[x3d-public] X3D working group minutes 10 March 2022: recent news, X3D4.0 and 4.1 Status, #X3DOM progress and plans
Brutzman, Donald (Don) (CIV)
brutzman at nps.edu
Fri Mar 11 14:21:59 PST 2022
Attendees: Manuel Olbrich, Pavel Rojtberg, Anita Havele, Michalis
Kamburelis, Vince Marchetti, Nicholas Polys, Dick Puk, Joe D. Williams, Don
Brutzman. Regrets Holger Graf, Johannes Behr.
* The Extensible 3D (X3D) Working Group coordinates all technical
development efforts. Working groups are essentially driven by the efforts
of participants. They focus on issues and technologies that produce
improvements to our open standards, always achieving results that are
royalty free for any purpose. All efforts are geared towards improving a
coordinated set of steadily evolving ISO standards including X3D Version 4.
* https://www.web3d.org/working-groups
* - - - -
1. Recent news.
a. Lots of interesting discussions are ongoing on x3d-public list.
Last week's meeting minutes also available.
* https://www.web3d.org/community/public-mailing-lists
*
http://web3d.org/pipermail/x3d-public_web3d.org/2022-March/thread.html
* [x3d-public] X3D minutes 3 MAR 2022: announcements, SpotLight
default values, NurbsSweptSurface NurbsSwungSurface found in FreeWrl,
planning X3DOM WebXR
*
http://web3d.org/pipermail/x3d-public_web3d.org/2022-March/016857.html
b. Python package x3d.py now appears to be working satisfactorily via
PyPi. Test reports welcome.
* "The x3d.py Python X3D Package supports programmers with Python
interfaces and objects for standards-based X3D programming, all as open
source."
* https://pypi.org/project/x3d
* https://www.web3d.org/x3d/stylesheets/python/python.html
c. Open Asset Import Library (Assimp) conversion tool lists X3D under
its list of importers.
* https://www.assimp.org
* "The Asset-Importer-Lib (in short assimp) is a library to load and
process geometric scenes from various 3D-Dataformats. It is mostly tailored
at typical game scenarios by supporting a node hierarchy, static or skinned
meshes, materials, bone animations and potential texture data. But also some
3D-printing- and CAD-format are supported."
* https://github.com/assimp
* "The official Open-Asset-Importer-Library Repository. Loads 40+
3D-file-formats into one unified and clean data structure."
* https://github.com/assimp/assimp/blob/master/doc/Fileformats.md
d. X3D Schema updates over past 2 weeks
* https://www.web3d.org/specifications
* https://www.web3d.org/specifications/x3d-schema-changelog.txt
X3D XML Schema update activity over past three weeks:
https://www.web3d.org/specifications/x3d-schema-changelog.txt
8 MAR 2022, brutzman
- (v4.0) Spotlight default value beamWidth = pi * 3 / 16 = 0.589049
- (v4.0) RigidBody is X3DChildNode, Mantis 836
- (v4.0) Add 'on' field to all nodes implementing X3DParticleEmitterNode
- (v4.0) Remove incorrect references to 'children' field in
X3DSoundSourceNode
nodes (AudioClip BufferAudioSource ListenerPointSource MicrophoneSource
MovieTexture OscillatorSource and StreamAudioSource) Mantis 1387
- (v4.0) OscillatorSource frequency default value 440.0
- (v4.0) ViewpointGroup minimum size 0 0 0
* - - - -
2. X3D4.0 and 4.1 Status
X3D 4.0 finalization: continuing.
* X3D4 Architecture (committee draft, finalizing for submission to ISO
this summer)
*
https://www.web3d.org/specifications/X3Dv4Draft/ISO-IEC19775-1v4-CD1/Part01/
Architecture.html
Dick and Don maintaining a Mantis issue resolution rate of about 20
issues/week, typically requiring 6 work-hours preparation and discussion.
Wherever appropriate we are using X3D 4.1 category for deferred issue
deferral, retaining lessons learned to date for potential future
consideration.
Discussion: X3D has multiple areas of extensibility (the X in X3D). Further
the breadth and stability of X3D4 to enable many forms of innovation without
specific changes necessary in the ISO specification.
* Web3D Consortium Mantis Issue Tracker
* https://www.web3d.org/member-only/mantis/view_all_bug_page.php
Current box score for Mantis issues:
* 200 X3D4 resolved (includes all critical functional design
issues)
* 038 X3D4.1 confirmed, deferred
* 177 X3D4 open (primarily editorial) with continuing review
* - - - -
3. X3DOM discussion: very interesting. This was bulk of our 1-hour
meeting. List of topics considered follows.
a. Long-term great value has emerged, not just demonstration but also
innovation and specification.
b. WebVR earlier work: added to X3DOM to facilitate author use with X3D
scenes. Pretty simple for authors to use.
c. Trackers and Devices are being supported by WebXR in Web Browsers in
a cross-platform way
d. WebXR emergence at W3C: can same dynamic emerge with X3DOM?
Implementation is not just in X3DOM level but also part of browser
development, can hardware connections get aligned by WebXR JavaScript APIs.
e. Since X3D sits on top of all that, it seems that little additional
X3D4 specification support appears to be necessary? Good question, worth
further exploration.
f. Khronos glTF sorted out: can load glTF via X3D Inline, or convert
glTF into X3D models
g. Khronos KTX universal textures, someday
h. Khronos glTF humans, probably through X3D Humanoid Animation (HAnim)
conversion
i. Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Tiles specification (originally
Cesium tiles), seems like opportunity for further growth
j. OGC GeoPose also seems like opportunity for correlation with X3D
Geospatial Component
k. Fraunhofer binary-packing nodes for typed arrays supported in X3DOM,
influenced/aligned with glTF, likely some future X3D4.1 specification will
be desirable
l. W3C Web Audio supported in browsers and now integrated in X3D4
What's missing? Are their components or capabilities missing?
* ROUTES and animation works, mixing with HTML event passing and HTML
scripting.
* Prototype support works? Based on recent mailing list reports we
think so, need to check.
* X3D Script node - any plans? Annex L HTML5 guidelines can help sort
this out, it appears achievable. No current activity known.
https://www.web3d.org/specifications/X3Dv4Draft/ISO-IEC19775-1v4-CD1/Part01/
htmlGuidelines.html
* Geospatial component - reported fully supported, we are collecting
examples and hope for review next week. More testing advisable.
* If implemented, future proposed work on a Logger node might
facilitate and help automate in-depth testing and experimentation.
Biggest next-step activity: encourage X3DOM development and usage with
continued usage and demonstration of these excellent capabilities.
Looking across the years, it has been a "virtuous cycle" of experimentation,
development testing, writing papers. It is also a "team sport" to achieve
such progress. no single person (no matter how good) can do it all, we are
learning from each other.
Relationship with X_ITE for consistent implementation. thanks to Holger
Seelig and also Andreas Plesch for such stellar work keeping all these X3D4
capabilities consistently aligned/rendering within HTML pages. Also thanks
to Michalis for steadily implementing in CastleGameEngine view3dscene for
advanced glTF-level rendering and other X3D4 capabilities. Quite a powerful
set of choices for author expression and interactive user visualization.
Homework item: was original gap analysis for X3D4 to properly support WebXR
integration included? There were a few things that maybe we still need in
X3D. We would like to encourage experimentation. interestingly, when new
parameters are added and consider worthy of adoption, they might also be
encoded as metadata. For example,
<Viewpoint description="WebXR test"
interOcularDistance="0.0762">
<MetadataString name="interOcularDistance"
value="0.0762" reference="3 inches equals 0.0762 meters"/>
</Viewpoint>
Michalis described practical drawbacks to this approach - yes maybe on a
single platform, but sharing content might be a different story.
Of course another technique is to create a prototype, e.g. a
"ViewpointWebXR" prototype for portable sharing and testing of content. We
shall see, the door is open to ongoing improvement and evolution, just as it
as been for many years - uh, since 1997!
Onward we go.
* - - - -
Very interesting discussion today, thanks Fraunhofer colleagues for helping
us understand practical paths forward towards possible futures.
Summary: there are many opportunities to use X3DOM and to improve X3DOM.
Thanks to all contributors and users who have gotten us here.
For the record: all information here is public, no proprietary or Web3D
Consortium member-only information is included in these minutes.
Have fun with X3D and X3DOM! 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 https://
faculty.nps.edu/brutzman
From: Brutzman, Donald (Don) (CIV) <brutzman at nps.edu>
Sent: Thursday, March 10, 2022 12:50 PM
To: X3D Public Mailing List (x3d-public at web3d.org) <x3d-public at web3d.org>;
Holger Graf <holger.graf at igd.fraunhofer.de>; Manuel Olbrich
<manuel.olbrich at igd.fraunhofer.de>
Cc: Anita Havele <anita.havele at web3d.org>; npolys <npolys at vt.edu>; Brutzman,
Donald (Don) (CIV) <brutzman at nps.edu>
Subject: X3D working group agenda 10 March 2022: X3DOM progress and plans
Interesting meeting planned this week to discuss progress and plans for
* X3DOM: Instant 3D the HTML way!
* Integrate 3D content seamlessly into your webpage - the scene is
directly written into the HTML markup. No Plugins needed. Simply include a
javascript file. Free for non-commercial and commercial purposes.
* (pronounced X-Freedom)
* https://www.x3dom.org
Lead speakers are Holger Graf and Manuel Olbrich of Fraunhofer IGD.
In addition to the rich set of examples provided on the X3DOM site, please
note that ~4000 examples
Regular Friday meeting Friday 08-0900 pacific, call information follows.
All inputs and participation welcome.
Videoconference Connectivity:
*
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81634670698?pwd=a1VPeU5tN01rc21Oa3hScUlHK0Rxdz09
* https://zoom.us/j/148206572 Password 483805
* https://www.web3d.org/member/teleconference-information
Have fun with X3DOM! 8)
all the best, Don
--
Don Brutzman Naval Postgraduate School, Code USW/Br
<mailto:brutzman at nps.edu> brutzman at nps.edu
Watkins 270, MOVES Institute, Monterey CA 93943-5000 USA +1.831.656.2149
X3D graphics, virtual worlds, Navy robotics https://
faculty.nps.edu/brutzman
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