[x3d-public] X3D working group minutes: scheduling, conference quicklook, specification work planning, X3D4 finalization

[Don Brutzman]

Meeting minutes for Friday November 20, 0800-0900 Pacific.

Attendees: Anita Havele, Vince Marchetti, Dick Puk, Don Brutzman.

Participation details:

[0.1] Web3D Teleconference Information
        https://www.web3d.org/member/teleconference-information

> Please use the following link for all Web3D Consortium Meetings.
>
> Join URL: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81634670698?pwd=a1VPeU5tN01rc21Oa3hScUlHK0Rxdz09

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0. Scheduling

a. Reschedule weekly meeting: we will move our weekly X3D call back one hour, 09-1000 Friday weekly.

b. No formal call next week, Friday 27 November.

c. X3D4 ballot text: we hope to have pristine ballot text on Friday 11 December submitted.  The ballot will presented to Board of Directors.  Once released to Web3D Consortium members, a 30-day ballot period is planned.

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1. Web3D 2020 Conference quicklook

Lots and Lots of great work is online!  Videos continue to be added.

[1.0] Web3D 2020 Conference
       https://web3D.siggraph.org

[1.1] Web3D 2021 Conference
       https://web3d.siggraph.org/about/web3d-2021-conference

[1.2] Web3D Conference TODO
       https://web3D.siggraph.org/TODO

ACM Digital Library paper & poster resources remain available free for another 2 weeks

[1.3] ACM Digital Library, Web3D Conference
       https://dl.acm.org/conference/web3d

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2. Specification work planning review

Dick and Don did this regular review yesterday.  Everything continues to converge nicely.

[2.0] X3D Specification Relationships
       https://www.web3d.org/specifications/X3dSpecificationRelationships.png

 From a specification structure perspective, it makes best sense to keep X3D JSON as a file encoding, than trying to fit JSON into the ECMAScript language binding.

We think that performing editorial work for each of the following can be done in one single effort:

- 19776-1 X3D XML Encoding
- 19776-2 X3D ClassicVRML Encoding
- 19776-5 X3D JSON Encoding

We also had a good discussion on similarities/differences for working on the following together:

- 19776-3 X3D Compressed Binary Encoding
- 19776-4 X3D Efficient Binary Encoding

We then looked at language bindings:

- 19775-2 SAI Abstract Reference is pretty mature, add some services for X3D4 and (a bit bigger) generalization of standalone operation.

- 19777-1 X3D ECMAScript
- 19777-2 X3D Java
- 19777-3 X3D C
- 19777-4 X3D C++
- 19777-5 X3D C#
- 19777-6 X3D Python

Each will require some work but appears straightforward.  (Andreas, we likely will need your help as co-editor on ECMAScript).  We are further assisted by autogeneration of the listing-all-nodes annexes, which is already accomplished and will only need some updates.

So, once X3D4 Architecture is prepared for balloting and undergoing several months of review, we will first do a work estimate for all 12 of the related specifications.

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3. X3D4 finalization

a. Prose in Lighting and Shape components
b. Lighting values greater than 1, should we explain?
c. outlining then drafting Annex M, HTML5 Integration Guidelines
d. XSLT cleanup to remove all editorial markup and create pristine votable CD text

and...

e. Field naming reconciliation for similar/identical fields with different names
    https://www.web3d.org/x3d/content/examples/X3dSceneAuthoringHints.html#fieldNameChanges

Tradeoff: whether streamlining and consistency outweighs backwards symmetry.  This is not a functional compatibility issue, rather where is the burden placed.  Some work is always needed to create an X3D4 player, some understanding is always needed for authors who want to use X3D3 models with X3D4.

Perhaps related: do we need to create a set of guidelines for X3D4 support of X3D3 loading (or X3D3 browser upgrade to X3D4 support)?  We are hoping this will be minimalist or nonexistent (for example, X3D3 models cannot load X3D4 models).

Good topic for mailing list - any opinions out there?

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We wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!  8)

all the best, Don
-- 
Don Brutzman  Naval Postgraduate School, Code USW/Br       brutzman at nps.edu
Watkins 270,  MOVES Institute, Monterey CA 93943-5000 USA   +1.831.656.2149
X3D graphics, virtual worlds, navy robotics http://faculty.nps.edu/brutzman