The Web3D Consortium is Pleased to Announce the ISO/IEC Publication of a New Version of Extensible 3D (X3D)
SALINAS, Calif., March 19, 2024 (Newswire.com) - The Web3D® Consortium is pleased to announce the ISO/IEC publication of a new version of Extensible 3D (X3D®).
The X3D® version 4 (X3D4) Architecture Specification is a major upgrade to the Extensible 3D (X3D) Graphics International Standard that provides new features and functionality including HTML integration, glTF and Physically Based Rendering (PBR), Web Audio API, and MIDI 2.0, along with other features. Humanoid Animation 2.0 (HAnim2) is also fully supported, including BVH-style motion animation. This effort was driven by the X3D Graphics Working Group with many contributions from multiple Web3D Consortium working groups and community outreach. All Web3D standards are royalty-free for any use and publicly available.
X3D 4.0 is an open, royalty-free ISO standard for 3D graphics on the Web. It is built on techniques advanced by Web3D members and implemented in several open source engines. For example, the HTML5+Javascript engines X3DOM and X_ITE demonstrate advanced Web integration features between X3D and HTML5. For installed and custom-built application engines, CGE and Freewrl stand out as capable platforms.
The X3D4, provides a fully interactive and scalable environment that is compatible with existing Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) and X3D scenes built as early as 1997, providing interoperability with long-term archival stability, compatible and integrated with HTML and web methodologies.
Dr. Johannes Behr, originator and lead of the X3DOM project, said, “X3D was always for the Web, but the plugin integration model was limited. Recent advances in W3C technologies allow more complete integration. The X3D scene graph is now part of the web page, which enables web authors to operate on 3D scene elements directly.”
Dr. Don Brutzman, co-chair of the X3D Working Group, said, “For 30 years, putting scalable 3D on the Web has been challenging. We have steadily progressed step by step to expose 3D interaction as the Web has evolved. Now authors, companies and organizations can publish any 3D content they like, without barriers, using X3D version 4. Forward-looking innovators can gain serious new advantages.”
The Web3D Consortium is committed to the creation and deployment of open, royalty-free standards that enable the communication of real-time 3D across applications, networks, and XML web services. Web3D working groups invite participation from developers and the 3D community. We encourage you to take advantage of these new capabilities and support X3D4.
About the Web3D Consortium:
The Web3D Consortium is a member-driven and funded industry consortium involved in many technical initiatives and workflows across the 3D Web value chain. More information on Web3D and Consortium membership is available at http://www.web3d.org.
Source: Web3D Consortium
