[X3D-Public] Fwd: Re: [X3D] X3D HTML5 meeting discussions:Declarative 3D interest group at W3C

[Chris Marrin]

On Jan 4, 2011, at 6:26 PM, Len Bullard wrote:

> Maybe.  On the other hand, there are over fifteen years of experience cross
> product to at least a few thousand 3D engine developers conversant in all of
> the code architectures represented frequently or occasionally here.  
> 
> You have the experience to outline what the most used and least used
> features are of current 3D on the web in ALL incarnations.   There is a huge
> body of 3D on the web systems of different authorities out there.  Surely by
> now there is general agreement on the general sets.   Instead of the 'code a
> little test a lot and wait' approach, something broader should be spec'd for
> the feature goals.  I think you can do it now.
> 
> Perhaps instead of taking baby steps, this is the time for giant steps. 

Take a giant step and you may fall off a cliff. Please understand that I'm not saying all the capabilities and lessons learned over the last 15 years aren't important. I'm saying that in my experience attempting to integrate into existing browsers requires small additions that extend the existing functionality. Anything else will (and has) get bogged down in endless debate and will go nowhere.

I understand there are participants here that have a vested interest in existing systems: X3D, X3DOM, XML3D, and maybe others. I believe this XG (if it ever gets started) has to start with a clean slate and slowly build up with existing ideas and new thoughts, until it is just enough to be useful.

We have tons of ideas on where to go next with WebGL. We left out many good ideas in the interest of finishing and shipping multiple compatible implementations. That has been a successful idea so far. We can work on new ideas next. But WebGL 1.0 had to be demonstrable on multiple browsers. I think the same goes here.

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~Chris
chris at marrin.com