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Microsoft Is Shutting Down Its 3D Asset Platform, Remix 3D

Microsoft Is Shutting Down Its 3D Asset Platform, Remix 3D

Microsoft is getting rid of its answer to Sketchfab and Google Poly early next year.

Remix 3D, the company’s online hub for storing 3D assets, will be ‘retiring’ on January 10, 2020. A message at the top of the site’s page confirms as much. In an FAQ, the company instead suggests users turn to its OneDrive platform as the “ideal platform for sharing your 3D models.” Microsoft hopes to “streamline our offerings in this space” with this move.

“Once the Remix3D.com site is no longer available, Microsoft will delete all user-generated 3D models and associated metadata from its systems,” the FAQ reads, “and users will no longer be able download it or request a copy of it from Microsoft.”

Microsoft launched Remix 3D as part of a Windows 10 update back in 2017. The platform allows users to store their own 3D assets online and have others download them via Paint 3D. The platform even featured a basic form of integration with Microsoft’s ‘Mixed Reality’ offerings. It let you project them into the real world using a camera connected to your PC.

Crucially, you could also take saved files and open them in Microsoft’s 3D Viewer app for its HoloLens augmented reality headset.

Microsoft encourages anyone still using Remix 3D to download models before the service closes. Uploads to the platform will come to a close on August 7, 2019.

There are, however, other 3D content libraries available online. Google’s Poly features creations made inside its Tilt Brush and Blocks VR software and Sketchfab features millions of creations viewable in VR and AR. Platforms like these will likely play an important role in the rise of spatial computing in the years to come. How Microsoft moves forward without its own take remains to be seen.

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