Open Standards for Real-Time 3D Communication

With Siggraph 2008 behind us, one question on everyone’s mind is - Is Web3D really here?  And where does X3D fit in this evolution.

A report from the Web3D Consortium’s Executive Director Anita Havele.

With Siggraph 2008 behind us, one question on everyone’s mind is - Is Web3D really here?  And where does X3D fit in this evolution.

The 2008 Siggraph conference in Los Angeles, California gathered 3D graphics developers from around the world. Whether the company was a start up or an industry giant there was a mention of Web3D in their present or future strategy. But it seems that 3D adoption is slower than predicted. Why? There are a lot of different ways to bring 3D on the internet: VRML, SecondLife, PDF 3D… Many 2D processes can be enhanced with 3D data. In general, 3D communicates better.  The issue here is extending 2D process to 3D and making them easy to engage with. This may be one of the reasons for the slow growth in the use of 3D data. However 3D data use/applications are growing proportionately. There are also 3D based initiatives intended to take industries in the 3D direction. Analysis of where 3D would improve what you are doing now and the use of standard based 3D development tools could make 3D adoption faster.  Which brings me to the ISO certified royalty-free open standard X3D spearheaded by the Web3D Consortium. It’s file format and run-time architecture represents and communicates 3D scenes and objects using XML on the Web, between applications and across distributed networks and web services.

This year Web3D Consortium celebrated its 10th anniversary with a bigger presence at SIGGRAPH - a great booth location, constant crowd, several BoF’s and a very successful Tech Talk. We distributed over 800 X3D-Showcases developed by Naval Postgraduate School with resources to develop your very own X3D content and applications.  Our Tech Talk was one of the best ones at SIGGRAPH this year. The X3D innovations presented wowed the 3D community. Octaga demonstrated their most advanced 3D visualization solution chosen by Shell as their 3D visualization solution to support the maintenance of the Ormen Lange Gas field processing plant. Textured 3D models of complete cities at a resolution of 4 inch (10 cm) per pixel constructed automatically were visualized with Bitmanagements’ BS Contact GeoVRML/X3D viewer interactively on the web. The augmented reality demonstration by Fraunhofer using pre computed radiance transfer to simulate reflection of surrounding real light on the virtual object that is merged into the real scene was amazing. Yumetech showcased applications using its Xj3D and ChefX3D toolkits.  These X3D applications and content are being developed using toolkits including domain specific editors for mass market 3D printing. A video podcast of the our Tech Talk is available at 2008 Siggraph Web3D Tech Talk. The Web3D Showcase at the Web3D Symposium co-located with Siggraph was another testimony that “Slowly but steadily X3D is influencing the 3D world.”

There is a claim today that use of X3D is marginal…  Absolutely wrong! and we proved it at SIGGRAPH 2008!  X3D remains the most widely used standard for the implementation of high integrity and high capability 3D systems.  For a list of recent projects using X3D see X3D Use Cases. Over the past eight years, the use of X3D has increased steadily. Unlike much technology with grows exponentially to a peak and falls sharply. Archival usability of X3D models using stable commercial tools and noncommercial international standards ensures that 3D assets can remain accessible and repeatable for many years to come.  Because X3D is a direct evolution of VRML we have models over 10 years old that still run today. X3D is the only royalty-free and ISO-certified standard for 3D interchange file formats and runtime architecture for the Web today. Our interchange file formats and runtime applications include both open-source and commercial implementations.

There are several software tools (X3D-Edit, Octaga modeler, BS Editor,  Flux Studio, SwirlX3D, Blender and others) to support X3D content creation. 3D content creation is a very labor intensive process and these tools help automate it. You can find great resource to X3D at X3D Resources with links to Examples, Applications, Authoring software, Players and Plugins for X3D/VRML Viewing. They’re all free downloads, but their makers may have other tools for sale. X3D’s sweet spot is bringing 3D graphics expression to a wider audience, one not necessary trained in the art of 3D graphics programming, but fairly technical nonetheless. They typically write the behavior part and leave the graphics to the X3D player. X3D is a step above OpenGL/DirectX in abstraction. With X3D they can output meaningful representations of their data without needing to understand low-level graphics.

Recent years have seen many technical improvements and extensions to X3D, including XML Security (Encryption and Authentication), Compressed Binary Encoding, Compositing and Layers, Volume Rendering, Orthographic Camera, Rigid-Body Physics, Nonlinear Interpolators, Particle Systems, and general input-output device support to the X3D specifications. Work is also underway to ensure that X3D Human Animation is flexible and consistent for H-Anim human figure models. X3D Earth project now has a standards-based 3D visualization infrastructure for visualizing all manner of real-world objects and information constructs in a geospatial context. The CAD working group is developing a native support for industry-wide Boundary Representations (BREPS). X3D is also a part of the tool chain with COLLADA for digital content creation and digital asset exchange. The Web3D Consortium CAD Working Group and Khronos COLLADA Group are working together to improve this content pipeline, ensuring that there is no duplication of effort. Moving content between these systems will become effortless.

Come join us and become a part of this evolving standard. We look forward to working with you and become a part of our X3D community. All members are empowered to participate in Consortium working groups, network with leading Web3D technologist,  and contribute to the consortium specifications. These benefits can greatly accelerate the delivery and profitability of their cutting-edge 3D platforms and applications. To join us visit us at www.web3d.org/memebership/join. If you need additional information about our technology or information about member companies and their X3D implementations please contact Anita Havele.

The Consortium would like to thank all who attended our Bofs, Turorials and Tech Talk.  Those of you who visited our booth and had the opportunity to see the X3D demos and perceive how you can use X3D for your 3D graphics needs thank you for being a part of our success.