ArcGISSceneLayer class final

A layer to visualize data from an ArcGIS scene service or a local scene package.

Scene layers display content from a scene service or a scene package.

ArcGISSceneLayer optimized to displaying large amounts of data in an ArcGISSceneViewController. It can display data published as scene services, scene layer packages (.slpk), and scene layers in mobile scene packages (.mspk).

ArcGISSceneLayer supports:

• 3D Object (e.g. buildings)
• Integrated mesh (e.g. buildings, trees, and elevation) (see IntegratedMeshLayer)
• Point features (e.g. trees)

The scene layer complies with the Indexed 3D Scene layer (I3S) format. It is an open 3D content delivery format used to disseminate 3D GIS data to mobile, web, and desktop clients.

Functional characteristics

• 3D object — 3D object scene layers contain objects explicitly modeled in three dimensions and are used to represent objects such as buildings. These features have attributes and can be identified. See the 3D Object Scene Layer for more information.
• Integrated mesh — 3D mesh data is typically captured by an automated process for constructing 3D objects out of large sets of overlapping imagery. The result integrates the original input image information as a textured mesh including 3D objects, such as buildings and trees, and elevation information. Integrated mesh scene layers are often created for citywide 3D mapping. They can represent something as small as a single building or as large as a city or state. They are often assembled automatically from imagery collected by a drone; they cannot be restyled because there is no underlying feature data. See the Integrated Mesh Scene Layer for more information.
• Point features — To ensure fast visualization, cached scene layers are used to display large amounts of 3D point data about individual features, such as all the trees in a city. Point scene layers have features that can be identified and that have attributes that may be cached or available from an associated feature layer. The display of point scene layers is automatically thinned to improve performance and visibility at smaller scales and longer distances. Automatic thinning means that not all features are displayed at small scales; as you zoom in, additional features are displayed. See the Point scene layer for more information.

Point scene layers are generated from point feature layers. Point scene layers can be generated by ArcGIS Pro and hosted as a scene service or scene layer package.

Note: When publishing a scene from ArcGIS Pro (sharing as a web scene) any point feature layers in the 3D Layers section of the contents pane will be published as a scene service. The scene service will be referenced within the web scene.

Performance characteristics

For a scene layer, the rendering of 3D data is based on the current level of detail (LOD), which is determined by the distance from the camera. Each object in a 3D object service is represented differently at various LODs determined by the camera distance. As the camera distance changes in the scene, objects will be displayed appropriately for the current LOD. This results in good client performance and low memory usage, at the expense of frequently loading and unloading objects.