Known loading issue on Chromebooks with a PowerVR GPU

There is a known issue preventing Chromebooks with a particular brand of GPU from loading 3D models from the BioDigital Human. If you are having trouble loading our 3D models on your Chromebook, we recommend checking to see if your computer uses the affected GPU.

What is a GPU?

A GPU, or Graphics Processing Unit, is a processor designed to render or display video, 2D images, and 3D models or animations. Every computer and mobile device has a GPU. Although some are more powerful than others, GPUs are generally designed to handle intensive 3D-graphics rendering tasks, such as those required by the BioDigital Human's 3D models. However, hardware (such as your GPU) and software (such as your operating system) do not always play nicely together, and that is the root of the issue in this case. 

What is the issue?

It has come to our attention that there is a glitch in some versions of Chrome OS that is preventing our 3D models from loading properly. If your Chromebook contains a PowerVR GPU – which is common on Lenovo Chromebooks – and is running a version of Chrome OS later than version 75, it is likely that our 3D models will not load on your computer due to this software bug.

Please note that this bug impacts the loading of our 3D models both within the BioDigital Human web app and outside the app, such as embedded into a website or online course.

How can I find out if my Chromebook is affected?

To find out whether your Chromebook is affected:

1. Enter chrome://gpu into the address bar at the top of your Chrome browser, and press Enter / Return. This will load your computer's GPU report, which should look something like this:
2. Scroll down the page and look for the following pieces of information:
   • In the Problems Detected section, look for an entry that says, "Context loss recovery often fails on PowerVR on CrOS."
     • 
   • In the Driver Information table farther down the page, look for a row that says GL_RENDERER, and see if the GPU listed starts with "PowerVR."
     • 

If you see both of the clues above in your GPU report, your Chromebook has been impacted.

If you confirm that you have a PowerVR GPU but do not see the "Context loss recovery often fails on PowerVR on CrOS" error listed, it's possible that you are not using an affected version of Chrome OS (75-84). To confirm which version of Chrome OS your Chromebook is currently running, follow the instructions in this article.

If my Chromebook is affected, what can I do about it?

Unfortunately, this bug can only be fixed by Google. Fortunately, the issue has already been reported to Google's Chromium team, so we are hopeful that they will address it in a future Chrome OS update and will continue to watch for updates.

In the meantime, we recommend accessing our 3D models on another device. See below for specific instructions depending on where you are trying to access our models.

See this article for the minimum system requirements for our embeddable Human Viewer and web app.