a CAD workstation right before a deadline :/

    It's of course great for image files, but for 3d formats like FBX and OBJ (which do not have an embedded image preview) it honestly sounds like a pretty bad idea. At the very least, there should be a very straightforward and visible way to disable this feature, and opt-in should be optional as opposed to being a surprise push. An OS should never, ever enable an option by default if said option has even the slightest risk of slowing down the user more than if it was disabled.
  • AzureXIII
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    AzureXIII polycounter lvl 12
    I think all OS's can do this now.
  • pior
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    pior grand marshal polycounter
    Indeed, just saw that OSX does it with DAE, of all things ! It certainly is pretty cool, but I can't even begin to imagine what would happen if an OS attempts to autoload a 2gig OBJ sculpt ...

    I guess it's just a matter of having a data cap - like not auto loading if a file is over 500mb for instance.
  • Maddog4america
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    Maddog4america polycounter lvl 5
    yet they still do not support targas lol
  • almighty_gir
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    almighty_gir ngon master
    yet they still do not support targas lol
    i dunno... i have .tga previews (check my screenshot in the original post).

    interestingly, this only applies to tga files that are exported from certain apps.
  • Finnn
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    Finnn greentooth
    I love it, thanks for the tip!
  • tomofnz@gmail.com
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    tomofnz@gmail.com polycounter lvl 4
    For me, to get this working I had to point the default FBX application to 'Mixed Reality Viewer'.
  • Udjani
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    Udjani interpolator
    Where is the preview for psd files? fucking Bill.
  • musashidan
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    musashidan high dynamic range
    For me, to get this working I had to point the default FBX application to 'Mixed Reality Viewer'.
    Same for me. It looks like you can also preview animations.
  • cefiro
    great! didn't knew that.
  • Neox
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    Neox godlike master sticky
  • thomasp
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    thomasp hero character
    "GLB (Binary GL Transmission Format) is the recommended substitute 3D file format for use in 3D Viewer."

    Ok, that's really helpful. Lets just like ... convert all the assets into something else like this standard decided on by a committee that nobody seems to be using/defaulting to. I suppose at least this way you can be 100% certain that no FBX file however large will trigger a preview and lock up your machine. ;)

  • Eric Chadwick
    FBX has security vulnerabilities from what I learned, and it's not easily sandboxed by the preview window.

    glTF has a lot of support, better material handling, no vulnerability to script injection etc., and has a much cleaner spec so it's easier to add to tools and renderers. I'm involved in weekly conference calls on glTF, helping influence changes from 3d artist perspective. Happy to answer any Qs on it.

    It is a much better format all around. For things outside of strict real-time asset delivery (glTF core design philosophy) it's better to use USD going forward. FBX will be around a while yet, as also OBJ, but they're both really limiting and showing their age. USD and glTF are where all the 3D software development efforts are headed.
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