[x3d-public] Castle Game Engine 7.0-alpha.1 release, view3dscene 4.0.0 release

[Michalis Kamburelis]

Hi,

Recently we made a big Castle Game Engine (7.0-alpha.1) and
view3dscene (4.0.0) releases.

- You can get the latest Castle Game Engine from
https://castle-engine.io/ . It's a game engine, with visual editor,
cross-platform (desktop, mobile, console), 3D and 2D, supporting many
asset formats (glTF, X3D, Spine...). Underneath the scene management
is all done using X3D nodes.

- You can get view3dscene from
https://castle-engine.io/view3dscene.php . Based on Castle Game
Engine, view3dcene is a viewer for all 3D and 2D model formats
supported by CGE, including glTF, X3D, VRML, Spine, Wavefront OBJ, STL
and more.

The details about the new features are on
https://castle-engine.io/wp/2021/02/06/castle-game-engine-7-0-alpha-1-release-view3dscene-4-0-0-release/
. The short summary, tuned for people interested in X3D, is:

- Advanced support of the glTF 2.0 format, with PBR (Physically-Based
Rendering) and animations:
https://castle-engine.io/creating_data_model_formats.php#section_gltf

- Ability to convert glTF 2.0 to X3D nodes (using X3D 4.0 with some extensions)

- Various X3D 4.0 features support, in particular things related to
PBR and various materials and appearance upgrades in X3D 4.0

- Gamma Correction (configurable through "View->Gamma Correction" menu
item in view3dscene):
https://castle-engine.io/manual_gamma_correction.php

- Mirrors on flat objects:
https://castle-engine.io/x3d_extensions_mirror_plane.php

- Dynamic batching (faster rendering)

- Animations panel (test animations, with cross-fading, simultaneous animations)

The new version number 4.0.0 of view3dscene may seem suspiciously
matching the submission of X3D 4.0 last week. This is really a
coincidence :), I didn't plan to make view3dscene 4.0.0 almost at the
same moment when X3D 4.0 is submitted to ISO. In any case, it's a
happy coincidence -- it's great to see many good things are happening
with X3D.

Regards to everyone, and have fun playing with Castle Game Engine and
view3dscene!

Michalis