Cesium for Omniverse v0.24.0

Cesium for Unity Samples v1.13.1

CesiumJS 1.123

3D Tiles

Development is progressing on a new open source Add-In for Autodesk Revit that will be released later this year. The Add-In integrates with Cesium ion to generate 3D Tiles, further connecting architecture and geospatial.

Cesium’s Revit Add-In provides a simple workflow for exporting your design data to 3D Tiles available on Cesium ion. Sample data courtesy of Autodesk.

Revit to Cesium ion

The Cesium Revit Add-In is currently being evaluated by participants in Cesium’s AECO Tech Preview Program, which provides early access to software like the Revit Add-In and Cesium’s Design Tiler. 

Program participant Erik Narhi, Computational Design Lead at Buro Happold Engineering, used the Cesium Revit Add-In to easily convert existing Revit design data to 3D Tiles and bring that data into Unreal Engine. 

“The Cesium Revit Add-In adds another layer to the potential of 3D Tiles and Cesium for AEC workflows,” Narhi said. “We are excited to explore how we can leverage it as we continue to push the mainstreaming of game engines and interactive 3D workflows for AEC project design, analysis, and delivery.”

Cesium’s Revit Add-In easily converts your design data to 3D Tiles. Image courtesy of Buro Happold Engineering.

Cesium’s Revit Add-in was designed to complement existing workflows by connecting Revit to Cesium ion with an easy-access, one-click export capability. Much like the Cesium 3ds Max plugin released in 2020, the Revit Add-In connects directly to your Cesium ion account allowing you to accurately place and visualize your designs in real-world environments.

The Revit Add-In, combined with Cesium’s Design Tiler, improves workflows and capabilities placing AECO content in a 3D geospatial context. Sample data courtesy of Autodesk.

Cesium's Revit Add-In converts a project's internal representation using the Cesium ion Design Tiler into 3D Tiles. The Design Tiler is optimized to support the properties of the BIM data and the metadata, materials, and textures within the Revit design file. To improve streaming and rendering performance, the tiling process detects shared geometry and instances them in the exported 3D Tiles. The Revit Add-in allows AECO teams to send performant, interactive digital twins to partners over the web or into native runtime engines like Unreal Engine, Unity, or NVIDIA Omniverse via Cesium ion. The conversion and upload to Cesium ion is done transparently, letting architects and other AECO professionals focus on their designs and workflows.

Exported 3D Tiles include your design data geometry, materials, textures, and metadata to support visualization and analysis. Sample data courtesy of Autodesk.

AECO Metadata Styling

By building integrations through open standards and collaboration with software companies like Autodesk, Cesium will continue to improve workflows for building AECO-focused applications that combine project plans with accurate 3D geospatial data. 

As we move closer to a full release of the Revit Add-In and Design Tiler, we would love to hear your suggestions on the Cesium Community Forum.

Coming Soon: Cesium Add-In for Autodesk Revit

In April 2024, AERO AI, a Cesium Certified Developer, was awarded a Cesium Ecosystem Grant to reintegrate Cesium ion and WebODM, a free and open source drone imagery processing platform from OpenDroneMap.

The OpenDroneMap community can now tile aerial data as 3D Tiles directly from the WebODM dashboard.

AERO AI’s Cesium Ecosystem Grant supports the WebODM Reintegration Project, focusing on the WebODM Cesium plugin. The plugin enables users from AEC, environmental conservation, geospatial analysis, and beyond to benefit from the ability to integrate, process, analyze, and visualize aerial data and 3D geospatial information.

Workflow for a user to process drone imagery in OpenDroneMap’s WebODM and upload to Cesium ion. Courtesy AERO AI.

Developed by OpenDroneMap, WebODM is open source software for drone image processing that is widely used by drone pilots, organizations, and academic institutions. It allows users to generate maps, point clouds, DEMs, and 3D models from aerial imagery. With the Cesium ion plugin, users can effortlessly upload this data to Cesium ion, where it is transformed into 3D Tiles for diverse applications. These include creating scalable, high-resolution immersive experiences and digital twins of buildings and urban environments. Users can also produce maps for disaster recovery, urban planning, wildlife management, and environmental monitoring, providing critical insights into terrain changes over time and improving decision-making for projects that require precise spatial analysis.

With the Cesium ion plugin, WebODM users can effortlessly upload their data to Cesium ion, where it is transformed into 3D Tiles for diverse applications. Courtesy AERO AI.

Cesium ion-WebODM Plugin

AERO AI rebuilt the Cesium plugin from the ground up, enabling the seamless integration of georeferenced ortho maps, point clouds, and 3D models generated in WebODM with Cesium ion. We removed the deprecated react-bootstrap dependency and implemented several API updates to improve overall functionality. We also resolved issues with dropdown buttons, refined styling with a cursor change, and refactored the modal usage. Our team fixed the file upload functionality in the UploadDialog and addressed text input issues. Plus we made adjustments to the task dialog, added logic to generate zip files for textured models, and updated the manifest plugin version while removing outdated dependencies. The full list of updates is here. Reach out to AERO AI with questions.

Options to upload and tile orthophotos, point clouds, surface models, and terrain models generated in WebODM to Cesium ion using the Cesium ion plugin for WebODM.

AERO AI developed the Simulated Environment for Geospatial Assets (SiEGA) platform, which integrates a variety of 3D technologies within an advanced physics engine. SiEGA supports streaming 3D Tiles and allows for the seamless import of WebODM assets, tiled through Cesium ion for high-resolution geospatial visualization. It is among the 3D creation engines that support streaming 3D Tiles.

WebODM-generated 3D model tiled as 3D Tiles by Cesium ion and streamed to AERO AI’s platform, SiEGA. Courtesy AERO AI.

The WebODM-Cesium ion integration is straightforward. Follow the new tutorial to try it out.

Create 3D Tiles from OpenDroneMap in WebODM

“Reentry - A Space Flight Simulator” enables players to experience the evolution of human spaceflight, blending a game with a simulator, so users learn to operate spacecraft with realistic procedures and, soon, Cesium Moon Terrain.

Reentry is used for both fun and research. Creator Petri Wilhelmsen is replacing his homebuilt Moon renderer with Cesium Moon Terrain. Courtesy Petri Wilhelmsen.

Reentry is used for both fun and research. Creator Petri Wilhelmsen is replacing his homebuilt Moon renderer with Cesium Moon Terrain.

Reentry - A Space Flight Simulator

Reentry users make their way through NASA’s Projects Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo while studying the history of human spaceflight and gaining practical skills. The ultimate goal is to land on the Moon.

A select group of players called “test pilots” will be the first to orbit and walk on Cesium Moon Terrain in Reentry, with this feature available to other users in early 2025.

Reentry is not limited to gamers. Creator Petri Wilhelmsen tailors instances of the simulator for aerospace industry agencies, and users are also testing VR implementation. 

These immersive 3D trainings bring aerospace professionals up to speed with realistic models and simulations for studies and research related to human space exploration. Wilhelmsen can build in failures or events so organizations can see how people behave in these situations, such as loss of power, fuel management, and isolation.

Lunar Module in orbit around the Cesium Moon. Courtesy Petri Wilhelmsen.

Wilhelmsen began working on Unity-based Reentry in 2015. It was released as “early access” on Steam in 2018 and remained a hobby for Wilhelmsen until summer 2024, when he joined Helsinki-based studio Lyra Creative and Reentry became his full-time project. Members of Lyra Creative are focused on immersive experiences, expanding users’ views and vital training opportunities.

View from the commander's window of the Apollo Command Module. Courtesy Petri Wilhelmsen.

Within a few hours of hearing about Cesium Moon Terrain, Wilhelmsen began incorporating it into Reentry via Cesium ion and Cesium for Unity. Cesium Moon Terrain is accurate, complete 3D Tiles of the lunar surface, enabling 3D visualizations, simulations, and analytics.

“Having a digital twin of the Moon, where craters and all the details of the Moon can be explored, is vital,” said Wilhelmsen. “Creating my own streamable Moon renderer is beyond my own capabilities, and, by using Cesium, I can instead focus on other aspects of the game.” 

Wilhelmsen reports it took only 30 minutes to replace his lower fidelity Moon with Cesium Moon Terrain.

The Command Module Columbia looking down at the Apollo 11 landing site. Courtesy Petri Wilhelmsen.

The launch pad and spacecraft in Reentry are from asset stores, but he also makes some assets himself using Blender. The laser scan of the Apollo 11 Command Module, Columbia, for example, is from the Smithsonian Institution; Wilhelmsen modified it for Reentry to improve the panels. These assets are loaded directly into Unity.

Users in orbit see not only the Moon but also Earth—the Cesium globe via Cesium for Unity enables accurate, realistic visualizations for both enthusiastic gamers and those who are training and pushing boundaries. In the future, Wilehelmsen may incorporate Cesium World Terrain and satellite imagery for the launch areas, to add to the accuracy on Earth.

The Lunar Module preparing for descent and landing on the lunar surface. Courtesy Petri Wilhelmsen.

A number of users have remarked to Wilhelmsen that they remember events during these early space programs, and they are reliving the thrill and pride of humanity’s progress with Reentry. 

To add Cesium Moon Terrain and other curated 3D data to your simulation, sign up for a Cesium ion account.

“Reentry” Blends Gaming and Training with Cesium Moon Terrain

At Cesium, we believe that collaboration is the key to advancing the 3D geospatial ecosystem for the benefit of all. For over a decade, we have supported interoperability with leading GIS providers like Esri to meet the growing need for comprehensive solutions that represent the natural and built environment with reality capture models, BIM/CAD designs, and traditional GIS layers. 

3D Tiles support for Esri products, and collaboration with Esri and standards organizations like the Open Geospatial Consortium ("OGC"), enables users to find the best solutions for their geospatial use cases.

Collaboration enabled with OGC standards like 3D Tiles and I3S to support streaming, analyzing and creating 3D geospatial content and applications.

Esri ArcGIS helps users solve complex GIS problems to show hidden patterns, trends, and relationships. Combining this with efficient streaming and 3D visualization capabilities enables users to build solutions delivering advanced spatial data management and analysis.


The combination of GIS and 3D streaming capabilities can address a number of cases in the rapidly growing area of digital twins. For example, a design firm that is creating a spatially accurate 3D representation of a proposed project that includes utility, traffic, and zoning information can share multiple versions of their detailed architectural models to collect public feedback. Or a community group building a virtual experience of their city can combine 3D buildings with route planning to key landmarks or locations.  Facilitated by open standards like 3D Tiles and Indexed 3D Scene Layers (I3S), Esri and Cesium are helping users unlock geospatial insights, increase access to spatial data, and empower a large and diverse community of users.

Cesium Esri examples

Last fall, Esri announced the integration of 3D Tiles into the ArcGIS System of Record as a way of enhancing 3D GIS workflows. This integration allows users to combine 3D Tiles with other OGC community standard GIS layers, such as Indexed 3D Scene Layers (I3S), for use in exploration tools, analysis, animation, layouts, and more. With 3D Tiles seamlessly integrated, users can elevate their data beyond a realistic visualization by leveraging the analytic power of a complete GIS. 

ArcGIS Reality for ArcGIS Pro and Drone2Map

ArcGIS Reality for ArcGIS Pro and Drone2Map can be used to process aerial and drone imagery to create full resolution Digital Surface Models (DSMs), true orthos, and 3D point clouds, as well as 2D meshes and photo-realistic 3D meshes that can be exported as 3D Tiles.

With ArcGIS Pro, users can visualize 3D Tiles layers together with other 2D or 3D layers, view layers with different spatial references together, drape 2D layers on top of 3D mesh layers, and edit features based on 3D Tiles layers. With 3D Tiles layers, users can now interactively analyze scenes and perform exploratory analysis like viewsheds and view domes. ArcGIS Pro also allows users to share 3D Tiles layers from a scene to ArcGIS Online.

Users can integrate 3D Tiles integrated mesh layers into Scene Viewer. Like the existing Integrated mesh scene layer, a 3D Tiles integrated mesh layer can represent built and natural environments through realistic textures and elevation information and be used in combination with other geospatial content.

Along with other OGC Services, users can add 3D Tiles as a local tileset or via a hosted service in ArcGIS Online or third party web servers to ArcGIS Earth, Esri’s free application for visualizing and exploring geospatial content in 3D.

Both the 200.4 release of the ArcGIS Maps SDKs for Native Apps and the 4.29 release of the ArcGIS Maps SDK for JavaScript adds support for 3D Tiles.  These features allow developers to leverage the power of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) 3D Tiles format, providing a seamless integration of yet another type of 3D geospatial data into their custom applications.

ArcGIS Scene Viewer with 3D Tiles with draped graphics for relative energy ratings and labels for construction years for buildings in the city Utrecht - from Esri Developer IntegratedMesh3DTilesLayer sample application - https://developers.arcgis.com/javascript/latest/sample-code/layers-integratedmesh3dtileslayer/live/

Open and connected APIs and data services from other providers help to unlock the value of the 3D geospatial ecosystem. Cesium has long-supported the integration of ArcGIS Terrain, Imagery, and Map services within CesiumJS.  

Recently, Esri collaborated with Cesium to enable Indexed 3D Scene Layers (I3S) within CesiumJS. This open source contribution from Esri brings extensive collections of I3S content from ArcGIS to CesiumJS developers and users. I3S, an OGC standard, facilitates the efficient transmission of various 3D data types, including discrete 3D objects with attributes, integrated surface meshes, and point cloud data across vast areas, as well as detailed Building Information Model (BIM) content. This capability supports delivery to web browsers, mobile apps, and desktop environments. Currently, the I3S integration into CesiumJS supports 3D Objects, Integrated Mesh, and Building Scene Layer data types, enabling the integration of 3D and 2D data from multiple sources, including Cesium ion and ArcGIS Online, into a single geospatial application.

ArcGIS Terrain and Basemaps in Cesium ion as shown in Esri Developer Tutorials

ArcGIS I3S Services, ArcGIS Basemap and Cesium World Terrain as shown in Esri Developer Tutorials

Another layer of integration between the ArcGIS and Cesium platforms is at the developer level where we have collaborated to bring ArcGIS Location Services and the ArcGIS Maps SDKs into CesiumJS.  ArcGIS Location Services provide services for building mapping and spatial analysis applications, available as part of ArcGIS. The inclusion of the various ArcGIS APIs is another step in the multi-year effort to steadily add open source support for ArcGIS APIs, data, and services to CesiumJS.  

Additionally, Esri’s Developer site provides over 20 tutorials showing users how to integrate ArcGIS locations services and CesiumsJS. Through this collaboration, CesiumJS users can combine ArcGIS location services and Google Map Platform’s Photorealistic 3D Tiles to quickly and easily create powerful 3D geospatial visualizations. 

Esri Location Services with Photorealistic 3D Tiles from Google Maps Platform streamed into CesiumJS

See the reference materials for more info. As we begin the next chapter at Cesium, open standards remain at our core. We look forward to continuing to collaborate with industry leaders like Esri to offer additional value and capabilities to the 3D geospatial community. 

If you have ideas about integrations between Cesium and Esri or other third party organizations, please share them on the Cesium Community Forum.

Updated 10/04/2024 to include ArcGIS Maps SDK for JavaScript

As AEC projects increasingly require public input and organizations prefer plans with realism for their own understanding, Pennoni is moving engineering from graph paper to streaming 3D models with Cesium for Unreal and Google Photorealistic 3D Tiles.

Proposed “dolphin” cylinder protection at Delaware River and Bay Authority (DRBA)’s Delaware Memorial Bridge. Courtesy Pennoni.

Multidisciplinary engineering firm Pennoni—also our neighbor, headquartered in Philadelphia—serves clients across the US and has recently created immersive visualizations for clients in Florida; Virginia; Washington, DC; Maryland; Delaware; Pennsylvania; New Jersey; and Massachusetts. Whether it’s for a revamped playground, a shared-use path, a new neighborhood, bridge replacement, or a streetscape, Pennoni is bringing 3D interactions to architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) planning and approvals. For example, Pennoni recently completed a digital twin of the new “dolphin” cylinder protection system for the Delaware River and Bay Authority (DRBA)’s Delaware Memorial Bridge, a critical twin suspension bridge crossing the Delaware River.

The firm has been heavily involved with design visualization and the creation of digital twins for engineering projects since 2015. That’s when Pennoni in-house viz duo Joe Spadea, PE, associate vice president, Pennoni FX Studios (PFX) visualization practice leader, and Steven Lewis, senior engineering technician, led the formation and creation of the PFX team. Since that time, there have been new faces and technologies to grow the firm’s capabilities. The firm began using Cesium in 2023, when Mike Sulesky, design visualization specialist at Pennoni, met the Cesium team at a Drexel University event. The PFX Studios team found that integrating Cesium with tools they were already using was easier and saved time, freeing up days of work to improve other facets of a project. With Cesium for Unreal and Google Photorealistic 3D Tiles, they no longer needed to hand-model a project’s surroundings and could instead create suitable scenes and infrastructure massing in house.

“It’s a constant balance of quality, budget, and time. Cesium allows us some flexibility of budget and time,” said Tim Timmons, senior design visualization specialist at Pennoni.

Digital twin of Jake's Place, an inclusive playground in Vineland, New Jersey. Courtesy Pennoni.

Pennoni creates interior and exterior 3D renderings and animations for its clients’ individual projects. For interiors, the firm’s Unreal Engine artists combine manual modeling with marketplace assets. For exteriors, Pennoni’s engineers, with collaborating architects, create 3D models for proposed structures using CAD data, point clouds, or photogrammetry. Pennoni loads these directly into Unreal Engine, ensuring accurate placement and lighting with Cesium for Unreal, and streams Google Photorealistic 3D Tiles via Cesium ion for real-world urban context, so the future view is clear. 

Google Maps Platform’s Photorealistic 3D Tiles were designed to scale from city blocks to citywide, immersing users in the surroundings they expect to see. Photorealistic 3D Tiles use the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) community standard 3D Tiles format. This format, created by Cesium, efficiently streams massive amounts of data required to display details for both collaborative planning and public awareness.

Pennoni reports that including Cesium in its digital innovation has helped the firm impress clients, win work, and market Pennoni itself, as the engineers work hand in hand with the company’s corporate communications team.

“Rather than waiting years for a project to be completed, and then capture and post photos, we can show visualizations immediately, in present day,” explained Spadea.

Proposed condominiums set against the Florida Gulf Coast. Courtesy Pennoni.

Proposed condominiums set against the Florida Gulf Coast, rendered with Cesium for Unreal. Courtesy Pennoni.

Pennoni Seaforest Condos

Earlier this month, Cesium announced we joined Bentley Systems, a leading infrastructure engineering software company, via acquisition. Together with Bentley, Cesium provides a complete platform for building digital twin experiences for the natural and built environment, with a strong commitment to open source, open standards, and open APIs.

"The recent acquisition is a great fit and a win for everyone. Pennoni has utilized Bentley tools and has a long-standing partnership with Bentley, so this is a welcome next step for us. It's remarkable as well that all three firms are headquartered in the Delaware Valley. Move over, Silicon Valley,” said Spadea.

To immerse your AEC clients in accurate, realistic 3D and better allocate your resources, sign up for a Cesium ion account.

Pennoni Transforms Engineering Models with Cesium

We are excited to announce Cesium’s AECO Tech Preview Program. Throughout our community we see many Cesium experiences that combine the natural and built environment. To improve workflows and capabilities that place architecture, engineering, construction, and operations (AECO) content in a 3D geospatial context, Cesium has developed a new Design Tiler and Revit Add-In, now available for early access and feedback via our AECO Tech Preview Program. These tools transform IFC (Industry Foundation Classes) and Revit files into 3D Tiles, the OGC community standard created by Cesium for streaming massive 3D geospatial datasets.

Join us in connecting architecture and geospatial.

Cesium has developed a new Design Tiler and Revit Add-In, now available for early access and feedback via our AECO Tech Preview Program. These tools transform IFC and Revit files into 3D Tiles, the OGC community standard created by Cesium for streaming massive 3D geospatial datasets. Join us in connecting architecture and geospatial.

Connecting Architecture and Geospatial: AECO Tech Preview Program

For those building AECO-focused applications who are looking for a faster way to provide smaller, more accessible and secure applications, or want an easier, more efficient way to share your design data via the web or other visualization platforms, your process will benefit from the end-to-end workflows using Cesium and 3D Tiles.

The new Design Tiler and Revit Add-In improve workflows and capabilities that place AECO content in a 3D geospatial context.

Incorporating interactive 3D visualizations with AECO projects is becoming increasingly prevalent as a way to plan a project, collaborate with colleagues, analyze design options, and communicate the vision to stakeholders. Building and deploying AECO-focused applications that share complex and highly detailed designs with end users is challenging. These apps often contain many gigabytes of data from multiple sources, must react to frequent design updates, and are difficult to get into the hands of project decision-makers. Using Cesium’s Design Tiler and Revit Add-In, users can transform design data into 3D Tiles, including metadata for querying, filtering, styling, and analytics, for efficiently streaming massive scale AECO content to the web or through project-centered applications via Cesium’s geospatial platform. We have been developing and testing these capabilities, streaming 3D Tiles from design data with projects containing over 4 million individual objects and 800 million mesh triangles.

Streaming complex design data as 3D Tiles, including metadata for querying, filtering, styling and analytics. Hospital sample model provided courtesy of Autodesk.

Streaming IFC content as 3D Tiles, including metadata for querying, filtering, styling, and analytics. Source data BSI (2020) "Medical-Dental Test Files," buildingSMART International.

AECO Tech Preview Program: Hospital Sample

Open APIs and standards to support interoperability are at the core of Cesium and 3D Tiles. Developed by buildingSMART International, IFC is an open standard, widely adopted in the AECO industry, with support from major software packages by vendors such as Autodesk and Bentley Systems. IFC’s rich data structure captures not only geometric information but also metadata, including material properties, schedules, and the relationships between building elements, making it ideal for complex projects requiring detailed and interoperable data. With support for IFC, 3D Tiles can now be generated from a wide range of AECO verticals, including architecture, structural engineering, and MEP (mechanical, electrical, and plumbing) designs. With IFC data as 3D Tiles, there is greater performance, increased interoperability, and less manual effort to optimize this rich content for viewing and distribution.

Sample IFC data including structure and MEP as 3D Tiles. Sample data courtesy of BSI (2020) "Medical-Dental Test Files," buildingSMART International.

Because Autodesk Revit is widely used for designing buildings and infrastructure in 3D, and much of our sample data was in Revit files, our engineering team built a Revit Add-In that integrates with the Design Tiler to generate 3D Tiles. The exported 3D Tiles include the metadata, materials, and textures from your Revit files for efficient streaming on the web or in your visualization engine of choice. Cesium’s Revit Add-In provides a bridge connecting the architecture and geospatial worlds, unlocking value for both.

Autodesk Snowdon Towers sample data exported directly from Revit as 3D Tiles including structural and MEP content, full interior detail, and per-feature metadata streamed into Unreal with Cesium. Data courtesy of Autodesk.  

As Cesium moves toward an official release of the Design Tiler and Revit Add-In, we are pleased to offer early access to these new tools through the AECO Tech Preview Program. Participants will have access to the Design Tiler and Revit Add-In as we continue to develop them in parallel. Your experience and feedback will be invaluable as we refine and enhance these tools to meet your needs. This is a unique opportunity to influence the direction of our product and work directly with our engineering team.

If you are interested in participating in the AECO Tech Preview, submit the form below to apply. We look forward to collaborating with you to shape the future of 3D visualization in AECO.

Join the Cesium AECO Tech Preview Program

Globe view of UNICiv, showing sites from 1800 BCE - 1500 CE. The Legananny Dolmen in Ireland is selected.

Interactive digital maps display detailed contemporary geographic information, increasingly in 3D, for navigation, exploration, and virtual travel. What the world looked like near the beginnings of human civilization, however, is more difficult to discover, search, and visualize. Cesium Research’s most recent publication, UNICiv: A Universal Navigation Interface to Civilization, explores Cesium’s ability to support 3D models of ancient and historic sites within their geographical and temporal context.

Developed over the summer by Cesium's Yuhan Liu and led by Dr. Norman Badler, Head of Research, UNICiv is an extensible, universal, spatio-temporal interface that leverages Cesium for Unreal and 3D Tiles to visualize structures of the distant past. As a demonstration and education tool, UNICiv’s applications range from cultural heritage to urban planning. The UNICiv publication has been accepted as a full research paper to the Eurographics Workshop on Graphics and Cultural Heritage (GCH 2024). 

GCH is the premier technical meeting for novel digital technologies in the cultural heritage domain, fostering discussions in AI, Computer Graphics, Computer Vision, and Human-Computer Interaction.

UNICiv offers over 30 explorable 3D models of historic and archaeological sites around the world, displayed collectively on a single interactive globe. These models are produced by archaeologists, independent artists, or research projects from institutions and nonprofits. Sites range in time from 8000 BCE to 1500 CE. Examples include Neolithic monuments like Stonehenge, ruins of Bronze Age villages, and Greco-Roman temples. These models have been curated and imported into Cesium for Unreal through Cesium’s integration with Sketchfab. The models are imported into Unreal using Cesium’s plugin and placed on top of Cesium World Terrain with Bing Maps Aerial imagery.

Users can explore the past in 3D using UNICiv’s interface. Start by navigating a Cesium globe where ancient structures are highlighted as pins. The timeline interface indexes sites that appear on the globe. When users select a site, they are taken on a flight path to its geolocated model, where they can use traditional game controls to explore. Users can build their personalized list of sites to save, compare, and present their findings. Additionally, some locations offer reconstructed visualizations that can be overlaid on current-day ruins, providing a unique perspective on how these ancient sites once appeared.

Perspective view of the reconstructed Old Temple at Pachacamac in Peru. Site list controls set to Common Era (0-1500 CE). Cesium World Terrain shows the present-day view of the Lima Province. Model courtesy of Aline Normoyle, Clark Erickson, and Norman Badler, used with permission.

La Motilla del Azuer, 3D Model from Global Digital Heritage on SketchFab. Tour site list shows manually added fortification sites.

Amphitheatre of Butrint, 3D Model by Ørjan Sandland, imported from Sketchfab (CC Attribution). Simultaneous Site List shows all sites with reconstructions (not pictured) available to view. The Albanian mountains are part of Cesium World Terrain with Bing Maps Aerial Imagery.

Temple of Apollo - Naxos Greece, 3D Model by Vasilis Haroupas on SketchFab. Simultaneous Site List shows all available BCE models. Terrain from Cesium World Terrain with Bing Maps Aerial Imagery.

From incorporating more models to iterating on user experience, UNICiv is an ongoing research project with exciting directions for future work. A significant task for the future would be to incorporate and reverse-engineer significant geographical changes to experience the natural environment experienced by the earth’s earliest inhabitants. In the meantime, UNICiv provides a uniform, 3D geospatial, contextualized interface to the re-discovered past.

The UNICiv publication was one of eight full research papers accepted to the 22nd Eurographics Workshop on Graphics and Cultural Heritage 2024. The Cesium research team is excited to present at the conference, which takes place September 16–18, 2024, in Darmstadt, Germany.

UNICiv is a powerful tool for visualizing temporal change on a global scale, especially in cultural and historical preservation. Initial user evaluations have highlighted UNICiv’s significant potential for advancing archaeological demonstration, education, and exploration. Furthermore, the UNICiv interface becomes increasingly adept at capturing the development of human civilization as more 3D models are integrated into it. Thus, the Cesium research team plans to soon provide open access to the UNICiv resource and welcomes collaborations and user contributions. Contact Dr. Norm Badler to express your interest in UNICiv.  

For help getting started on your own project with Cesium for Unreal, visit the Learning Center. 

Cesium Research's Universal Navigation Interface to Civilization (UNICiv) Accepted for Publication and Presentation at Eurographics Conference

It’s wildland fire season in the United States. The Lockheed Martin AI Center’s (LAIC) Joint Activity Manager (JAM) provides operational context for active wildland fires, using AI, real-time data, and CesiumJS to stream this 3D visualization to incident commanders.

Overview of Lockheed Martin JAM capability, featuring a sped-up clip of the Vista fire outside of Los Angeles, California. Courtesy Lockheed Martin.

Overview of Lockheed Martin JAM capability, featuring a sped up clip of Vista fire outside of Los Angeles, CA. Courtesy Lockheed Martin.

Lockheed Martin JAM - Vista, CA, July 2024

While still in development, this capability is intended for state agencies to visualize and analyze active wildland fires; track flights of aerial assets that have been tasked with detection, monitoring, and suppression; and incorporate weather information, such as temperature, humidity, and wind.

The wildland fire incident list in the application is populated every 24 hours with information from the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC), based in Boise, Idaho, USA, to ensure daily updates on the number and locations of active wildland fires. Imagery from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) is pulled every 30 minutes. 

In an upcoming feature, Lockheed Martin’s AI will detect near-real-time fire hot spots from this imagery and reflect them atop 3D terrain from Cesium every 15-20 minutes. Lockheed Martin uses its “super resolution” AI capabilities to, in effect, add more pixels to the images, which refines them prior to determining the near-real-time fire area from the satellite imagery.

Tracking a Pilatus PC-12 on patrol identifying and mapping wildland fires in CesiumJS. Courtesy Lockheed Martin.

JAM brings together ground, air, and satellite data from NIFC, NOAA, and ADS-B flight trackers (as seen in the image above) and combines them in CesiumJS. State agencies might also have their own assets (e.g., thermal imaging from multi-mission aircrafts) that can be added. The application uses Cesium World Terrain and Bing Maps Aerial imagery streamed as 3D Tiles via Cesium ion, to provide incident commanders and staff an accurate 3D map to enhance the common operating picture. CesiumJS was built for interactive web apps and streaming massive amounts of data—it is lightweight and performant, vital for users receiving rapid updates in the field.

Work on the JAM prototype began in December 2023, and efforts on the current demo started in March 2024. Lockheed Martin, which employs 122,000 people worldwide, assigned five developers on this project. The company selected Cesium and its real-time update capabilities as an efficient, effective tool for visualizing historical wildland fire data. Lockheed Martin continues to leverage commercial partnerships to accelerate development of JAM.

Wind and weather information for an active fire area in CesiumJS. Courtesy Lockheed Martin.

Demo of suppression line visualization in CesiumJS. Courtesy Lockheed Martin.

The crew behind JAM is working toward including all active wildland fires in the US. The alpha version was completed in May 2024, and beta is slated for this summer.

You can fuse your own data with high-resolution terrain and imagery with Cesium ion; get started with a community account.

Lockheed Martin Tracks Wildland Fires with Cesium

Today, we are thrilled to share that Cesium Moon Terrain, the first readily accessible single, comprehensive 3D Tileset of the Moon, is now available.

Cesium Moon Terrain is composed of precise terrain and imagery from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) program and other sources, and is provided as 3D Tiles, the Open Geospatial Consortium Community Standard created by Cesium.

Cesium Moon Terrain is the first complete, precise, and readily-accessible 3D Tileset of the Moon. Sign up or Sign in to Cesium ion to explore. 

Learn more at Cesium.com

Cesium Moon Terrain

“We launched Cesium Moon Terrain as an accurate and interoperable 3D Tiles canvas to support the international interest in lunar exploration and building structures on the moon's surface,” said Cesium CEO Patrick Cozzi. “Cesium Moon Terrain will enable engineers, system integrators, and digital content creators to build simulations, mission plans, and real-time operations experiences.”

Cesium Moon Terrain visualized in Cesium for Unreal

Cesium Moon Terrain was recently demonstrated at the Digital Twin for Lunar Development Workshop held at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The workshop brought the space enterprise community together to focus on advancing digital twins for NASA and the creation of an open, interoperable platform for a lunar digital ecosystem.

As early adopters, Ansys has utilized 3D Tiles in both their Systems Tool Kit (STK) and their RF Channel Modeler software to help users easily incorporate geospatially accurate datasets into their digital mission modeling and systems modeling engineering capabilities. Users are able to directly understand impacts of terrain in challenging locations such as lunar polar regions to accurately analyze communications system designs.

The Copernicus Crater, visualized in Cesium for Unreal

Another early adopter, Buendea, is collaborating with the NASA Advanced Operations Concept Lab on developing the XR Operations Support System (XOSS) to support real-time simulations on the Moon and Mars. Buendea is interested in Cesium Moon Terrain for its potential to enhance their ongoing projects.


“We’re excited about the potential of Cesium Moon Terrain to accelerate our work, including our efforts with NASA, to accurately plan and simulate explorations of the lunar surface,” said Julian Reyes, Founder of Buendea.

Cesium's Dave Braig presenting at the Digital Twins for Lunar Development Workshop at NASA's JPL

To access Cesium Moon Terrain, sign up for an account, or sign in to Cesium ion and add the tileset to your Asset Library from the Cesium ion Asset Depot. Once added, create a Cesium Story, incorporate the data into a web application with CesiumJS, or build advanced visualizations with Cesium for Unreal and Cesium for Unity.

Each of these visualization engines have been updated to enable non-WGS84 based ellipsoids to support an accurate representation of the lunar surface for analysis and measurements. Cesium Moon Terrain is also available for Cesium ion Self-Hosted. 

With Cesium Moon Terrain, users can leverage the same workflows and functionality already available in our open source runtime engines. Use Cesium Moon Terrain as a base layer to place models of habitats, vehicles, or rovers on the lunar surface.  If you have your own high resolution terrain data, clip and inset it within Cesium Moon Terrain so that your projects can live within a single continuous 3D surface rather than multiple separate project areas. 

NASA's ambitious Artemis program aims to return humans to the Moon and eventually land them on Mars. With this, along with initiatives from SpaceX, Boeing, BlueOrigin and others, the demand for an open, interoperable, standards-based platform has never been greater. Cesium Moon Terrain meets this demand, providing a versatile foundation for countless applications.

We look forward to seeing your projects built with Cesium Moon Terrain! Sign up or sign in to get started.

NBC Sports, the official American broadcast partner of the 2024 Summer Games in Paris, is using Cesium to visualize event locations.

Archery takes place at Invalides. Courtesy NBC Sports.

The Games are currently running through August 11, 2024, with 45 events at venues across Paris, in other regions of France, and nearly 10,000 miles away—including beach volleyball at Eiffel Tower Stadium, football (soccer for those of us in the US) in Nice, and surfing in Tahiti. Massive amounts of data are required to quickly show competition locations and popular landmarks in detail on studio monitors during broadcasts. To manage the data and accurately present the geospatial context for the Games, NBC Sports paired its 3D models of stadiums with Cesium for Unreal and Google’s Photorealistic 3D Tiles.

The Alexandre III Bridge is the start and finish for the triathlon, the start for the open-water swim, and the finish line for cycling time trials. Courtesy NBC Sports.

Paris is among the 2,500 cities Google Maps Platform has made available as Photorealistic 3D Tiles: high-res imagery draped over 3D mesh and formatted as 3D Tiles, the OGC community standard created by Cesium to optimize streaming of massive 3D geospatial data. With Google’s extensive coverage, Photorealistic 3D Tiles were designed for city scale, and even down to a city block, providing details viewers expect to see in the real world. NBC Sports imports Photorealistic 3D Tiles into its Unreal Engine projects through Cesium ion, where NBC Sports also hosts its 3D models of venues used for the Games. Smooth rendering of these geospecific 3D datasets and realistic lighting enable NBC Sports to orient and immerse viewers.

“Cesium made it easy for our team of Unreal artists to manipulate Google’s Photorealistic 3D Tiles, building projects that showcase the real-world data to viewers without needing to devote additional resources to acquiring the data. The platform’s speed and quality fit right into our workflow,” said Wade Echer, VP of On-Air Graphics at NBC Sports. “Using Cesium in this manner allowed us to minimize the hours needed to accomplish the job, freeing up other artists for other projects.”

Grand Palais hosts fencing and Taekwondo. Courtesy NBC Sports.

Bring digital worlds to life for any audience with a Cesium ion account.

NBC Sports Uses Cesium for Broadcast Coverage of Summer Games in Paris

Working at the intersection of computer graphics and 3D geospatial, Cesium has a long history with SIGGRAPH. We’re excited to participate again this year, and the Cesium team will be in Denver, CO, July 28-August 1.

Here’s the schedule of Cesium-related events:

Birds of a Feather Session: ACM SIGGRAPH Cartographic Visualization (CARTO)

This session is organized by our friend Theresa-Marie Rhyne and explores how viewpoints and techniques from the computer graphics community can be effectively applied to cartographic and spatial data sets. Janine Liu, 3D Software Developer, will present, along with Esri and Web3D Consortium.

Birds of a Feather Session: glTF: Innovations in 3D Content Delivery and Use

Cesium will join Leonard Daly (Daly Realism), Alexey Medvedev (Meta), and Eric Chadwick (DGG) for presentations, panels, demos, and attendee discussions on the activities at Khronos in support of 3D content creation, including physics, interactivity, scene building and management, content creation pipeline, and more.

Birds of a Feather Session: Metaverse Standards Forum: Advancements on USD and glTF Interoperability and Discussion on the 3D Web Landscape

Cesium CEO Patrick Cozzi joins Neil Trevett (Metaverse Standards Forum, NVIDIA); Guy Martin, Director of Open Source & Standards at NVIDIA, Founding Board Member & Steering Committee Vice Chair at AOUSD; Henrik Edström, Distinguished Architect, Graphics at Autodesk; Michael Min, Sr. Manager 3D Graphics at Adobe; and Janine Liu, 3D Software Developer, Cesium. 

Patrick will present the "3D Asset Interoperability using USD and glTF Working Group Update" and Janine will present, "USD and glTF for Geospatial and Beyond"

Hyatt Regency Denver, Capitol Ballroom 6+7

Cesium is proud to be a sponsor of this event. Meet Khronos Group members, hear from presenters, and enjoy a drink and hors d'oeuvres. Please RSVP if you plan to join us at the reception.

We’re looking forward to seeing you in Denver!

Cesium held its inaugural 3D Geospatial Technical Exchange Meeting at Cesium headquarters in Philadelphia on June 25 and 26.

The purpose of the meeting was to bring experts in defense and intelligence together with the 3D Tiles user community to explore the theme, “Streaming 3D Geospatial Data, from Analysis to Mission Execution.”

Speakers from the Cesium team were joined by guest speakers from TAK Product Center,  Army Geospatial Center, Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division, NVIDIA, Reveal Technology, Epic Games, Maxar, Ansys, and Vexcel Data Program.

Highlights from Cesium's first 3D Geospatial TEM. 

Cesium 3D Geospatial Technical Exchange Meeting 2024

The event kicked off with a video message from Cesium CEO Patrick Cozzi, who spent the week in Alaska as part of the DoD Joint Civilian Orientation Conference (JCOC).  JCOC enables business and community leaders to gain first-hand experience through operations and interactions with troops and military leaders across the US armed forces.

Nathan Frantz, Acting Director of TAK Product Center, then delivered the keynote address. The event also featured live demos by teams from Reveal Technologies and Lockheed Martin. 


Visit our Presentations page for slides presented by Cesium on CesiumJS, Native Runtimes, Cesium ion and Cesium ion Self-Hosted, and Cesium curated 3D data. We also held a session to gather community feedback on the Cesium roadmap. 

This inaugural, invite-only TEM is only the first of many such events we hope to host at Cesium HQ and around the country to foster collaboration around open standards and gather feedback from the user community. Join our mailing list to be notified of upcoming events.

Cesium's Inaugural 3D Geospatial Technical Exchange Meeting

Recent legislation in the Netherlands requires public participation as part of the permit process for urban planning. Drip visual’s PublicTwin is an online platform enabling citizen input with Photorealistic 3D Tiles and Cesium for Unreal.

PublicTwin empowers citizens to explore and voice opinions about proposed changes to their neighborhoods. It includes a simplified overview, a Cesium-powered digital twin upon zooming in, and a participatory questionnaire. Courtesy drip visual.

Founded in 2021, drip visual combines AEC, gamification, and geospatial data to democratize urban planning, using real-time engines as communication tools. Needing to attend in-person meetings at specific times and interpret 2D schematics or overly simplified 3D displays pose barriers to public understanding and participation in permit processes. Drip visual’s PublicTwin geospecific representation is available online, empowering citizens to explore and voice opinions about proposed changes to their neighborhoods. 

Drip visual launched its PublicTwin Pilot Program in June 2024 at Provada, a real estate conference in Amsterdam, with interactive visualizations of a Nieuw Delft master plan and a Leeuwendeel residential building proposal in the city of Delft.

Nieuw Delft master plan, aggregating multiple proposals in accurate geospatial context with Cesium. Courtesy drip visual.

Drip visual receives 3D models of proposed buildings from architects or engineers, edits the models as needed, and exports them to Unreal Engine for high-fidelity rendering and integration with accurate geospatial context and lighting via the Cesium for Unreal plugin.

The team employs Google Photorealistic 3D Tiles accessed from Cesium ion for accurate, easily identifiable surroundings for urban planning and AEC. Rather than seeing a nondescript building on the corner, citizens recognize, for example, the local train station, complete with windows and signage they encounter in the real world. Designed for citywide scale and down to city blocks, Photorealistic 3D Tiles use the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) community standard 3D Tiles format, created by Cesium, to efficiently stream massive amounts of data and immerse users in the environment. PublicTwin is accessible on the web via pixel streaming.

“Photorealistic wider city context generation was a challenge, and the ability to utilize Cesium directly within Unreal Engine 5 to stream Google Photorealistic 3D Tiles allowed us to achieve good results more efficiently, instead of manually modeling a city,” explained the drip visual team. Documentation and tutorials in the Learning Center helped the studio prototype quickly, they said.

Users can zoom in on a Leeuwendeel residential building proposal in the city of Delft. Courtesy drip visual.

Drip visual is encouraging municipalities, developers, and architects to join its Pilot Program. Currently in its alpha stage, PublicTwin is used for individual projects, but the team is working with early adopters on its vision, including expanding the tool to be a broadly available SaaS platform.

Learn how Cesium increases public participation and saves time for AEC projects.