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Cesium Releases in August 2022

Sam Suhag

We've updated the build process in CesiumJS. Built Cesium.js is no longer AMD format. This means faster build times during development and faster load times for end users. The change may or may not be a breaking change depending on how you use Cesium in your app. Read all the details.

Stylized view of New York City using 3D Tiles with the new showOutline property on ​​Stamen Toner imagery.

Stylized view of New York City using 3D Tiles with the new showOutline property on ​​Stamen Toner imagery.

Cesium 1.96 Release

CesiumJS 1.96 is now available. Built Cesium.js is no longer AMD format. This may or may not be a breaking change depending on how you use Cesium in your app. See our blog post for the full details. Highlights of the release include:

  • Built Cesium.js has gone from 12.5MB to 8.4MB unminified and from 4.3MB to 3.6MB minified. Cesium.js.map has gone from 22MB to 17.2MB. #10399
  • Models and tilesets that use the CESIUM_primitive_outline extension can now toggle outlines at runtime with the showOutline property. Furthermore, the color of the outlines can now be controlled by the outlineColor property. #10506
  • Added ModelExperimental.getNode to allow users to modify the transforms of model nodes at runtime. #10540
  • Added support for point cloud styling for tilesets loaded with ModelExperimental. #10569
  • Upgraded earcut from version 2.2.2 to version 2.2.4 which includes 10-15% better performance when triangulating geometry. #10593
  • Fixed error in loadAndExecuteScript to allow CesiumJS to run in a cross-origin isolated environment. #10515
  • Fixed crash when loading glTF models with the EXT_mesh_features and EXT_structural_metadata extensions without channels property. #10511
  • Fixed a crash in the 3D Tiles Feature Styling sandcastle that occurred when using ModelExperimental. #10514
  • Fixed improper handling of double-sided materials in ModelExperimental. #10507
  • Fixed a bug where the alpha component of model.color would not update in the 3D Models Coloring sandcastle when using ModelExperimental. #10519
  • Fixed a bug where .cmpt files were not cached correctly in ModelExperimental. #10524
  • Fixed a crash in the 3D Tiles Formats sandcastle when loading draco-compressed point clouds with ModelExperimental. #10521
  • Fixed a bug where per-feature post-processing was not working with ModelExperimental. #10528
  • Fixed a bug where Viewer.zoomTo would continuously throw errors if a Cesium3DTileset failed to load. #10523
  • Fixed a bug where styles would not apply to tilesets if they were applied while the tileset was hidden. #10582
  • Fixed a bug where .i3dm models with quantized positions were not being correctly loaded by ModelExperimental. #10598

See the changelog for a full list of updates and links to the discussion & code on each one. You can also subscribe to the Cesium roundup release thread on the community forum to get notifications about our monthly releases.

Download CesiumJS 1.96

Cesium for Unreal 1.16.0 Release

Cesium for Unreal has been updated for both Unreal Engine 5 and Unreal Engine 4. Some exciting improvements this month include:

  • Added experimental support for using occlusion culling to drive 3D Tiles selection, requiring fewer tiles to be downloaded and rendered. It is especially effective in up-close city views. To enable it, look in the Plugins -> Cesium section of the Project Settings.
  • Added Tileset load progress reporting, via the OnTilesetLoaded event and GetLoadProgress method on Cesium3DTileset.
  • Improved support for Tile Map Service (TMS) raster overlays, especially from GeoServer and offline sources.
  • Added automatic level-of-detail adjustment based on the viewport’s GetDPIScale, resulting in lower detail but significantly higher performance on high-DPI displays.

Check the Cesium for Unreal (UE4) release, the Cesium for Unreal (UE5) release, and the Cesium for Unreal Samples release, for the full list of updates.

Download the Cesium for Unreal plugin from Epic MarketplaceDownload the Cesium for Unreal Samples

Powered by Cesium

In July we took a close look at the many ways the University of Stuttgart’s Institute for Photogrammetry is using Cesium. Researchers add massive, disparate datasets to Cesium ion and stream those 3D Tiles in CesiumJS, which they use to create web portals for stakeholders to explore the data easily. They also use these shareable visualizations as supplements for figures in academic papers. IFP students use Cesium and other tools to visualize spatial data, preparing them to work with massive heterogeneous datasets in their future endeavors.

SLAM vehicle in Cesium ion

The SIMP Viewer is entirely student-built. Courtesy IFP.