Every picture on this page was rendered by Heimdall3D from the original file.
Windows Explorer, upgraded for 3D
Every 3D model and HDR image in the folder draws its own thumbnail the same way. HDR images keep their floating point range, with exposure controls and the pixel value under the pointer. Nothing in the file is changed by looking at it.
Rendered by Heimdall3D
Its own renderer
Heimdall3D renders the file itself through Vulkan, on the GPU in the machine. Materials, textures, skinning, shadows, environment lighting and tone mapping are all its own. NVIDIA, AMD and Intel all work, and it ships as one binary.
The renderer runs in a separate process. Explorer keeps running if it crashes, and the thumbnail then comes from a CPU render.
Light
An HDR environment map gives the model its light, colour and reflections. Up to three point lights can be added, each with a colour or Kelvin temperature and a size that sets its shadow's softness. Gobos, volumetric beams, one bounce of indirect light and light through coloured glass are on the same panel.
Thumbnails
A 350,000-triangle model renders in about 1.2 seconds on the test system, then comes from cache. Motion capture files show the mannequin in a representative pose. HDR, EXR and DDS files show their pixel size in the file list.
Formats
Models: glTF, GLB, VRM, FBX, OBJ, PLY, COLLADA, 3DS, 3MF, STL.
Motion capture: BVH, and the animation inside FBX and glTF.
Images: Radiance HDR and PIC, OpenEXR, PFM, DDS, KTX2 and Basis, TIFF.
A model format is listed only when its materials, textures, skeleton and animation load with it. COLLADA opens in bind pose today; its animation is next. PNG, JPEG, WebP and TGA decode inside a model and are left to Explorer as files, because Explorer draws those itself.
Download Heimdall3D 1.0.15
Heimdall3D 1.0.15 runs on Windows 10 and 11.
The free version has thumbnails, the preview pane, the viewer window and every format. It needs no account or key, has no watermark and does not expire.
A licence is one payment of €49 including VAT and covers the 1.x line with updates. It adds four exports: saving an image, copying a frame to the clipboard, rendering a sprite sheet and recording a turntable or animation clip. The export controls stay visible in the free version and say that they need a licence. What the price covers.
Download the Installer, 152 MB Download the ZIP, 170 MB
Installer or ZIP
Use the installer. It registers the thumbnail and preview handlers, removes any previous version, and on uninstall restores the handler another program had registered. The ZIP holds the same files and leaves registration to you.
Verify the download
Compare the SHA-256 before running the file.
Heimdall3D-1.0.15-setup.exe · 152 MB
610b6f628b54d55075fca41b50052f2f174e49dfd1bbae25bc6f6c7e39c9c24a
Heimdall3D-1.0.15.zip · 170 MB
7e245ced6352dc8180f6f1add9ea3e47a2af40e6c468c3f0ecb0be58e3b3e2a6
In PowerShell:
Get-FileHash <file> -Algorithm SHA256
Do not run the file if the result differs.
Report a file that renders incorrectly
Send the file. It shows exactly where the renderer is wrong. A screenshot and what you expected to see are usually enough.
If the file is under an NDA, name the format, what it contains, and how the result differs from the application where it displays correctly.
gpu-info.cmd in the installation folder prints your graphics card and the
features Heimdall3D can use on it. Include the output if convenient.
Files too large for the form go by email: quark@heimdall3d.com.
Heimdall3D on the Microsoft Store
The Store build is the same Heimdall3D for Windows Explorer. It installs and updates itself. The price page explains the two channels.
Credits
Every picture on this page is a render of somebody else's model. Three are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution, where the credit is a condition of use.
- “Stained Glass Lamp” © 2021 Wayfair (Eric Chadwick), CC BY 4.0.
- “Anisotropy Barn Lamp” © 2023 Wayfair, LLC (Eric Chadwick), CC BY 4.0.
- “Mosquito In Amber” © 2018 Loic Norgeot / Sketchfab, real-time refraction © 2019 Sketchfab, CC BY 4.0.
The rest are CC0: the brass goblets and the bronze whale by Tina, the gothic cabinet and both chandeliers by Kirill Sannikov, and the brass vase by Rico Cilliers, all from Poly Haven. The sci-fi helmet and the teacup are Khronos glTF Sample Assets. The light in every render is a Poly Haven HDRI. The floors are from Poly Haven and ambientCG. The mannequin is Quaternius's Universal Animation Library 2. The toolbar glyphs are Tabler Icons, MIT. Full credits.
The mailing list
One message goes out when a new build is released. Nothing else is sent, and the address is not shared.
Every message has an unsubscribe link. One press removes the address.
Questions
Why do my 3D models show as blank icons in Windows Explorer?
Windows has no built-in thumbnail support for most 3D formats. Microsoft's 3D Viewer covered a few and has been removed from new installations. Heimdall3D adds a thumbnail handler that renders glTF, GLB, VRM, FBX, OBJ, PLY, COLLADA, 3DS, 3MF, STL and BVH files directly, so the file list shows the model instead of a generic page icon. It uses its own renderer and does not depend on any Microsoft component.
Can Windows Explorer preview EXR and HDR files?
Not on its own. With Heimdall3D installed, EXR, Radiance HDR, PIC, PFM, DDS, KTX2, Basis and TIFF files get real thumbnails and open in the Explorer preview pane with exposure control in EV stops, tone-mapping options, gamma and channel isolation. The image is decoded in floating point, so raising the exposure recovers detail rather than stretching an already flattened picture.
Can I rotate a model in the Explorer preview pane?
Yes. The preview pane is an interactive viewer, not a still. You can orbit the camera, zoom, change the environment map and the floor, and play any animation the file carries.
Will installing it break the thumbnails another program already provides?
No. Where a file type already has a thumbnail handler from another application, the previous one is recorded before ours is registered and put back when Heimdall3D is uninstalled. A repeat install or an upgrade does not overwrite that record with our own handler, which is the case most likely to lose it.
If the pane says a file could harm your computer
The message comes from Windows. It marks every file you download, and it will not run any preview handler on a marked file. The thumbnail still renders and double-clicking still opens the file; only the preview pane is refused. To clear it on one file, right-click it, choose Properties, and tick Unblock. To clear a whole folder, run this in PowerShell: Get-ChildItem "C:\path\to\folder" -Recurse | Unblock-File. Most models downloaded from an asset site arrive marked.
Why does a .gltf file with separate textures not open in the preview pane?
Windows gives a preview handler the contents of the selected file and never tells it where the file lives, so nothing stored beside it can be found. A .gltf that keeps its geometry in a .bin file, or its textures as separate images, therefore cannot be assembled inside the pane. Use .glb, which carries everything in one file, or double-click to open the model in the viewer window, which has the path and no such limit.