[x3d-public] X3D minutes 25 June 2020: SIGGRAPH and Web3D conference dates, Mantis issue review, many opportunities

Don Brutzman brutzman at nps.edu
Fri Jun 26 10:16:10 PDT 2020 

Attendees: Michalis Kamburelis, Doug Sanden, Vince Marchetti, Dick Puk, Don Brutzman

Confirmed: no member-only info is present in these minutes.

We meet at our regular time and Zoom coordinates, Friday 08-0930 pacific (your time zone may vary).

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1. *Participation Information*

[1] Web3D Teleconference Information
     https://www.web3d.org/member/teleconference-information

Please use the following link for all Web3D Consortium Meetings.

Join URL: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81634670698?pwd=a1VPeU5tN01rc21Oa3hScUlHK0Rxdz09

Meeting ID: 81634670698      Meeting Password: 483805

One tap mobile
     US (New York) +1 929 205 6099,,(nine-digit number from Join URL above)#
     US (San Jose)  +1 669 900 6833,,(nine-digit number from Join URL above)#

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Agenda items:

2. Planning

a. Conference dates announced, SIGGRAPH
https://s2020.siggraph.org/conference
"Beginning 17 August, on-demand content will be available. This will allow exploration, learning, and the opportunity for participants to review presentations in advance of interactive sessions with contributors beginning 24 August. Additionally, 24–28 August will include other various “can’t miss” scheduled sessions. For the convenience of participants, on-demand content will continue to be available for viewing through 27 October."

b. Web3D 2020 CFP announced.
    http://2020.web3dconference.org
    https://www.siggraph.org/the-25th-international-web3d-conference-call-for-papers-and-posters/

Important Dates:

July 27: Deadline for authors’ submission of papers (manuscripts for review, not just abstracts) to EasyChair; with no extensions. The paper review process starts immediately
Aug 17: Reviews and rankings due from reviewers; Chairs make initial decision on acceptance, rejection, or returning to author for modification and resubmission. Authors not yet informed of decisions
Sept 7: Final decision on acceptance/rejection of papers and posters, with notification of authors.
Sept 21: Deadline for authors of accepted papers and posters to submit final ‘camera-ready’ manuscripts.

c. 15 July Web3D Member Meeting, is being planned by Anita.  Demonstrations welcome, briefings are planned by each working group chair.

d. Revised timeline to X3D4 Draft publication: expected release 15 July.  Dick and I will plan to brief it.

e. Opportunities for engagement and contribution are many, we will include them each week in the minutes.

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3. Michalis Kamburelis will be presenting Friday July 3.  We hope to review and accept Pull Request 8 next week to integrate Physically Based Rendering (PBR) and lighting with glTF support.  We will recording this zoom session.

[3.0] [WIP] PBR and other lighting and material upgrades #8
       https://github.com/Web3DConsortium/X3D/pull/8

This will be an important session, with key parts recorded via Zoom.  Implementers interested in X3D4 are always welcome guests.

FYSA, Castle Game Engine has an impressive set of recent announcements which illustrate these important rendering capabilities.

[3.1] Gamma Correction and Tone Mapping, 20 JUN 2020
       https://castle-engine.io/wp/2020/06/20/gamma-correction-and-tone-mapping

[3.2] Easy property to make animation blending, 19 JUN 2020
       https://castle-engine.io/wp/2020/06/19/easy-property-to-make-animation-blending

[3.3] Reading punctual lights from glTF, 11 JUN 2020
       https://castle-engine.io/wp/2020/06/11/reading-punctual-lights-from-gltf

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4. MultiTouch remains a topic of interest.

Need specification prose including node signature, example scene, multiple implementations.

Original capabilities need to be matched by a second implementation prior to specification approval.

Possible MultiTouch example:  children's picture puzzle.  Select and drag pieces into place, double-select (i.e. double-touch) and rotate to snap into place.

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5. Mantis issue discussion

a. Particle component

======================================================================
[5.1] Mantis 1307, X3DParticleEmitterNode mass and surfaceArea accessType initializeOnly rather than inputOutput?
       https://www.web3d.org/member-only/mantis/view.php?id=1307

	Wondering why X3DParticleEmitterNode mass and surfaceArea have accessType initializeOnly rather than inputOutput?

Way back when first defined, there was likely concern about computational complexity if changed at run time.

However these values would still seem to be variables in direct use at run time. So being able to modify them would seem to have no computational overhead and might provide interesting animation effects.

Applies to ConeEmitter, ExplosionEmitter, PointEmitter, PolylineEmitter, SurfaceEmitter, VolumeEmitter nodes.
======================================================================

This is an important visualization technique for fluids, flows, fluxes etc.

No harm seen in changing these fields. Allowing run-time modification seems reasonable. Whether an existing implementation complies is a separate matter.

Accept this as proposed change to X3D4.  If anyone has a different opinion, reasons against doing this are welcome.

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b. Navigation issues review, discussion

[5.2] Mantis 1310: near, far clipping planes indirectly specified by NavigationInfo, consider addition to X3DViewpointNode
       https://www.web3d.org/member-only/mantis/view.php?id=1310

======================================================================
[5.3] Mantis 1264: NavigationInfo type TURNTABLE HELICOPTER GAME FREEFLY
       https://www.web3d.org/member-only/mantis/view.php?id=1264

* X3DOM Documentation: Navigation
   https://doc.x3dom.org/tutorials/animationInteraction/navigation/index.html

* X3DOM Turntable Mode Example
   https://www.x3dom.org/x3dom/example/x3dom_turntable.html

Note that this mode has a "typeParams" field to pass parameters. This is a concern.

Since type is customizable by browsers, including such a field ("modeParameters" perhaps) might be a good way to encourage continued innovation, experimentation and extensibility of navigation modes.

* [in out] MFFloat modeParameters []

We should extract and generalize parameters when they are applicable to multiple/most navigation types. Must be careful to coexist and not get side effects with existing modes. For example:

* [in out] SFBool rollable TRUE

* [in out] SFFloat minTiltAngle -pi [-pi, pi]
* [in out] SFFloat maxTiltAngle pi [-pi, pi]

* [in out] SFFloat minRollAngle -pi [-pi, pi]
* [in out] SFFloat maxRollAngle pi [-pi, pi]
======================================================================

c. Screen size

======================================================================
[5.4] Mantis 1268: allow height and width attributes for X3D scene?
       https://www.web3d.org/member-only/mantis/view.php?id=1268#bugnotes

Use case is that an author wants a scene to be a certain size or aspect ratio.

Related issue is whether initial screen size or aspect ratio is modifiable or not.

Authors can control this using HTML parameters, if the X3D scene is included in an HTML page.

Many browsers have command-line parameters that allow authors to control screen size and/or title bar. Example use case: kiosk mode for "museum" display.

TODO: compare existing approach in X3D Layout Component. Perhaps a solution is already available in the X3D specification?

* 36.4.1 Layout
   https://www.web3d.org/documents/specifications/19775-1/V3.3/Part01/components/layout.html#Layout

TODO: screen units? Layout shows how this can be defined.

TODO: check SVG specification for comparison.

Example:

* http://doc.instantreality.org/documentation/nodetype/LocalWindow
======================================================================

6. Next week:
- review C++ SAI proposal update, particularly timeline
- PR8 review, PBR and SAI

Future topics:
- examine correspondences, gaps between HAnim and glTF skeleton.
- buffered geometry and subsetting of glTF models.
- Updating status spreadsheet of implementations
   https://www.web3d.org/specifications/X3dNodeInventoryComparison.pdf
   https://www.web3d.org/specifications/X3dNodeInventoryComparison.xslx
- Blender export updates
- X3DOM implementation of X3D Prototypes
- X3D Security Considerations as part of X3D4 Specification

Thanks for many many contributions from many many directions.  Have fun with X3D! 8)

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

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