2017-12-21
A new Blend4Web-powered configurator has appeared within the boundlessness of the Internet. This time, the users have an option to customize a Toyota Camry car.
The first impression is always the most lasting one. This, it seems, was the motto of the developer of this application. Imaging a beautiful white car, standing alone in the rays of the setting sun… although “standing” might not be the most appropriate word here, as after the scene is loaded, the camera starts to pan around it, so you could see this elegant machine from every side.
There are high-quality materials and models that help to represent real-world object with great precision. This, however, is nothing new. It’s easy to get used to top-tier visuals to the point where you start to forget that not long ago 3D graphics in a web browser was something to be excited about, especially when compared to simple flat images.
It’s time is now. Today, many companies seek to diversify their online stores with a new and aspiring type of content. But visual appeal is not the only strong point of the new technology. 3D graphics allow for making interaction between a user and an application much more effective. This particular configurator is focused on fulfilling one purpose, namely on selling cars. Its simple and clear user interface along with high visual appeal are designed to guide customer from selecting the configuration of the car to talking to a sales manager.
Customer has options to select the color for the car body, the type of the engine, the appearance of the salon. What’s interesting is that there aren’t that many variants to choose from. The application only gives you several key parameters that can vary depending on the model of the car. It would seem that the configurator was developed with model line and dealer’s technological capabilities in mind.
From a practical standpoint, this is a very interesting application. Everything is very straighforward, and there is nothing too much. Step by step, you are creating the exact car you would like to purchase. In a sense, every part of the 3D configurator is streamlined and focused on achieving a result.
Visually, the project looks impressive. 3D models of the cars are almost lifelike, the surroundings complement them nicely. For rendering the salons and for engine select scene, the developers used 360-degree panoramas and simple static images. Overall, the blending of different formats looks quite seamless.
Some features of the cars are presented in a peculiar way. Instead of dull and boring graphs and charts, the developers created colorful scenes depicting aerodynamics, sound isolation and power levels of different engine types. There wasn’t any particular reason for doing this, but it looks nice anyway.
So… I can’t even remember anymore just how many 3D car configurator were created using Blend4Web. It almost seems that they are being cranked in quantities unimaginable and spreading to the car manufacturer web site equally fast. This is a trend, it seems, and this trend indicates that web developers have high opinion on our engine.
