Thus far in the course, we’ve seen how to drape 2D data over a 3D globe, but we haven’t really taken advantage of the 3D environment yet. Web scenes are basically the 3D analog to web maps, in which the scene features have a Z component.
Web scenes can be either global, for situations where the earth’s spherical nature comes into play, or local, where it does not. Global scenes are displayed in the Web Mercator coordinate system, whereas local scenes can be displayed in a local, planar coordinate system.
This documentation page on globes and local scenes shows earthquakes in an example of a global scene. And this visualization of building floors provides an example of a local scene.
As with web maps, web scenes are published and discoverable through ArcGIS Online or through local implementations of ArcGIS Portal. This search will provide a list of scenes owned by Esri’s 3D team, including models of many world cities.
Have a look at the Load a basic web scene sample in the documentation.
Note that the only difference from the jen_and_barry_3d app you created earlier is in the use of the WebScene class in place of the WebMap class.