[x3d-public] Non-Hand Coding of X3D

[Leonard Daly]

John,

Just to address a few of your points.

I don't see the functionality currently available with PROTOs and 
Scripts going away. I see it increasing because HTML Scripts can easily 
add nodes to the DOM. There have been several discussions on the topic 
of PROTOs. I see a proto-expander or MACRO as being a great addition to 
V4. It is also possible to easily provide that sort of service via an 
HTML Script or new custom-implemented node. If the new node is a 
collection of existing nodes (say Yves pyramid node), then the 
supporting code to create and parse that node is very easy to write in 
X3DOM.

I can see a shared library of useful nodes that sites on top of X3D and 
is available to the user as either nodes or HTML scripts.

I would like to see X3D accept a wide variety of data formats, even if 
some translation/conversion needs to occur. Using InstantReality it is 
possible to go from X3D, OBJ, FBX and perhaps others to SRC. SRC is a 
good format for injestion because it moves quickly to WebGL. X3D is to 
remain ISO standardized. No other 3D format and run-time can state that.

Animation is a current problem. The SRC does not hold animations. The 
only widely used format that does combined with model data is FBX. That 
is something that needs to be developed, but there are several things 
that need to come first.


Leonard Daly





> You make good points Leonard.  How would you differentiate V4 from 
> Collada in that case?    My understanding is that X3D provides for 
> declarative app development. This is one reason we are moving towards 
> the web, to open X3D up to more app developers.  What is important for 
> declarative app development?  Protos, Templates, Web Components and 
> associated scripts, essentially *shared behavior*.  If you have a 
> virtual world, you might certainly have exactly one of everything. 
>  However, it’s easier to instantiate Protos or Templates, I think.   
> The trick is to only mention the creation a few times (once) with 
> templates or web components, and let the environment expand it into 
> multiple instances through templated transforms and parameterization. 
>  I don’t want to see 400 ProtoInstances of cylinders in code, unless 
> it’s generated (HTML).  X3D *should* be associated with a data format 
> for pure data, like D3.js has several, and transforming pure data into 
> 3D.  I know I have different requirements, but I think X3D V4 should 
> be designed for scaling things up—not only shapes and transforms, but 
> coordinates and polygons as well (SRC). Is any other format in 
> position to provide for such scaling without killing memory or 
> diskspace?  Models are certainly moving towards SRC. If you are 
> concerned about animation, what’s the best way to provide for 
> animation coming from these tools?   We have your proposed nodes.  Are 
> these sufficient?   Should we start looking more at creating exporters 
> for animation beyond just models?  What animation exporters to X3D are 
> already out there?
>
> John
>
>> On Feb 24, 2016, at 7:55 PM, Leonard Daly <Leonard.Daly at realism.com 
>> <mailto:Leonard.Daly at realism.com>> wrote:
>>
>> There seems to be some confusion about my statements about not 
>> hand-coding certain things.
>>
>> I have stated that models and animations are not hand-coded anymore. 
>> That statement does not mean it can't be done, but there are many 
>> tools that do it, including open-source ones. There is no way someone 
>> is going to hand-code models such as you can see at 
>> http://www.blendswap.com/blends/index. Hand coding models to be 
>> printed is also not a good idea because things will probably not line 
>> up correctly.
>>
>> Animation is the same thing. Yes you can animate by hand-coding all 
>> of the motions and deformations, but that is not how it is done. If 
>> X3D is to get any acceptance into the professional marketplace it 
>> MUST work with application generated models and animations. There 
>> will still be some important animations that are hand coded (e.g., 
>> camera motions, automated systems, etc.).
>>
>> Nothing I have done in working out the V4 proposal precludes 
>> hand-coding of animation or modeling. It does not provide a lot of 
>> convenience features/nodes to make complex work simple. In the 
>> marketplace, it is much simpler to get someone to do the model or 
>> animation in a tool.
>>
>>
>> -- 
>> *Leonard Daly*
>> 3D Systems & Cloud Consultant
>> X3D Co-Chair on Sabbatical
>> LA ACM SIGGRAPH Chair
>> President, Daly Realism - /Creating the Future/
>> _______________________________________________
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>


-- 
*Leonard Daly*
3D Systems & Cloud Consultant
X3D Co-Chair on Sabbatical
LA ACM SIGGRAPH Chair
President, Daly Realism - /Creating the Future/
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