Message from the Executive Director, Anita Havele

2025 has been a landmark year for the Web3D Consortium as we celebrated our 30th year of pioneering 3D web technology. This year was defined by a renewed focus on interoperability, fostering new alliances, and empowering our global community with more accessible tools. 

We successfully showcased the real-world applications of our standards at major international forums, demonstrating the critical role of open, royalty-free formats in building the future of the 3D web and the metaverse. The enthusiasm and collaboration witnessed at our conferences and events reaffirm our commitment to an open, interoperable 3D ecosystem. 

We extend our sincere gratitude to our members, partners, and working groups whose dedication made these achievements possible. As we look to 2026, we are energized to continue this momentum, driving the standards that enable immersive, interactive experiences for everyone. 

Major Events and Outreach

This year, the Consortium made significant strides in engaging with the broader 3D graphics and web communities through key industry events.

SIGGRAPH 2025 (August 2025): A major highlight was our strong presence at SIGGRAPH 2025, where we celebrated three decades of innovation. Our focus was on showcasing the practical power of Web3D standards. We presented new alliances and initiatives aimed at ensuring the interoperability of our technologies with other key standards in the ecosystem. Our birds of the feathers sessions featured compelling use cases and real-world applications, illustrating the maturity and versatility of X3D for industrial, medical, and cultural heritage applications.

Web3D 2025 Conference (Siena, Italy - September 2025): Our 30th annual conference was co-located with Digital Heritage 2025 with over 500 attendees. It brought together innovators, creators, and thought leaders from the Cultural Heritage and 3D Graphics communities in the historic city of Siena. The program was a success, fostering deep discussions and collaborations among researchers, developers, and industry professionals. Key themes included advancements in real-time 3D graphics on the web, declarative 3D applications, and the integration of 3D content across various platforms. The conference underscored the Consortium's role as a central hub for the 3D web community. Highlights from the conference can be found here and the proceedings are published in the ACM Digital Library.

Web3d Webinars Series of educational webinars on X3D technology helped us to connect with a global community of 3D application and content developers and explore the latest innovations and advancements in interactive X3D graphics. 

Our news features and blog posts share latest developments in X3D and other 3D web technologies. Read about how standards are shaping the future of interactive 3D content and practical applications across industries from education to manufacturing. We encourage you to join the conversation about the future of 3D web technologies.

Technology and Standards Advancement

Empowering developers and creators with accessible, powerful tools remains a core part of our mission. 

X3D V4.0: Successful adoption of X3D V4.0 and the growing synergy with other standards. X3D version 4.0 standard spans a cross-platform ecosystem, including other standards such as glTF, HTML, MIDI, and Web Audio API for interactive, composable worlds on the Web.

Ceisum-Bently Ecosystem grant: In August of 2025, Web3D Consortium was awarded the Ceisum-Bently Ecosystem grant, this project will help advance the support of Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) 3D Tiles in X3D to enhance interoperability and integration of large industrial 3D geospatial data sets. Integrating OGC standards into X3DOM, an X3D viewer will facilitate easier access to a wide range of geospatial datasets and enable more effective sharing and visualization, leading to richer 3D user experiences.

X_ITE Sunrize X3D Editor for Windows (September 2025): In 2025, this key development significantly improved the user experience for one of our primary editing environments. A significant step forward in accessibility was the release of a dedicated Windows `Setup.exe` installer for the X_ITE Sunrize X3D Editor. Previously, setup required more technical steps, but this new installer makes the powerful, open-source X3D editor more accessible and user-friendly for a much wider community of developers, students, and hobbyists on the Windows platform. This lowers the barrier to entry for creating rich, interactive X3D content.

RawKee Python Edition (X3D Export for Maya): The University of North Dakota - DREAM Lab launched the RawKee project to build a Python-based X3D exporter for Autodesk Maya. RawKee - Python Edition (PE) grew out the early 2000’s effort of the North Dakota State University’s Archaeology Technologies Lab to develop a C++ X3D exporter plugin for Maya. Because RawKee PE is built using the Maya python APIs, it is compatible with versions of Maya 2023 and newer across all three major operating systems (Windows, Linux, and macOS). RawKee PE supports the export of Geometry, Materials (including PBR), HAnim characters, and general TimeSensor-based animation.

New Web3D Working Groups:

AI SIG: The new special interest group on AI with X3D is open to all and aims to explore, develop, and promote the interation of artificial intelligence technologies within the X3D framework. The group will focus on enhancing 3D graphics, improving user experiences, and driving innovation across various industries through the application of AI.  This group meets every 2nd Tuesday at 11:00 AM Eastern. Current topics include Generative AI and Gaussin Splats. If you are interested, please subscribe to the AI mailing list and join the discussions.

X3D Ecosystem SIG: The X3D Ecosystem special interest group's mission is to establish best practices and methods to enable the seamless integration of 3D content and experiences across platforms. This public group documents and track the issues and roadblocks facing integration of X3D content across diverse domains, including pipeline, authoring and conversion tools. The group met multiple times during 2025. Members of the group submitted code changes to the Blender X3D importer/exporter code repository. The first release of the RawKee X3D exporter for Autodesk Maya was announced at Web3D 2025. 

Web3D Consortium Working Groups are technical committees that consider and develop solutions for specific technical challenges and opportunities.  Working group charters are reviewed by the Board of Directors to meet the needs of the Consortium and the community. Please subscribe to our mailing lists and join the discussions.

Key Initiatives

Throughout 2025, our efforts were guided by several overarching themes that are critical to the future of the 3D web.

Interoperability: A primary focus has been on ensuring that Web3D standards, particularly X3D, work seamlessly with other technologies. The newly formed X3D Ecosystem Special Interest Group's mission is to establish best practices and methods to enable the seamless integration of 3D content and experiences across platforms.  More 

Real-World Application: We have moved beyond theoretical discussions to actively showcase how our standards are solving real-world problems today. From complex data visualization to interactive training simulations, our presentations highlighted the tangible value the Web3D ecosystem provides across numerous industries.

Alliances

Metaverse Standards Forum (MSF): 3D Web Interoperability Group led by Web3D members offers the opportunity to find the right mix of Standards and best practices to suit the needs of the next Metaverse. MSF provides a venue for our Standard’s visibility and a means to coordinate across a broad and coherent ecosystem. Our goal here is to make the Metaverse fully interoperable with the World Wide Web and the standards ecosystem. Allow and support mixed-use of different asset formats in a single world, Interconnect 3D worlds and experiences into many runtime environments. We believe that this formulation will bring achievable benefits and wins for all.

Alliance of USD (AOUSD): Talks are underway for an alliance between our organization offering significant benefits, by bridging openUSD's strengths in collaborative content creation with X3D's standardized delivery format, the alliance would enable a smooth transition from production to distribution. This integration would enhance workflow efficiency, reduce conversion complexities, and ensure high fidelity in asset translation across different stages of the 3D content pipeline.

International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF): The Web3D Consortium is collaborating with the IIIIF 3D Technical Study Group in extending a presentation standard for images to  also support presenting 3D scenes, supported with metadata, paradata, and search capability. The mature scenegraph specification supported by X3D V4, and the availability of several X3D viewers, is enabling rapid development of IIIF applications supporting the new presentation framework version.

Community accomplishments

By making tools like the Sunrize editor, more accessible and hosting inclusive international events, we are actively working to grow and support the global community of 3D web creators.

Outlook for 2026

Building on the successes of 2025, the Web3D Consortium will continue to champion an open and interoperable 3D web. In the coming year, our focus will be on:

• Expanding Alliances: We actively pursue and strengthen our collaborations with other standards bodies to ensure a cohesive development environment for the metaverse and spatial computing.
• Driving Adoption: We will increase our efforts to promote the adoption of the latest X3D standard by showcasing its capabilities and providing enhanced educational resources.
• Enhancing Tooling: We will continue to support projects that improve the accessibility and power of open-source tools for 3D web development. 
• New initiatives: Focusing in areas like the industrial metaverse, digital twins, and AI-driven 3D content generation.

We are confident that 2026 will bring even greater innovation and collaboration as we work together to build the next generation of the web.