[x3d-public] Feature comparison of glTF and X3D as Interchange Formats

[Michalis Kamburelis]

2017-09-20 16:14 GMT+02:00 Leonard Daly <Leonard.Daly at realism.com>:
> In response to a request, I wrote an article comparing features of glTF to
> X3D Interchange Profile. Most of the comparisons include links to illustrate
> the capabilities. The article is online at
> http://realism.com/blog/gltf-x3d-comparison. It includes comparison to
> features and capabilities of both and a few items showing the extent of
> support in other packages.

Thank you. That is very informative.

The only thing I would complain is that some readers may not realize
that this is only talking about X3D in Interchange profile. Some
features ("Quad surface model", "Mesh skin", "Custom Shaders", "Joint
animation") are actually available in X3D, just not in the
"Interchange" profile. I know, you mention this in the footnotes --
I'm just afraid that some readers will not read the footnotes, and
think "oh, X3D doesn't support this-and-that while glTF does". Just
like not all X3D browsers implement the additional components beyond
Interchange, but also not all glTF readers implement all features of
glTF format, so the *practical* difference between these two formats
is more even in my experience.

P.S. "Custom shaders" in glTF: work is in progress on
https://github.com/KhronosGroup/glTF/tree/master/extensions/Khronos/KHR_technique_webgl
. Indeed, this is not finished (and it's an extension, not part of
"core" format spec).

Regards,
Michalis