An AssetContainer can be used to manage a list of assets (like nodes, cameras, lights, meshes, etc..). This assets are still linked to a scene but are not taken in account. Consider asset containers like pool of entities.

Creating an AssetContainer

It can be created manually

var container = new BABYLON.AssetContainer(scene);

Or by loading from a file. See loading from files

Adding or removing assets to the scene

The container can then be used to add or remove contents of the container from the scene.

// Add all objects in the asset container to the scene
container.addAllToScene()

// Remove all objects in the container from the scene
container.removeAllFromScene()

Demo -

This can be used to add/remove all objects in a scene without the need to exit WebVR. Demo -

When creating assets manually the moveAllFromScene method can be used to move all assets currently in a scene into an AssetContainer and remove them from the scene for later use.

var keepAssets = new BABYLON.KeepAssets();
keepAssets.cameras.push(camera);
container.moveAllFromScene(keepAssets);

Demo -

Duplicating the models

Asset containers can also be used as "templates" to duplicate models without reloading them.

To do so, you only need to call:

let entries = container.instantiateModelsToScene();

The return entries object will contain:

• rootNodes: A list of all the root nodes created by the duplication process
• skeletons: A list of all the skeletons created by the duplication process
• animationGroups: A list of all the animation groups created by the duplication process

Demo -

You can also set two parameters to the call to instantiateModelsToScene:

• nameFunction: This will let you decide what will be the name of the cloned entities (instead of "Clone of...")
• cloneMaterials: By default materials are not cloned but shared. With this parameter you can force the system to also clone the materials

var entries = container.instantiateModelsToScene(name => "p" + name, true);