Knowledge base · from our own projects
Real-time rendering
Real-time rendering means an image is calculated at the moment it is requested rather than in advance. For product configurators there are two routes, rendering on the visitor's device, or rendering on a server and sending the image. That choice determines quality, speed and which devices can keep up.
The term real-time rendering covers two very different architectures that are often confused. Rendering in the browser with WebGL is something other than rendering on a render server and sending the result as an image. Both are called real time, but they set different limits on quality, file size and which phones can handle it.
Why this distinction matters
Anyone with high-grade CAD data runs into a wall with browser rendering almost every time. The model has to be simplified until it fits in the memory of a phone. That is exactly the quality you wanted to show. The server route does not have that limitation, but it does place demands on infrastructure and response time.
The distinction is not an implementation detail you can leave to the developer either. It determines what your customer sees at the moment they decide, and it is expensive to change afterwards. The 3D models are prepared differently for each route.
The mistake in thinking that is made most often
Browser rendering feels like the simple, cheap route. After all, the visitor supplies the computing power, so there are no server costs. In the quoting practice of THE REAL MAG. it works out differently. Making models suitable for the browser costs roughly twice as much modelling work, because every model has to be optimised and tested separately. And that then delivers lower image quality.
So the real trade-off is not cheap against expensive, but one-off modelling costs against ongoing computing costs.
What you will find here
Technical comparisons, with the trade-offs THE REAL MAG. made in its own projects and what that delivered in practice in speed and quality. Including measured response times, because a promise about speed without a method of measurement is worth nothing.