To display 3D content in real-time, Sketchfab relies on WebGL, which is a standard rendering library in most modern browsers. You can check if your browser is compatible on https://get.webgl.org/
For more technical details about WebGL on your machine, visit WebGL Report.
Desktop
Sketchfab is compatible with all modern browsers, including:
- Mozilla Firefox
- Google Chrome
- Opera
- Safari
- Microsoft Edge
- Any other Chromium-based browser
Mobile
- iOS 8+
- Android 4.0+
Troubleshooting
WebGL
On older browsers or devices with WebGL disabled, models are displayed with an image-based fallback that gives a 360° turntable view of the model.
If you run into problems, make sure your graphics driver and browser are up-to-date. If that doesn’t help, try one of the other browsers listed above. https://get.webgl.org/ is a good place to start troubleshooting.
Sometimes, your browser may disable WebGL based on your GPU. If you are using a compatible browser, but you see an incompatible warning or the viewer performs very badly, try forcing the browser to use your GPU:
Chrome
-
- Go to System Settings ( chrome://settings/ → Advanced → System ) and make sure Use hardware acceleration when available is enabled.
- Go to chrome://flags/#ignore-gpu-blacklist and enable the Override software rendering list flag.
If you go to WebGL Report and see "SwiftShader" listed as the renderer, the steps above should solve the problem.
Firefox
Type about:config into the address bar and enable webgl.force-enabled.
Edge
Modern versions of Microsoft Edge run in Enhanced security mode by default. This mode does not support WebAssembly (WASM), which is required by the Sketchfab viewer. If models are failing to load in Microsoft Edge, visit Troubleshooting Microsoft Edge to learn how to fix it.
Safari
In Safari 7.1.3 (OS X 10.9) and earlier, WebGL must be enabled manually.
Go to Safari → Preferences → Advanced and check Show Develop menu in menu bar. Go to Develop → Enable WebGL.
Touch Screens / Tablets
Sometimes, navigating a model may not work on a touch screen or tablet device. This is especially common on certain Windows 10 devices. In Chrome, for example, visit chrome://flags/#touch-events and enable the "Touch Events API" flag.
Scripts and Cookies
In order to load correctly, the viewer needs to run various JavaScript scripts. It also needs access to browser cookies for various purposes such as respecting Sound volume and Restricted Content settings. If script execution or cookies are blocked by browser settings, plugins, sandboxing the Sketchfab iframe, or other methods, the viewer will not load. If you must sandbox the iframe for some reason, you must also lift several restrictions to make sure all viewer features work as expected:
- allow-scripts (needed to load the frame whatsoever)
- allow-same-origin (needed to allow the frame to communicate with our servers)
- allow-popups (needed for links within the frame to work)
- allow-forms (needed if the model is password-protected so that you can enter the password)
You will want your iframe HTML code to look something like this (note the sandbox attribute).
<iframe sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-forms" frameborder="0" width="xxx" height="xxx" src="https://sketchfab.com/models/xxxxxxxx/embed"></iframe>
You can also remove the sandbox attribute completely if possible.
<iframe frameborder="0" width="xxx" height="xxx" src="https://sketchfab.com/models/xxxxxxxx/embed"></iframe>
WordPress Users
Sketchfab must be added as 'Trusted oEmbed Provider', otherwise WordPress will automatically add sandbox restrictions to Sketchfab iframes.
Adding the following line to a plugin or functions.php in the theme directory solves that:
wp_oembed_add_provider( '#https?://sketchfab\.com/.*#i', 'https://www.sketchfab.com/oembed', true );
It is also added by the JetPack plugin.
Comments
174 comments
Thanks nice work
James at this point its just weird. not sketchfab. but today I could view in 3D but now I can't. i'm not mad its just. weird. I did follow the steps but it's not working but I will try again.
okay I got it all figured out I can view in 3D again now
3D viewer is not available. Learn more Here
You are seeing a 360° image instead.
Did you try the troubleshooting steps listed for Chrome? They should be the same now that Edge is Chromium-based.
i'm not able to view in 3d in chrome. tried all troubleshooting steps. here is webgl report. What I noticed is, if I restart my computer or update chrome it works for a few hours, and then the next time i try, it doesn't work again. Also i can see the spinning cube. Any ideas? Thank you
Hello,
Google SwiftShader on that report means that Chrome is trying to use your CPU instead of your GPU to render WebGL graphics. We don't support SwiftShader for performance reasons.
If you're seeing that, it almost certainly means that either Use hardware acceleration when available, Override software rendering list, or both need to be enabled.
hi james, both of those options are enabled. still not working.
Could you test in another browser just to check if it works there?
hi james, it works in firefox.
Ok, then it's definitely a WebGL issue in Chrome as expected. Can you make sure Chrome is up-to-date? And maybe search chrome://flags for any other options related to WebGL?
only thing that comes up if i search chrome flags for webgl is this but it is already set to enabled.
WebGL Draft Extensions
Enabling this option allows web applications to access the WebGL Extensions that are still in draft status. – Mac, Windows, Linux, Chrome OS, Android
Es la tarjeta gráfica no compatible con 3d, el concepto es, al actualizarse el w10, se actualiza también la tarjeta gráfica y esa actualización elimina el poder verlo en 3d, dando a entender que la tarjeta es antigua y no soporta el visor 3d, hay que reinstalar los drivers que tenía la tarjeta de fabrica, eso es lo único que me funcionó, pero cuando se actualice el w10 pasará lo mismo. un saludo a todos.
Помогите мне, почему я не могу увеличить или уменьшить масштаб с помощью колесика мыши?Браузер-это chrome.
Webgl is compatible with my browser but sketchfab still giving me 2d images
I'm sorry you're having trouble. Which browser(s) have you tried?
Is there a way to optionally turn on 360 image view?
Sometimes I'm low on data and would prefer to use 360 image view instead of 1 million poly models.
I remember long ago, somehow Sketchfab turned to 360 view when my browser was having issues but now Id like to turn on 360 image view by choice hah.
Hello. Since last week I'm experiencing technical issues with the viewport. I checked my browser (Microsoft Edge) is up to date and it is and its compatibility with both WebGL 1 and WebGL 2. It's all good. Is anything I can try to solve this?
Hi there,
I'm sorry you're having trouble. Are you seeing the "Something went wrong with the 3D viewer" message with the link to this article?
Since Microsoft Edge is based on Chromium now, you should be able to follow the steps above listed for Chrome to see if they help.
My thing wont show
i face this problem in pale moon browser i use this sketchfab site in this site but now i face this issue how can i solve this problem something went wrong with tha 3d viewer i attach screenshot
thanks and regards
Sorry about that. This should be fixed next week!
On Chromium 107.0.5376.0 (selfcompiled) I had to disable "Vulkan" (in chrome://flags) to be able to see 3D model in
https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/cranial-nerve-nuclei-12cdb1b5e4a9424da9d24f523a3a7b98
smoothly.
With Vulkan enabled (which seems to have become default in last weeks) it stuttered and was slow and brought (on standard output of the cmd window from which Chromium was started on my Ubuntu) the messages containing
"GPU stall due to ReadPixels"
Thanks! That's a really helpful clue.
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