[Bug]: require()'d 3D models (.glb) fail to load on Android Release builds #4433

Mapbox Version

11.33.0 (default)

React Native Version

0.84.1

Platform

Android

@rnmapbox/maps version

main (8642d97), 10.3.16

Standalone component to reproduce

import React from 'react';
import {
  MapView,
  Camera,
  LocationPuck,
  Models,
  ModelLayer,
  ShapeSource,
} from '@rnmapbox/maps';

const center = [-71.1, 42.34];
const car = require('./assets/sportcar.glb');

export default function BugReportExample() {
  return (
    <MapView style={{ flex: 1 }}>
      <Camera centerCoordinate={center} zoomLevel={18} pitch={50} />
      <LocationPuck model={{ uri: car, scale: [40, 40, 40] }} />
      <Models models={{ car }} />
      <ShapeSource id="src" shape={{ type: 'Point', coordinates: center }}>
        <ModelLayer id="layer" style={{ modelId: 'car', modelScale: [10, 10, 10] }} />
      </ShapeSource>
    </MapView>
  );
}

Any .glb works; the example app's example/src/assets/sportcar.glb was used (glb is already in the example's Metro assetExts). The Location Puck 3D and Simple Model Layer examples show the same thing in a Release build.

Observed behavior and steps to reproduce

1. Build the app in Release (./gradlew assembleRelease) and run it on an Android device/emulator (tested on an Android 14 arm64 emulator).
2. The 3D model never appears, neither for LocationPuck nor for ModelLayer. Logcat shows:

E/Mapbox  (30250): [maps-core]: Unknown model file type: src_assets_sportcar

In a Debug build served by Metro both render fine. Using an asset:// URL also works in Release (copy the file to android/app/src/main/assets/ and pass uri: 'asset://sportcar.glb' / models={{ car: 'asset://sportcar.glb' }}), which is the workaround for now.

Expected behavior

A model given with require(...) renders in Release just like in Debug.

Notes / preliminary analysis

In Release, React Native bundles non-image assets into res/raw, and Image.resolveAssetSource on Android returns only the resource name (src_assets_sportcar, no scheme, no extension). Both RNMBXNativeUserLocation.makeLocationPuck3D and RNMBXModels hand that string to Mapbox unchanged, and Mapbox can neither read raw resources nor guess the model format without an extension.

iOS should not be affected: there resolveAssetSource returns a file:// URL into the app bundle that keeps the .glb extension.

Additional links and references

Found while testing #4432.