post originally from Devin Sloan
Hello,
I have found virtually no documentation about how texturing works. As far as I understand you just upload a texture file with your model and it applies it. Is this limited to a single texture channel? Can we do bumps or reflectance? Is there a better way to make things “realistic” than just crushing everything (Lighting, AO, color) into a single file and uploading?
Hi Devin - thank you for reaching out and rummaging around our forums to find this information, our documentation is something that we are actively improving and I’ve noted this lack of info as an item we need to fix. Regarding the actual question at hand, you are correct. We currently only support a single texture channel mapped however the uv’s were set in the modeling program, so the workflow you of baking it into a single texture is the best way of working at the moment.
This isn’t the first time we’ve come across this request, so I’ve passed this along to our team to make sure it’s recorded for future improvements. The channels you requested, are those the ones you would like to have available in this workflow? Any additional insight I’ll pass along to the team 
Those would be good ones. I think I’m using it differently than most, at least based on the promo videos. I’m building at room scale in f360 exporting obj and UVing and adding AO in Cinema 4D. At room scale it works pretty well, as we’re using it to preform an in progress ergonomics and functional analysis of a workshop, except for the lighting being single source outside of the room so the AO is necessary to not just see a giant blob. Arkio is fitting in as a quick and dirty replacement for unreal/twin motion, so any of their functionality as far as surface realism goes would be appreciated. But also if I could manage the lights better I wouldn’t need to do the AO pass. 
woof-yeah that is a bit different than most 
specially the f360 piece! I’m glad that Arkio is working in some manner for this workflow. It’s a bit of the trade off we face with being a modeling tool vs a visualization tool. We need to be able support massive amounts of geometry that can be edited in real time, all the while keeping 90 frames on mobile devices 
Still! We can keep improving the way we handle these types inputs, so I’ve passed this chat along to our team 
Hi Devin, If you are looking for improved lighting in Arkio without having to bake in your lighting you can also consider using the PC VR version of Arkio (in Air link mode if you are using a Quest)
The PC version of Arkio has better rendering capabilities with additional shadow resolution and an AO pass that will help to give more depth to your 3D models. You can also consider adding slight material variations between elements so it’s easier to read the volumes on mobile standalone headsets with more limited rendering capabilities.
Hope this helps and we’d love to hear more about your workflows!
more about my workflow
Sure, so, I am currently using it in 2 similar contexts, first is with client work where I’m helping a friend build out his garage/workshop/youtube studio. I rebuilt the garage fairly accurately at scale then we used arkio in the space itself so that we can see what the finished studio will look and feel like. It’s pretty cool to turn pass through on and off and see the furniture in place. I built it in fusion so that when we have everything squared away I can go straight into building the furniture in the same place, down to the jointery and fasteners, and building blue prints. Arkio is letting us feel out the space as far as how he workflow in the space will work (where to put what machine, how wood will pass through the space), but also how it will look on camera, so determining if things are too big or too small.
What I think would be great features for this sort of thing are:
-being able to set the focal length of the camera tool, selfishly so that I could test how things look on camera in the space, but I also think that would be useful to create more creative photos
-a better snapping function on imported objects, I’d really like to be able to move furniture around the space more accurately, maybe this is just a skill issue on my part though.
My other context is as an industrial design professor (Tec de Monterrey, Monterrey, Mexico) and I’m using it in the classroom with my students. We’re building a mobile computer truck/van in groups of 3 or 4. I basically have the same issues, but in this case I think having a free/really cheap edu license for pro would be great. There’s the 20 minute meeting anxiety, but on the other hand that doesn’t seem to work, as the meeting just rolls over to 20 after it counts down to 0, so idk.
I’d be happy to tell you anything else, or talk on zoom if you have questions, just email me.
Aye! Monterrey is my second home, I visit family there there pretty often and my wife graduated as an architect from Tec. I actually recorded some passthrough shots in La Huasteca not too long ago We actually offer free licenses to our educational partners so I would be happy to connect with you and get this setup for your course work. If you are up for it, wanna grab some time that works with you to keep the chat going?