Real-Time Collaboration: Figma for 3D
Real-time collaboration is table-stakes for 2D design. Figma made the wait acceptable. 3D is a decade behind — but the same pattern applies. Yugma's collab feature ships the Figma model for 3D scenes, plus AI in the room.
# What ships today
- Multi-cursor presence. See up to 8 collaborator cursors moving in 3D space.
- Comments anchored to objects. Drop a pin on a chair; teammate sees it; resolves it. Pin stays anchored even if the object moves.
- Live edits. Move an object; teammate sees it move in real-time.
- AI in the chat. Any collaborator can prompt the AI Director. Everyone sees the resulting changes.
- Share links. Read-only orbit-and-comment. Editable for invited members.
# The Figma analogy
What it borrows:
- Browser-native. No install. URL is the file.
- Multi-cursor live editing. Real-time presence and updates.
- Comments. Resolved/unresolved threading.
- Share via URL. Read-only and editable variants.
What it adds:
- AI as a participant. Prompt the AI in the chat, the result is a state mutation everyone sees.
- 3D-specific primitives. Cameras, lights, materials, scene graph.
# The architecture
Powered by Firebase Realtime Database for low-latency state sync. Object changes are deltas; cursor positions throttled to 20Hz so we don't saturate the connection. Comments anchored to scene-graph IDs (not screen positions) so they survive layout changes.
Conflict resolution is last-write-wins per object. Collisions are rare in practice — most editing is "you do the chairs, I'll do the lighting".
# Limits
- Up to 8 active editors. Beyond that, performance degrades. Read-only viewers scale higher.
- No branching/merging. Unlike git. Conflicts resolve in real-time, not via merge.
- No offline edits. Yugma's web-app PWA works offline for solo editing; collab requires connection.
# Why this matters for AI
Collab + AI in one room is unique. Spline collab is non-AI. Vectary collab is non-AI. Tripo / Meshy don't have collab.
Use cases this unlocks:
- Designer + client live session. Designer drives; client comments and asks the AI for variants in real time.
- Two designers iterating. One on layout, one on materials, AI bridging.
- Designer + developer hand-off. Designer composes; developer takes over to extend in code; both see the same scene.
# What's next
- Branching / save-snapshot collab modes for higher-stakes work.
- Audio + video built into the scene for client review sessions.
- Async commenting with email notifications.
Read the realtime-collab feature page → Read the "Figma for 3D" editorial →