X3D/HTML Implementations

Summary

This page reviews each of the X3D/HTML implementations, with respect to the X3D V3.3 standard ISO/IEC 19775-1:2015, the X3D version 4.0 Development strategy, as well as the X3D V4 HTML Integration Requirements. The aim of this review is to identify any features that may need to be added, or possibly deleted from, the upcoming suite of X3D V4.0 standards.

---

X3DOM

Reference: x3dom.org

X3D Tag Attributes

The first four are attributes of the X3D tag

• 'showLog'
• 'showStat'
• 'showProgress'
• 'PrimitiveQuality'

These twelve are attributes of any PARAM child element of the X3D tag. See this old documentation. The additional comments below were supplied by Andreas.

• 'components'
• 'loadpath'
• 'disableDoubleClick' - expected to work, double click otherwise recentres
• 'backend'
• 'altImg'
• 'flashrenderer' - flash is not supported anymore
• 'swfpath' - flash is not supported anymore
• 'runtimeEnabled' - disables x3dom runtime interface, not sure if disabling works
• 'keysEnabled' - disables keys, probably works
• 'showTouchpoints' - for mobile, likely works, is useful
• 'disableTouch'
• 'maxActiveDownloads' - x3dom has a download manager for resources

Javascript functions

• “getAttribute” / “setAttribute” - standard DOM calls, using strings for the value
• “getFieldValue” / “setFieldValue” - operate directly on the X3D scene graph using typed values - Andreas reports that the DOM is not synchronized
• “requestFieldRef” / “releaseFieldRef” - gets a field reference. Any modification is a direct modification of the X3D scene graph

X3DOM specific event attributes

• OnOutputChanged
• OnViewpointChanged – not documented, but see these GitHub issues

X3D Nodes with additional or missing fields

• X3DBackgroundNode – additional “crossOrigin” field - this relates to CORS (Cross-Origin Resource Sharing) - crossOrigin = "anonymous" can be very useful if remote host allows it
• X3DBindableNode – different “bind” field, “isActive” rather than “isBound”, an additional “description” field, and is missing the “bindTime” field
• X3DComposableVolumeRenderStyleNode – additional “surfaceNormals” field - some X3D nodes do have this field
• X3DGeometryNode – additional “lit” and “useGeoCache” fields. The “ccw” and “solid” are not in the X3D X3DGeometryNode, but are in many of the geometry items. For the “useGeoCache” field, the “geo” refers to geometry. This might be useful in advanced scenes where careful memory management is required
• X3DGroupingNode – additional “render” field
• X3DLightNode – additional “shadowFilterSize”, “shadowIntensity”, “shadowMapSize”, “shadowOffset”, “zFar”, and “zNear” fields. Shadows is a candidate new functionality for V4.0 of X3D
• X3DSensorNode – missing “isActive” field - although is in at least some of the derived concrete nodes
• X3DShapeNode – additional “isPickable” and "idOffset"fields
• X3DTextureNode – additional “origChannelCount”, “scale” and “crossOrigin” fields - WebGL requires textures to be scaled.
• TimeSensor – additional “first” and “firstCycle” fields

Additional nodes not in X3D

• BinaryGeometry – imports the specific binary format from AOPT
• BlendMode
• Block
• ColorMaskMode
• CommonSurfaceShader
• DepthMode
• Dish
• DynamicLOD
• ExternalGeometry
• ExternalShape - the only active format is glTF
• ImageGeometry
• ImageTextureAtlas
• MatrixTransform
• Mesh - designed to import a whole mesh
• MPRVolumeStyle
• MultiPart - derives from Inline - might be related to CAD assemblies, e.g. explosion views
• Nozzle
• Plane
• PopGeometry
• PopGeometryLevel
• Pyramid
• RadarVolumeStyle
• RectangularTorus
• RefinementTexture
• RemoteSelectionGroup - used for server/client communications
• RenderedTexture
• SlopedCylinder
• Snout
• SolidOfRevolution
• SphereSegment
• StippleVolumeStyle – not yet implemented
• SurfaceShaderTexture
• Torus
• Uniform
• ViewFrustrum

Proposed HTML Profile

A new proposed HTML profile is listed on the X3DOM web site, which details an extension to the X3D Interchange profile.

CSS

• Is X3DOM is responsive to some changes produced by CSS - this is believed to be restricted to 3D transformations and animations, and only a Transform (and perhaps other grouping) nodes can be styled in that way. The X3D element can be styled as well. Dynamic changes to the style may have to be applied to the generated Canvas element.
• Does X3DOM have any special CSS-related functionality?

---

X_ITE

Note: This section is for X_ITE itself, and does not include Andreas' X_ITE DOM extension, which is listed separately below.

Reference: X_ITE

Reference: usage example

General

• X_ITE sticks very closely to the X3D spec.

X3D specific event attributes

X_ITE does not expose any X3D specific events to the DOM and the X3D nodes are not part of the DOM.

X3D Nodes with additional or missing fields

• None known.

Additional nodes not in X3D

• None known.

CSS

• Is X_ITE responsive to changes produced by CSS?
• Does X_ITE have any special CSS-related functionality?

SAI

• X3D nodes can be accessed via the SAI programmatically after getting a browser reference.

X_ITE DOM Extension

• Adds X3D nodes to the DOM, and generates X3D specific events.
• All X3D out events become custom X3D specific DOM events with names derived from the X3D event name.
• The X3D element probably can be styled. Dynamic changes to the style may have to be applied to the generated Canvas element.