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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D">FYI:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D">X3D is used inside Samsung’s GearVR.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D">I’m part of the X3D development team for GearVR.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D">It’s still a work in progress but you can render X3D scenes and animations plus interactivity with the TouchSensor.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D">Mitch<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">From:</span></b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"> x3d-public [mailto:x3d-public-bounces@web3d.org]
<b>On Behalf Of </b>David Murphy<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Friday, October 7, 2016 7:07 AM<br>
<b>To:</b> Leonard Daly <Leonard.Daly@realism.com><br>
<b>Cc:</b> X3D Public <x3d-public@web3d.org>; X3D WG <x3d@web3d.org><br>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: [x3d-public] Purpose of X3D<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">hi Leonard,<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">with the resurgence of interest in VR (mainly since the introduction of the Oculus Rift), I too have wondered about the place of X3D in this quickly evolving space.<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">For VR developers the choices seem to be, to either use games engines, with sophisticated graphics capabilities, etc. (e.g. UE4 and Unity), or scene graph languages (X3D, Java3D, O3D, OSG, etc.).<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">WebGL gives us access to the host GPU, which is a fabulous addition to our technology stack. However, it is not a ‘friendly' development language (not easily scalable, reusable, and not as accessible to non-programmers). Hence, declarative
libraries such as three.js, babylon.js, etc. ( <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_WebGL_frameworks">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_WebGL_frameworks</a> ) have emerged to address those shortcomings.<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Then we have Mozilla's A Frame, which is a web-first entity-component-system framework for three.js. Designed to work with WebVR, which integrates VR hardware and systems.<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">So, I hope to see X3D evolve to work with WebGL (let’s dispense with the need for these scene graph libraries) and WebVR (access to hardware and systems).<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">I have never viewed X3D as a file format, for me it has always been a scene description language with additional features.<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">X3D is a standard and must interoperate with other standards, e.g. glTF, COLLADA, mpeg. <o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">The capabilities of X3D (extensibility + features) and the declarative nature of the language are what makes X3D attractive to develop in (and teach in my case).<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">The guarrentee of a standardised version, and interoperability with other standards are what makes X3D viable.<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">my 2 cents …<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">cheers<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">rgds Dave<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt"><span style="color:black">__________________________<br>
David Murphy<br>
<br>
Department of Computer Science<br>
Room 1.77<br>
Western Gateway Building<br>
University College Cork<br>
Ireland<br>
<br>
<br>
e: <a href="mailto:d.murphy@cs.ucc.ie">d.murphy@cs.ucc.ie</a><br>
map: <a href="http://bit.ly/WGB_UCC">http://bit.ly/WGB_UCC</a><br>
w: <a href="http://multimedia.ucc.ie">http://multimedia.ucc.ie</a><br>
w: <a href="http://www.imclab.ucc.ie">http://www.imclab.ucc.ie</a><br>
w: <a href="http://www.cs.ucc.ie/staff/dmurphy.html">http://www.cs.ucc.ie/staff/dmurphy.html</a><br>
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<p class="MsoNormal">On 6 Oct 2016, at 18:21, Leonard Daly <<a href="mailto:Leonard.Daly@realism.com">Leonard.Daly@realism.com</a>> wrote:<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto">I have been struggling with this topic for several months -- what is the purpose of X3D in the electronic ecosystem of the 21st century. The Consortium says that "X3D is a royalty-free
open standards file format and run-time architecture to represent and communicate 3D scenes and objects using XML" [<a href="http://www.web3d.org/x3d/what-x3d">http://www.web3d.org/x3d/what-x3d</a>]. As an ISO standard, X3D needs to have a long shelf-life,
contain 3D models, animation, and interactivity; and communicate this within and between systems using XML. To do this effectively, it needs to stay current with industry practices while maintaining an ability to communicate information from the past.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto">There is no question about X3D's handling of old data. To my knowledge there is no other 3D system that can display models, animation, and interaction from 15+ years ago. In the
Internet age where half-life appears to be around 18 months, that is a remarkable achievement.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto">X3D has not kept up with current practices in modeling, animation, rendering, or interaction. Work on the most recent update to X3D (V3.3 - 2013) started back in 2009 and the document
was mostly completed in 2010. The most advanced feature is 3D volume rendering. Work on particle systems and physics is several years before that. The standard for animation of any model is with bones and rigs - whether that model is a character, a tree, or
a machine. All current renders use shaders (code that runs on a graphics card) to create highly realistic (or fantastic) surface appearance. Work on upgrading interaction to support mobile devices (including multi-touch), head-mounted-displays including game
controllers, paddles, LEAP interfaces, and other specialized devices is just beginning.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto">So back to my question -- what is X3D for? In 20 years time will the only content for X3D be 35 years old? Current content not created explicitly for X3D won't work because X3D
does not support much more than static modeling.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto">I have collected several choices. These are described below in more or less least to most complex (aka work). There are a lot of other options, more towards bottom of the list.
If you have other contributions, please feel free to state so along with what you think it would take to get there from X3D V3.3.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"> 1) X3D is for static models only (no texture). This is a very good match. There are just a few things that X3D doesn't handle and most of those are having to deal with interchange
with other formats.<br>
2) X3D is for static models + appearance. X3D needs to expand to make full use of appearance shaders of all sorts.<br>
3) X3D is for models including animation. X3D needs to expand to include at least the current practice of skeletal structure plus rigging (attaching surface weights to various joints). This is not H-Anim, but broader as it includes models that are not even
at all human, human-like, animals, or even "living".<br>
4) X3D is for runtime display. X3D needs to include all major 3D formats. It needs to run AND use interface mechanisms of all major platform types, including phones/tablets, HMDs, desktops, etc. It needs to run in a browser: it needs to run as an app.<br>
5) X3D is everything. Well, think about that for a moment. That means all of the above need to be done. It also needs to be widely adopted, and this needs to be completed in the next 12-18 months. It would probably take a team of 20-50 people working on a
specification, implementations, conversion, integration applications, marketing, etc. to accomplish this. Advocates for this choice need to have a reality check.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto">Given that we have maybe 7 part time people (right now) where does X3D go?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">-- <o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:13.5pt;color:#333366">Leonard Daly</span></b><span style="color:#333366"><br>
3D Systems & Cloud Consultant<br>
LA ACM SIGGRAPH Chair<br>
President, Daly Realism - <i>Creating the Future</i> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">_______________________________________________<br>
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<a href="mailto:x3d-public@web3d.org">x3d-public@web3d.org</a><br>
<a href="http://web3d.org/mailman/listinfo/x3d-public_web3d.org">http://web3d.org/mailman/listinfo/x3d-public_web3d.org</a><o:p></o:p></p>
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