[x3d-public] announce: Web3D Projects Wish List

[Michalis Kamburelis]

Don Brutzman wrote:
> Motivated individuals with software development skills and Web authoring
> experience are welcome to start, or help develop, any of these candidate
> projects.  Many diverse talents are needed.  There are some serious
> opportunities here!

Great initiative! I can immediately declare that I want to take at least
two tasks:

1. Full-featured Blender exporter to X3D, supporting animations and
other stuff. Current Blender->X3D exporter (bundled with Blender) is
indeed limited to static models, and has various other annoyances/lacks.
For my open-source 3D game engine (Castle Game Engine
http://castle-engine.sourceforge.net/ ), it's a great pity that the most
popular open-source 3D authoring tool (Blender!) doesn't have a good X3D
export...

I tried to tackle it a couple of times, but never found enough time...
Enough:) Let's do this:)

Technical notes:

- Note that this is a task for Python coding. There's no need to modify
Blender "core" in C++ to create a good X3D exporter (Python script is
much easier to approach, and is suggested way by Blender devs).

- I want to submit the exporter (either a new exporter, or as
much-improved existing exporter) to the Blender to make it included in
the Blender releases.

As for X3D importer, I see some effort going on already, see Blender
mailing list "[Bf-python] Got X3D import fixes" recent thread. I did not
have the time to actually check it yet.

Details what features I would like to add (on top of existing
Blender->X3D features):

- Export of transformation (translating / rotating / scaling) animation.
This simply converts to X3D animation using interpolators on Transform
nodes. This should cover all Blender objects: visible shapes, and also
cameras and lights.

- Export of animation export for mesh deformation, so that you can
export "baked" animated characters (from armature animation, from shape
keys animation etc.) This is simply converted to X3D
CoordinateInterpolator that modifies whole
IndexedFace/TriangleSet.Coordinate contents.

- Take into account Blender actions: each separate Blender action
results in a separate TimeSensor node in X3D. Effectively, your X3D file
will contain all your actions, and you can run your chosen action by
activating a similarly-named TimeSensor node in X3D. An option to
auto-run the first action automatically upon opening the X3D file (by
ProximitySensor) will be available.

- Add export of Blender's custom properties to X3D metadata.

- Add export of Blender's Empty objects to X3D Transform node. By
itself, Transform node without any children is useless, but it can be
used by game engine e.g. to interpret it as a placeholder for initial
creatures/items/traps etc. location on the level (together with above
metadata).

- Add multi-texturing export.

- Add export of 3D sound animation.

2. Example scenes. I can offer example scenes for:

- Examples for Multitexture nodes. I already did this on
http://castle-engine.sourceforge.net/x3d_multi_texturing.php , and some
also in http://castle-engine.sourceforge.net/demo_models.php .

Of course, I can extend these examples, to cover more cases. Comments
what tests are missing/wanted are most welcome!

- Texturing3D and Cube map environmental example: we already prepared
various examples of them as part of Castle Game Engine demos, on
http://castle-engine.sourceforge.net/demo_models.php .

See also related Castle Game Engine documentation on
http://castle-engine.sourceforge.net/x3d_implementation_texturing3d.php
,
http://castle-engine.sourceforge.net/x3d_implementation_cubemaptexturing.php
.

- Examples of using shader nodes with GLSL (OpenGL Shading Language).
Again, see Castle Game Engine demos, on
http://castle-engine.sourceforge.net/demo_models.php , and docs on
http://castle-engine.sourceforge.net/x3d_implementation_shaders.php .

3. For some other projects, I can offer help as a tested (and interested
user:) In particular, I would love to see good X3D examples of Particle
systems.

> Web3D Consortium wants to help incentivize these efforts  Candidate
> awards under consideration include:
> 
>     Consortium announcements on web3d.org website and Twitter giving
> credit and announcing availability
>     One year's free Professional Membership in Web3D Consortium
>     Free registration for the next VR Hackathon or Web3D Conference
>     Bragging rights in some kind of Web3D Developers Hall of Fame
>     Web3D members who really want certain results might offer special
> rewards
>     Got questions or ideas?  Please Contact Us.

The rewards of having more exposure, and of free Web3D membership, are
quite cool for me. For a simple indie game developer (without any
university or corporation backing me up) --- these are all wanted rewards:)

Another reward that comes to mind: free (or at least, smaller fee)
entrance for next Web3D conference. It costs quite a lot (again, I'm
looking from my own perspective --- single independent developer
interested in X3D, without any institution behind.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

P.S. Note that I will attend the nearest Web3D 2015 conference in
Greece, so if anyone wants to catch me up in person, please do:)

Regards,
Michalis