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Glossary

This glossary contains a list of common terms and definitions used across the Dopple website and platform.

3D rendering​

3D rendering is the process of inserting a 3D model into an environment where it can be viewed and interacted with, such as on an ecommerce product page. The speed at which a model can be rendered will have an impact on your overall site and page loading speed.

Anti-aliasing​

Anti-aliasing is a process of removing the “jagged edge” effect (known as aliasing) from rendered images. It makes non-orthogonal lines and edges appear smoother by adding a subtle “blur” between the two sides of the edge, typically giving a higher quality appearance on the final image.

Augmented reality​

Augmented reality (AR) is an interactive experience in which users can view and engage with a computer generated object in their current real world environment.

CMS​

A content management system (CMS) is an application used to manage web content, allowing multiple users to create, edit, and publish content, often with minimal knowledge of coding and the underlying site design/architecture.

Configurability matrix​

A comprehensive list of all the configurable properties and values available on your 3D product.

See the configurability matrix docs for more information.

Configurable item​

A configurable item, or CI, is an atomic unit of configurability from which products are composed. CIs can be composed of other CIs. We refer to the constituent CIs as dependencies. This allows for assets and logic for parts of a product to be maintained independently. Further, CIs can be default dependencies or non-default dependencies. The former are required to be loaded with the top-level CI, but the latter are loaded on demand. This is one way in which we can optimize bandwidth and storage to defer loading of dependencies that are associated with less frequently used options.

A CI is defined by three types of data:

Configurator​

A product configurator is a digital tool that allows shoppers to select specific colors, textures, features, and add-ons and view them on their desired product.

Controller​

The controller describes the behavior of the product, or how it responds to changes in properties and to events. The controller is a JavaScript file that is loaded at runtime and returns a function that registers the controller to listen to events and property updates. The controller calls functions on controller plugins to manipulate the Visual scene. This can include camera changes, toggling mesh visibility, changing colors, and swapping materials.

DOM binding​

A mechanism supported by the Visual Component in which certain UI elements on a webpage (such as <button>, <select>, and <input> elements) can be given custom data attributes that will automatically bind them to control the 3D scene.

See the automatic DOM binding documentation for more information.

glTF​

glTF — short for the GL Transmission Format — is an open source, standard file format for 3D scenes and models. It has been designated as a key standard for augmented reality, and is used by major platforms such as Microsoft, Facebook, Google, and Adobe.

Specifically, Dopple utilizes the compact binary representation of gLTF, known as GLB. These files currently contain mesh data, though in the future they may contain other data such as animations. Textures and materials are managed as resources.

Image fidelity​

Fidelity is the degree to which an image or 3D model accurately represents its subject and the details that make it unique. The higher the fidelity, the more detailed and realistic the appearance.

Manifest​

The manifest describes the assets and resources required for the Configurable Item (CI), the configuration choices supported by the CI, and the dependencies of the CI on other CIs. The manifest also defines slots, which describe how dependency CIs relate to the parent CI. The choices for a CI and its dependencies can be aggregated using the information in the slot to define an overall schema for the CI. The schema is accessible via an endpoint on the configurable items service.

Material​

A material is a set of properties and parameters that define the visual appearance of an object, such as its color or how reflective it is. See also: texture.

Mesh​

A mesh is the part of a 3D model that defines the vertices and polygons of an object. While a mesh only stores vertex data, a model may have other elements like texture data, animation data, armature data, and even additional meshes.

Embedded UI​

The Embedded UI is a set of UI buttons and modals built into the Visual Component that enable common features like augmented reality (AR), full screen mode, and product snapshots right out of the box. The Embedded UI may also be referred to as the Native UI.

See the Embedded UI documentation for more information.

PBR material​

A physically-based rendering (or PBR) material is a virtual material with enhanced parameters for realistically simulating physical materials under a variety of lighting conditions. These parameters may include sheen, metalness, subsurface scattering, iridescence, anisotropy, translucency, and more.

Playground​

Also called the product previewer, this test environment allows designers and developers to explore, test, and view code for building 3D configurators and experiences.

ProductTemplate​

A ProductTemplate corresponds to a single top level Configurable Item (CI) in the API. It provides access to load the assets and resources associated with the CI.

Product​

A Product is an instantiation of a Configurable Item. There can be multiple products created from a template, though currently the platform does not fully support this use case. Product provides access to API functions to set and get values of properties and to trigger configuration events. The former align to choices on the Configurable Item as described below. The latter provides a way for the API user to trigger.

Texture​

A texture is an image or pattern applied to a material to break up the visual uniformity of a surface. For example, a wooden surface will have variations in color and contrast throughout the grain, despite having other visual properties (such as a glossy shellac finish, for example) consistent across the entire surface.

Visual instance​

The Visual instance is an instance providing access to the Visual API. A visual instance corresponds to exactly one HTML Canvas element and can have multiple ProductTemplate and Product instances. It can also have multiple Environment instances over its lifetime, but only one at any given time.

Visual Component​

A custom web component that generates a full-featured Dopple configurator/visualizer on a webpage with minimal setup code required.

See the Visual Component documentation for more information.

Visualizer​

A product visualizer is a digital tool that displays high fidelity 3D representations of products online to deliver an enhanced consumer experience in any digital channel.

WebGL​

WebGL is the JavaScript API that allows rendering interactive 2D and 3D graphics within any compatible web browser without needing an additional plug-in. Dopple uses WebGL to bring clients’ products to life across a wide array of digital devices.