GLTFLoader.loadAsync unclear error should clearly state file not found

[pedzed]

GLTFLoader.loadAsync unclear error should clearly state file not found

[gkjohnson]

Unexpected token '<', "<!doctype "... is not valid JSON

If you're getting this error then it means your server is providing some kind of default HTML for the request and likely not returning an error code the way it should.

[Mugen87]

TBH, I don't think throwing an error with the message Something went wrong upon loading model '${filePath}'. Does it exist? is not an improvement. An error might occur for multiple reasons and listing possible root causes is not necessarily helpful and can confuse devs. To me, the existing error is actually accurate since it clearly shows that something with the response isn't right (it is not JSON). The reason for an invalid response that can be manifold, it does not has to be a wrong path.

[donmccurdy]

I can't seem to find anything in Vite's configuration to have it return an HTTP 404 for a missing file like /not-a-real-folder/scene.glb, it always seems to return index.html (if it exists) with an HTTP 200. That's unfortunate, and would be good feedback for Vite in my opinion. That said, I do think Vite is still the best tool to recommend in the introduction.

Another option is to put models in the src/ folder and let Vite handle resolving the source path and moving it to the build folder. This also allows using Vite plugins to optimize the 3D files. But this approach is more specialized to Vite, and may not work in other bundlers, so I'm not sure we should advise it in the introduction at this time.

[pedzed]

I am using Vite and running my dev server through npm run dev, nothing out of the ordinary.

Since Vite is suggested in the docs, I think it's a good to make sure that error messages are not as vague as this.