Support full colour 3D models on Wikimedia projects (Community Wishlist/W326)

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Description

The current issues surrounding Sketchfab show how important a non-commercial platform for sharing and visualising textured 3D models would be. Tens of thousands of 3D models under free licences are under threat, and in a petition to Sketchfab it is said that "this is the virtual equivalent of burning the Library of Alexandria".

Another development makes this format so interesting. Nowadays, creating textured 3D models with a smartphone is not much more effort than shooting a foto or a video.

The glTF (Graphics Library Transmission Format) file format is an open standard for textured three-dimensional scenes and models (ISO/IEC 12113:2022).

During the Wikimedia Hackathon 2024, work has already been carried out to support this format WIP 1026883 .

The community has already developed functional prototypes on which further work could build (Prototype Wiki Site).

Assigned focus area

Media formats, editing, and display

Type of wish

Feature request

Tags

Multimedia and Commons

Affected users

All users who want to contribute and view textured 3D models.

Phabricator tasks

T187844, T246901

Other details

• Created: 18:11, 7 November 2024
• Last updated: 19:40, 2 October 2025
• Author: OpenDEM (talk)

Voting

This wish currently has 2 supporters. Voting for this wish is open until it is completed.

Supporters of this wish

Support Pppery (talk) 15:50, 10 October 2025

Support Beyond the public value of having a repository for these models, I imagine many project articles would be enhanced by them. I could see a Wikibook showing the steps of building a table with models illustrating each step in detail, or a Wikipedia page for an ancient sculpture that lets you see every detail from every angle. Eiim (talk) 13:51, 5 November 2025