Alpha Outdoors' Red-Point: Rock climbing for the masses with .NET MAUI, Evergine, & Azure

A digital climbing companion

Before Red-Point, climbers relied on physical guidebooks—heavy, weather-worn, and often outdated. Red-Point revolutionized this workflow by digitizing entire climbing areas, providing GPS navigation, high-fidelity 3D visualizations, and offline access to ensure safety in remote locations.

The app helps climbers plan, preview, and navigate routes with unprecedented clarity.

使用无人机进行创新数据收集

Over 1,200 climbing areas have already been mapped and published within Red-Point. Each begins as a set of high-resolution 3D scans created by drones. These flights capture thousands of overlapping photos that are processed into detailed photogrammetric models.

This workflow enables accurate topographical reconstructions and allows climbers to explore rock faces virtually before they even leave the ground.

Red-Point data ingestion pipeline

• 3D Scanning: Drones, LiDAR devices, and iPhones capture detailed surface imagery.
• Data Processing: The imagery is processed into precise 3D meshes and textures.
• Integration with the App: .NET MAUI and Evergine seamlessly render and display the 3D models within the Red-Point mobile experience.

This end-to-end workflow ensures climbers receive accurate, high-quality data directly inside the app.

技术选择和使用情况

Early prototypes used mixed technologies, but the team quickly converged on a fully managed .NET stack powered by Evergine by Plain Concepts for real-time 3D rendering.

Key technology components:

• .NET MAUI - Provides the app's native UI, data management, and offline sync.
• Evergine - Delivers a powerful 3D engine tightly integrated with .NET.
• Azure - Manages authentication, content delivery, and global cloud storage.

The synergy between .NET MAUI and Evergine enables Red-Point to offer a fast, fluid, and visually rich experience unmatched by typical cross-platform solutions.

Deep integration with Evergine by Plain Concepts

Red-Point leverages Evergine's deep .NET integration to achieve native-grade 3D performance inside .NET MAUI. Unlike traditional hybrid engines, Evergine runs directly on the .NET runtime, sharing assemblies, data models, and asynchronous logic between the UI and the 3D engine.

Through this architecture, Red-Point can:

• Dynamically load and unload GLB assets to optimize memory usage.
• Stream real-time climbing route data from local and cloud sources.
• Overlay interactive 3D labels, paths, and analytics directly on the scene.
• Reuse shared services (for example, Azure Blob clients, FireStore sync, and telemetry) without bridging code.

This tight coupling of .NET MAUI and Evergine simplifies development, improves maintainability, and produces a buttery-smooth experience on both iOS and Android. Evergine's performance and rendering quality have proven exceptional, delivering high frame rates even on complex models with multiple materials and dynamic lighting.

As Matthew Robbins notes, "Evergine has transformed how we think about 3D in .NET apps — it feels native, looks stunning, and performs flawlessly on mobile."

Benefits of .NET MAUI + Evergine

The combination of .NET MAUI and Evergine enabled Alpha Outdoors to achieve the following:

• Unified Development Model: A single C# codebase drives UI and 3D logic across platforms.
• High Performance 3D: Evergine renders detailed scenes efficiently, with hardware acceleration and GPU instancing.
• Asynchronous Workflows: MAUI tasks and Evergine render loops operate in parallel, keeping the UI responsive.
• Efficient Caching & Compression: Red-Point employs GZip compression and in-memory texture reuse to minimize load times.
• Polished User Experience: Smooth gestures, fast camera controls, and low-latency input create a professional feel on mobile hardware.

使用 .NET 和 Azure 进行缩放

.NET MAUI and Evergine together provided the foundation for a responsive, high-performance application capable of real-time 3D visualization and data synchronization. Azure ensures global scalability through geo-distributed blob storage and authentication services, allowing Red-Point to serve thousands of climbers worldwide with low latency and high reliability.

成功里程碑:

• Rapid growth: After launch, Red-Point grew from 200 to 10,000 users within weeks — driven by social media and word-of-mouth enthusiasm.
• App Store momentum: Quickly reached top ranks on the iOS App Store in its category.
• Technical validation: Evergine's robust performance on mobile devices validated its role as a world-class 3D engine for the .NET ecosystem.