Glossary
21 terms, each with a one-sentence definition you can quote and a plain explanation of why it matters when you sell configurable products.
A 3D product configurator lets a shopper change a product’s options — colour, material, size, parts — on an interactive 3D model and see the result and price instantly.
A 3D product viewer is an interactive, rotatable 3D model embedded on a product page so shoppers can spin, zoom and inspect a product from every angle.
WebAR is augmented reality that runs in a phone’s web browser, so a shopper can place a product in their real space from a product page without installing an app.
AR Quick Look is Apple’s built-in augmented-reality viewer on iPhone and iPad that opens a USDZ model from Safari and places it in the room — no app required.
Scene Viewer is Google’s built-in 3D and AR viewer on Android that opens a glTF/GLB model from the browser and places it in the room using ARCore.
glTF is the open standard file format for 3D models on the web; GLB is its single-file binary form, bundling geometry, materials and textures for fast loading.
USDZ is Apple’s packaged 3D file format, based on Pixar’s Universal Scene Description, used by AR Quick Look to show a model in augmented reality on iPhone and iPad.
Draco is an open-source compression library from Google that shrinks 3D geometry (meshes and point clouds) so glTF/GLB models download several times faster.
KTX2 is a container for GPU-compressed textures (Basis Universal) that stay compressed in graphics memory, cutting the memory a 3D scene needs by a large multiple.
PBR (physically based rendering) materials describe a surface by real-world properties — base colour, roughness, metalness, normal detail — so it looks correct under any lighting.
LiDAR placement uses the depth scanner on Pro iPhones and iPads to place an AR product almost instantly; guided placement, on other phones, finds the floor from camera motion in a few seconds.
WebGL is the browser API that renders hardware-accelerated 3D graphics inside a web page, and is what makes 3D product viewers and configurators possible without plug-ins.
WebXR is the web standard that lets a browser access AR and VR hardware — cameras, sensors, headsets — so immersive experiences can run from a URL.
Visual commerce is selling through interactive product experiences — 3D viewers, configurators and augmented reality — instead of static photos, so buyers can explore, customise and place a product before purchase.
Variant mapping links each option in a 3D configurator to the matching variant or SKU in the store, so the cart, price and stock reflect exactly what the shopper configured.
Hotspots are clickable markers pinned to points on a 3D model that reveal notes, images or videos — used to explain materials, joinery, features and care on the product itself.
Progressive loading shows a lightweight poster image of the product first and streams the interactive 3D scene behind it, so the page paints instantly and the model appears when ready.
Lite mode is an adaptive setting where a 3D viewer serves reduced-resolution textures and trims extras on low-memory devices so the experience stays smooth instead of crashing.
A plugin installs 3D and AR into a commerce platform with no code; an embed is a lightweight snippet for any site; an SDK and API give developers full control on custom storefronts.
A 3D room visualizer lets a shopper place a brand’s real products in a 3D room at true scale, dress the room around them, and view the composed result from any angle or in AR.
A Shop the Look page is a brand-hosted 3D room page where shoppers open rooms the brand styled, change the products in them, and buy the pieces they keep.
