glTF 2.0 versions of commonly used graphics research scenes, with conversion metadata and documented limitations.

A preview of selected glTF scenes included in the repository.

Many well-known research scenes are distributed in renderer-specific formats such as PBRT. Those formats are useful for offline renderers, but less convenient to use in real-time engines, and web experiments.

This repository provides glTF 2.0 adaptations of those scenes so they are easier to inspect, load, and reuse. The glTF outputs are close approximations of the original scenes.

Each scene includes glTF assets and metadata describing how the conversion was done. PBRT scenes were converted with Python scripts, then manually checked against the original files and reference renders.

glTF scenes are validated in GitHub Actions with the Khronos glTF Validator.

PBRT scenes include two generated glTF variants:

• *_core.gltf: standard glTF 2.0 material model, for easier loading in engines.
• *_extended.gltf: a richer material mapping using supported glTF extensions.

For basic importer and engine testing, use the core version. And use the extended version for richer material representation.

Classroom 2 is supplied as a single classroom2.glb, with its textures and camera embedded.

Download the latest release if you only need the packaged .glb files.

Clone the repository for the full asset set: sources, .gltf files, textures, metadata, and licenses.

Each scene's reference image is a Blender 5.3 Cycles render of its extended glTF, saved in the scene's gltf/ folder. Render settings are recorded in the reference_render section of each conversion.yaml. With them, you can reproduce the render in Blender and compare your own renderer's output against the reference.

Cornell Caustic is the exception: its reference is a PBRT v4 render using photon mapping (SPPM), because Cycles could not reproduce its caustics.

Scene	Reference	License	Notes
breakfast-room		CC-BY-3.0	Textured interior with metallic fixtures, environment map data, and a directional light
bathroom		CC0-1.0	Large bathroom interior with glass, alpha masking, and emissive mesh lighting
bathroom2		CC-BY-3.0	Bathroom interior with textured coated wood, rough glass, mirrors, and emissive mesh lighting
bmw-m6		CC0-1.0	Vehicle scene with clearcoat paint, dielectric glass, aluminum metals, coated conductors, and environment map data
classroom		CC-BY-3.0	Classroom interior with textured wood, clearcoat materials, metals, environment map data, and a directional light
classroom2		CC0-1.0	Blender Classroom by Christophe Seux, supplied as one GLB with embedded textures and camera
coffee-maker		CC-BY-3.0	Compact appliance scene with coated plastics, glass, metal, and emissive mesh lighting
cornell-box		CC0-1.0	Small diffuse box scene with emissive mesh lighting
cornell-caustic		CC0-1.0	Cornell Box caustics scene with dielectric water and emissive mesh lighting
crown		CC-BY-3.0	Austrian Imperial Crown with gold conductors, gemstones with dispersion, height map baked into geometry, and emissive mesh lighting
dragon		CC-BY-3.0	Dense dragon model scene with diffuse materials and a directional light
glass-of-water		CC0-1.0	Transparent glass, water, ice, and emissive mesh lighting test
house		CC0-1.0	Large Victorian house with glass, environment map data, and a directional light
kitchen		CC-BY-3.0	Detailed kitchen with textures, glass, metals, and emissive mesh lighting
lamp		CC0-1.0	Desk lamp with coated plastic, metals, bulb glass, emissive mesh lighting, and a directional light
living-room		CC-BY-3.0	Textured interior with leaf cutouts, mirrors, glass, and environment map data
living-room-2		CC-BY-3.0	White living room interior with textured props, clearcoat materials, glass, and emissive mesh lighting
material-testball		CC0-1.0	Compact material ball with baked checkerboard and environment map data
modern-hall		CC-BY-3.0	Modern hallway interior with textured surfaces, volumetric glass, and disk emissive mesh lighting
pontiac-gto		CC0-1.0; environment map CC-BY-3.0	Vehicle scene with clearcoat car paint, glass, chrome, and environment map data
spaceship		CC0-1.0	Sci-fi model with metals, glass, emissive mesh lighting, and environment map data
staircase		CC-BY-3.0	Wooden staircase interior with portrait camera and emissive mesh lighting
teapot		CC0-1.0	Teapot with baked checkerboard and environment map data
teapot-full		CC0-1.0	Teapot and liquid scene with volume, medium settings, and environment map data
veach-ajar		CC0-1.0	Veach lighting scene with transformed meshes, glass, and emissive mesh lighting
veach-bidir		CC0-1.0	Small bidirectional-lighting scene with emissive mesh lighting
veach-mis		CC0-1.0	Compact MIS scene with tessellated emissive mesh lighting
vintage-car		CC0-1.0	Vehicle scene with clearcoat car paint, glass, chrome, rough steel, and environment map data

Some PBRT scene features are outside the current conversion scope because glTF cannot represent them directly and a practical approximation is not always available. B-spline curves used for fur, hair, or carpet fibers are the main example: converting them to triangle meshes can make the generated assets too large, so scenes that depend on them are not currently included.

The included scenes were selected because their important geometry, materials, textures, lighting, cameras, and render settings can be represented in glTF or approximated with supported glTF features. PBRT-only details are recorded in glTF extras and conversion.yaml.

PBRT distant lights are included as KHR_lights_punctual directional lights in the extended glTF files. PBRT area lights are converted to emissive mesh geometry using the source emitter shape and size, which better matches how path tracing engines model finite-area emitters. glTF has no environment light, so PBRT image-based infinite lights are exported as separate HDR files beside the glTF. Light intensities use the same relative units as emissive strength; when importing into Blender, choose the Unitless lighting mode to keep that balance.

Each PBRT scene's gltf/ directory contains:

• scenes/<scene-id>/gltf/<scene_id>_core.gltf
• scenes/<scene-id>/gltf/<scene_id>_extended.gltf
• scenes/<scene-id>/gltf/<scene_id>.bin
• scenes/<scene-id>/gltf/conversion.yaml
• scenes/<scene-id>/gltf/<scene_id>_environment.hdr and <scene_id>_environment_LICENSE.txt, for scenes with their own image environment map

The conversion.yaml report may include:

• source files and license
• generated outputs
• geometry statistics
• material mapping
• light mapping
• render presets
• unsupported and approximated features

• Benedikt Bitterli Rendering Resources is the main source for most scenes in this repository. Thanks to Benedikt Bitterli for collecting and publishing the resources behind many of these conversions.
• mmp/pbrt-v4-scenes is another source for some of the PBRT v4 scenes used in this repository.
• glTF 2.0 Specification: target asset format for the core outputs.
• Khronos glTF Extension Registry: reference for optional glTF extensions used by richer outputs.
• PBRT v4 File Format: source format reference for PBRT scene parsing.
• Physically Based Rendering: From Theory to Implementation, 4th Edition: rendering reference for PBRT concepts and behavior.

Contributions are welcome. Before starting a pull request, please open an issue so we can discuss the scope and the planned changes first. Issues are also the place to report problems with a scene, such as materials, lighting, or geometry issues.

More scenes will be added gradually. Each conversion takes time, because I check its materials and rendering manually against the original scene to keep it as accurate as possible.

Project-authored docs and metadata are MIT licensed.

Third-party scene assets keep their original licenses. Converted glTF assets are derivative scene assets and retain the source scene license unless a scene-specific note says otherwise.