The hosted 8th Wall platform was retired Feb 28, 2026. Existing published experiences continue to run until Feb 28, 2027. View Migration Guide View Announcements

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The primary way of using the 8th Wall desktop app is with Studio projects, which use 8th Wall's scene graph format (src/.expanse.json) and ECS framework.

Projects that aren't considered Studio projects (projects built with A-Frame, Three.js, etc) can still utilize the 8th Wall desktop app for specific features such as asset management, image targets, and the simulator, by opening in a separate Non-Studio mode. Non-Studio mode does not include a 3D scene editor.

Minimum Requirements

  1. The folder contains a package.json file.
  2. npm run serve starts a local build server.
  • For preview to work, the --port argument, or the PORT environment variable, should be honored, e.g. PORT=8888 npm run serve should host the content on http://localhost:8888.
    • If the command starts with node, the command will be invoked through the desktop app's internal node executable. Otherwise, node/npm are required.

AR Simulator + Device Connect

  1. dev8.js is loaded for development builds.

You can add dev8.js to your project's index.html <head> with:

<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/@8thwall/ecs@3/dev8/dev8.js"></script>

Warning: Note that this script should not be included in production builds. This sample configuration shows one way to achieve this, though it might vary depending on your configuration.

Image Targets

  1. Image Targets are stored in the image-targets/ folder (not inside src/), with no subfolders.

File Browser (optional)

  1. Source code is in the src folder.
  2. Non-text assets (e.g. images, models) are contained in in src/assets/.

Publishing

  1. npm run build generates a production build in the dist folder.

Questions?

Please open a discussion or issue on Github.