Node disappearing when looking straight at it

[Filikec]

Hello, I am working on a project for uni and I'm trying to display a .glb object in the air. When I look straight in the direction of the node, It starts to disappear, but the animation is shown even on parts where the text is missing (can be seen for a brief moment in the gif). Sometimes it can happen that only the blue particles are shown and the text is not seen at all. Code is below. Any suggestion appreciated.

public class ARMessageScreen extends AppCompatActivity implements
        FragmentOnAttachListener,
        BaseArFragment.OnTapArPlaneListener,
        BaseArFragment.OnSessionConfigurationListener,
        ArFragment.OnViewCreatedListener,
        Scene.OnUpdateListener {

    private ArFragment arFragment; //the ar fragment for the application
    private AnchorNode anchorNode; //the anchor
    private ModelRenderable model; //model of the message that will be shown
    private TransformableNode modelNode;


    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

        //create ar session
        getSupportFragmentManager().addFragmentOnAttachListener(this);
        if (savedInstanceState == null) {
            if (Sceneform.isSupported(this)) {
                getSupportFragmentManager().beginTransaction()
                        .add(R.id.arFragment, ArFragment.class, null)
                        .commit();
            }
        }

        //load the model for message
        loadModels();
    }

    @Override
    public void onAttachFragment(@NonNull FragmentManager fragmentManager, @NonNull Fragment fragment) {
        if (fragment.getId() == R.id.arFragment) {
            arFragment = (ArFragment) fragment;
            arFragment.setOnSessionConfigurationListener(this);
            arFragment.setOnViewCreatedListener(this);
            arFragment.setOnTapArPlaneListener(this);
        }
    }

    // set depth mode
    @Override
    public void onSessionConfiguration(Session session, Config config) {
        if (session.isDepthModeSupported(Config.DepthMode.DISABLED)) {
            config.setDepthMode(Config.DepthMode.DISABLED); // set depth mode to be disabled
        }
        session.configure(config);
    }

    @Override
    public void onViewCreated(ArSceneView arSceneView) {
        arFragment.setOnViewCreatedListener(null);

        // Fine adjust the maximum frame rate
        arSceneView.setFrameRateFactor(SceneView.FrameRate.FULL);

    }

    @Override
    public void onTapPlane(HitResult hitResult, Plane plane, MotionEvent motionEvent) {
        if (model == null) { // if model is not loaded yet
            Toast.makeText(this, "Loading...", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
            return;
        }

        // create coordinates that correspond to the anchor being
        // away from the starting point of the coordinate system
        // created by the phone
        float[] pos = { 0,0,-30};
        float[] rotation = {0,0,0,1};
        Pose pose = new Pose(pos,rotation);

        // Create the Anchor.
        Session session = arFragment.getArSceneView().getSession();
        Anchor anchor = session.createAnchor(pose);
        anchorNode = new AnchorNode(anchor);
        anchorNode.setParent(arFragment.getArSceneView().getScene());

        // Create the transformable model and add it to the anchor.
        modelNode = new TransformableNode(arFragment.getTransformationSystem());
        modelNode.setParent(anchorNode);
        modelNode.setRenderable(this.model)
                .animate(true).start(); // also starts an animation if it is one
        modelNode.select();
        modelNode.setEnabled(true);

        // add on update listener
        arFragment.getArSceneView().getScene().addOnUpdateListener(this);
    }

    @Override
    public void onUpdate(FrameTime frameTime) {
        faceCamera(modelNode);
    }

    // loads the models
    public void loadModels() {
        WeakReference<ARMessageScreen> weakActivity = new WeakReference<>(this);
        ModelRenderable.builder()
                .setSource(this, Uri.parse("girl.glb")) // the uri to the message in assets
                .setIsFilamentGltf(true)
                .setAsyncLoadEnabled(true)
                .build()
                .thenAccept(model -> { // if the load is successful
                    ARMessageScreen activity = weakActivity.get();
                    if (activity != null) {
                        activity.model = model;
                    }
                })
                .exceptionally(throwable -> { // if the load fails
                    Toast.makeText(
                            this, "Unable to load model", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
                    return null;
                });
    }

    private void faceCamera(Node node){
        Vector3 cameraPos = arFragment.getArSceneView().getScene().getCamera().getWorldPosition();
        Vector3 objPos = node.getWorldPosition();
        Vector3 direction = Vector3.subtract(objPos, cameraPos);
        Quaternion lookRotation = Quaternion.lookRotation(direction, Vector3.up());
        node.setLookDirection(direction);
    }
}

[grassydragon]

Hi!
We are experiencing some problems with disappearing objects right now. I will let you know when this problem is fixed.

[grassydragon]

I've found out that this happens with some animated models. Can you try not exporting the animation?
However, it looks like a short distance to the far camera clipping plane. Does the text disappear when you move away from it?

[ThomasGorisse]

@grassydragon It looks like the animated models wrong bounding box issues.

I think we will at the end have to make a choice between disabling object culling mode or bounding box recalculating for each animation frame.

Could you create an issue on the Filament repo to ask them how costly would it be to refresh the bounding box on each animation frame?

[Filikec]

I think this issue happens when the object is further away from the camera. When I set float[] pos = { 0,0,-30}; to be -20 instead, it appears fine. Objects without animations also disappear. Also tried not doing .animate(true).start() but doesn't seem to fix it.

-20 :

-30:

[grassydragon]

You can try changing the distance to the far camera clipping plane here:

sceneform-android/core/src/main/java/com/google/ar/sceneform/Camera.java

Line 105 in 88a7a67

public void setFarClipPlane(float farPlane) {

[Filikec]

Setting the far clip plane seems to solve the issue, thank you.