[X3D-Ecosystem] Maya, OpenUSD, Material X, and X3D

[Bergstrom, Aaron]

Short answer, no new nodes are needed.

The hard part will be deciding what fields should be added at export time. But actually writing out MLTX and GLSL, Maya and x3d.py pretty much do the heavy lifting.

On Feb 19, 2026, at 5:21 PM, Don Brutzman via X3D-Ecosystem <x3d-ecosystem at web3d.org> wrote:


If I understand correctly, this is primarily an implementation-related endeavor that is not blocked by any missing nodes or design capabilities in the X3D specification.

X3D4 supports glTF Physically Based Rendering and also Shaders (as discussed in this thread) so implementing X3D versions of MaterialX seems directly possible.  Please adjust this understanding if needed.

  *   MaterialX
  *   MaterialX is an open standard for representing rich material and look-development content in computer graphics, enabling its platform-independent description and exchange across applications and renderers.
  *   MaterialX addresses the need for a common, open standard to represent the data values and relationships required to describe the look of a computer graphics model, including shading networks, patterns and texturing, complex nested materials and geometric assignments. To further encourage interchangeable CG look setups, MaterialX also defines a large set of standard shading and processing nodes with a precise mechanism for functional extensibility.
  *   https://materialx.org

Apr 6, 2022: MaterialX Library v1.38.4 has been released. This release adds a Web Viewer<https://academysoftwarefoundation.github.io/MaterialX/> example based on MaterialX JavaScript<https://github.com/AcademySoftwareFoundation/MaterialX/tree/main/javascript>, a graph for the glTF PBR<https://github.com/AcademySoftwareFoundation/MaterialX/blob/v1.38.4/libraries/bxdf/gltf_pbr.mtlx> shading model, new Worley noise nodes, and more. Please see the MaterialX Version 1.38.4 release page<https://github.com/AcademySoftwareFoundation/MaterialX/releases/tag/v1.38.4> on the MaterialX Github for further details.

Presumably such work might start with examples, which are then adapted as re-usable prototypes, and collected in a library.

Possibly another approach vector for such a capability, less arduous for authors: browser builders seeing if they can support loading .mtlx files directly, for example

  *   https://github.com/AcademySoftwareFoundation/MaterialX/blob/main/resources/Materials/Examples/StandardSurface/standard_surface_brass_tiled.mtlx

all the best, Don
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X3D Graphics, Maritime Robotics, Distributed Simulation
Relative Motion Consulting  https://RelativeMotion.info

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