[x3d-public] [x3dom-developers] ElevationGrid for the modern age; MultiTexture examples

[Don Brutzman]

Michalis, thanks for offering the wonderful set of examples!  8)

I continue to work through the establishment of X3D v3.4 DOCTYPE, Schema and corresponding tool support following our big Web3D Korea Chapter meeting in Seoul last week.  Hopefully done in another week.

When possible, I look forward to adding your examples to the X3D Basic Archives. Since you have a diverse and pretty large set of examples, it seems appropriate to create a new directory:
http://www.web3d.org/x3d/content/examples/Basic/MultiTexture

As with last week's H-Anim hands & feet examples, the usual approach is to:
- adjust filenames to match the archive file-naming convention (needed to autogenerate catalogs).
- check in source "as is" so we have a complete historical diff record of any changes.
- take small steps to canonicalize (c14n), add meta tags, check/fix any validation issues.
- when appropriate apply conventions and practices in the X3D Scene Authoring Hints.

Having an excellent set of examples available will no doubt take us a long way towards interoperability and fixing any specification ambiguities/problems.  Again thanks in advance.


On 1/31/2015 4:14 PM, Michalis Kamburelis wrote:
>> If you or others have a good example scene or two that can be released as
>> part of the Web3D Consortium's open-source example archives, that would be
>> an important step towards encouraging support.  Probably would land in the
>> Basic archives somewhere.
>
> My testcases on
> http://castle-engine.sourceforge.net/x3d_multi_texturing.php were
> specifically released as public domain (including data, i.e. images
> and movies inside) in the hopes of getting included in official X3D
> example/testcase archive :) Please do use them.
>
> It is *very* good to know that the issue is still on the roadmap of
> next X3D version, thanks :) The lack of any actual change in the X3D
> spec, after I reported the problems of multi-texturing a couple of
> times, on the mailing list and as spec comments, and prepared test
> cases... well, it was discouraging, to be honest. It is also made me
> unsure about joining the consortium --- as I wanted to see first that
> anyone can contribute useful improvements to the X3D spec, not just
> people that officially joined the consortium (and signed some papers
> and paid some fee).
>
> Maybe I gave up too quickly:) Thanks for the good words,
> Michalis

Of course we hope you join.  I certainly wouldn't be a member if it was controlled and not open.  I hope the voluntary nature of the specification and implementation activity helps to explain why things can take a long time, then suddenly proceed.

When people ask "how long will it take to finish X3D v3.4 and X3D v4.0?" the flippant answer is "as long as you want!"  We're not done until we meet all of the requirements associated with any achieved goals:  specification description, 2 independent interoperable implementations with at least one open source, and examples.  Sorry if that seems too slow or mysterious at times, we can only do our best.  Accomplishing the best achievable results takes time and collaborative cooperation.

I think it is significant that you look at the X3D track record, all the way back through VRML (over 20 years activity now) and we keep going forward steadily.  So the process works.  It is driven by volunteer effort (some provided by companies), it is rigorous thanks to International Standards Organization (ISO) review, it is Royalty Free (RF) for any use by policy requirements that are prerequisites prior to consideration, and it is protected by members making up the non-profit Web3D Consortium.

Alternative opinions always welcome, that's how we learn.

Hope this helps.  Looking forward to further progress together.

all the best, Don
-- 
Don Brutzman  Naval Postgraduate School, Code USW/Br       brutzman at nps.edu
Watkins 270,  MOVES Institute, Monterey CA 93943-5000 USA   +1.831.656.2149
X3D graphics, virtual worlds, navy robotics http://faculty.nps.edu/brutzman