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

[John Carlson]

One more word from me.  I morph spheres and indexed face sets in my vertex
shaders.   Will MaterialX or some Maya export allow me to morph these?  I
have some cosines and sines in my shader.  I realize glTF interactivity is
probably focused on providing this.   I realize that FVRML and FX3D
provided this.   I realize I can call JavaScript sin() and cos()—it’s way
too slow.  All i real need is something that produces parametric waves,
hopefully with me being able tweak that with math, especially in spherical
coordinates.   I *really* want this to run in a shader, and ultimately, be
able to raytrace the surface, at compiled or GPU speeds.  I am starting to
look into TSL (Three.js Shading Language) as a solution.   Surely we could
port TSL to SAI?  Is it time for a TypeScript SAI that does shading on a
GPU?

https://youtu.be/73quCt_NQMA?si=U5k3jSXNRCumF8Y_

https://github.com/mrdoob/three.js/wiki/Three.js-Shading-Language


And yes, I want to run this on the www!

Python folks, check this out:

https://github.com/dedoardo/pysl


Wondering!

John

On Thu, Feb 19, 2026 at 5:15 PM Don Brutzman <don.brutzman at gmail.com> 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
> --
> X3D Graphics, Maritime Robotics, Distributed Simulation
> Relative Motion Consulting  https://RelativeMotion.info
>
>>
>>
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