As of 01 May 2024

This page provides you with some insights about the HOOPS Visualize roadmap. If you are interested in providing input or collaborating on any of the projects below, please contact HOOPS Visualize's Product Manager or Tech Soft 3D support.

Release Plan

HOOPS Visualize release schedule consists of a major release and two or more service packs(x.10, x.20) per year.

Minor updates (x.11, x.21) might be released in between according to fix regressions or high priority issues.

Release Schedule

See the HOOPS Target General Availability Dates.

Format Updates Plan

Provisional plan – Subject to change

Additionally, refer to the HOOPS Exchange Roadmap for Format Updates Plan, if applicable.

Short-term projects

Projects planned to be delivered in next release (next 4 months)

• Volumetric meshes phase 1 (experimental): Support for defining and rendering volumetric elements in HOOPS Visualize

• Volumetric meshes phase 2 (experimental): cutting and extracting capping geometry

Mid-term projects

Planned or on-going projects that might be delivered mid-term (in one or two releases) – After 4 months / before 12 months

• VRAM management system: this will enable monitoring the usage of VRAM, allowing to choose storing the data in the system or GPU memory to avoid bottlenecks

• Qt6 Update

• .Net6

• Improvements to the Segment Display list performance

• Linux ARM support

• Volumetric meshes phase 3: selection and highlighting

Long-term projects

Longer term projects we are considering

• Add support for implicit modeling

  • The generative design market is pushing the boundaries of what can be manufactured. However since they do not typically use standard BRep / single body mesh forms HOOPS Visualize cannot display these models efficiently. This project will be to investigate what changes would be required to make it easier for generative design applications to use HOOPS Visualize.

• Vulkan or DX12 drivers

  • Adding support for new generation graphics APIs will enable Visualize to add new functionality and to also begin refactoring the 3DF GS to take advantage of modern GPU architecture.

• Improved rendering quality

  • Several improvements are planned for PBR in Visualize. This should include better support for environment mapping, image based lighting, and rendering which is similar to the rendering in HOOPS Communicator. Finally we will add a mechanism to allow non-PBR models (such as CAD models) to be displayed in a PBR mode, providing higher quality renderings without having to re-author all data in a PBR application.

  • Visualize will improve our PBR rendering support, including clearcoat and specular materials. This is required to render many glTF models as expected.

• Improved performance for large models

  • This project will focus on improving frames per second performance and resource management optimization when working with large models, or data sets comprised of many files. Examples include BIM federation workflows and Digital Factory simulations

• Perform Collision Detection in Visualize

  • While HOOPS Exchange licensees can use an integration between Visualize and Exchange to check for collisions, this is not designed for interactivity. This project would aim to have collision detection performed in Visualize without reliance on Exchange.

• PBR output through Exchange sprocket

  • The Exchange Sprocket will be updated to offer the ability to take a HOOPS Visualize model and export it to GLTF through HOOPS Exchange.