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Definition

The X3D ISO standard defines a runtime system and delivery mechanism for real time 3D content and applications running on a network. It supports several file format encodings and programming languages, providing unsurpassed interoperability for 3D data and significant flexibility in manipulating, communicating and displaying scenes interactively. X3D incorporates the latest advances in graphics hardware, compression and data security to provide the best performance and visual impact in an extensible architecture that supports ongoing evolution. X3D's XML-encoded scene graph enables 3D to be incorporated into web services architectures and distributed environments, facilitating the movement of 3D data between applications.

How to build X3D scenes

X3D scenes can contain two sorts of "contents". Objects and behaviors.

Building objects

Basically, there are three kinds of options:

Build 3D scenes with a tool that exports to X3D
Use a special-purpose X3D editor
Use an XML editor

Here is a longer list of options (John F. Richardson / VRML mailing list):

An open source modeling and animation system like Blender
A commercial modeling and animation system like Maya or Lightwave3D or Softimage
Your own proprietary modeling and animation system
Free for personal use commercial VRML/X3D authoring tool [Vivaty]
Commercial VRML/X3D authoring system [ authoring systems from Vivaty / Octaga / Bitmanagement / Parallel Graphics / … ]. Cost varies.
Open source VRML/X3D authoring system [like X3D-edit]. See the Web3D website for lists of systems.
A text editor, preferably an schema-aware XML editor
A text editor without any XML support

Software

X3D Clients

Major clients (tested by Daniel K. Schneider)

Flux from MediaMachines. Free player X3D player for Windows (IE/Firefox). Also avaible from the same folks, the good free for private use Flux Studio authoring tool.
- Flux Web3D Engine on SourceForge

Octaga Player. Full free X3D player for Window and Linux.

BS Contact VRML X3D VRML/X3D. Commercial software, but 60 days of trial. A free version that includes a crawling banner is available

Other clients

Free WRL an open-source (GPL) X3D and VRML browser for Unix/Linux/OS X. Perl/C based. Not completely feature complete, but getting there.

Xj3D - Java based X3D Toolkit and X3D Browser. Cross-platform, but not as fast as others.

Specialized clients

Alpharis, a collective knowledge organization tool that uses X3D

ManyOne is Digital Universe. Features a modified Mozilla with a flux plugin for 3D contents.

3D plugin selector

List of 3D plugin selectors at MediaMachines.com,

Servers

X3D files

Any web-server can serve X3D contents for stand-alone usage. You only have to make sure to configure the following mime-types:

 .x3dv  model/x3d+vrml
 .x3d   model/x3d+xml
 .x3db  model/x3d+binary

Multi user (3D interactive environments)

It seems to Daniel K. Schneider that VRML/X3D-based multi-user servers will never become popular enough to attract open source developers or companies. The ongoing pattern since the mid-1990's seems to be announcements, prototypes and then death of both the product and the companies ...

Blaxxun. One of the first VRML-based systems. The company at some went broke, but seems to be alive again (12:48, 1 April 2007 (MEST)).
- Blaxxun technologies (info about servers)
- community.blaxxun.com
- Cybertown one of the blaxxun-based worlds.
Flux World (announcement March 2007). Simple Wide Area Multi-User Protocol, or SWMP (pronounced "swamp"). This seems to be a dead product, though Mediamachines now renamed Vivaty does now offer an online 3D chat service with a similar developer model as second life. You can design your own scences which then run on their server. We just wonder if they can compete with bigger fish, like [ http://www.lively.com/ lively] (from Google). On the other hand, they got a deal with Facebook....

Authoring tools

Check the web3d.org website. It has a good list of tools for X3D Development.

Combined Modeling / behaviors and scripting tools with a GUI

Vivati Studio (Used to be Flux studio, befor summer 2008). FREE for personal use! Authoring means model, animate, and script. Imports from other applications such as Sketchup, 3ds, Maya, Blender, and Unreal.
- You Say You Want A Revolution? Well... by Len Bullard, March 2007. (Flux Studio tutorial).

SwirlX3D, 129 CAN$. This is a successor of popular Spazz3D

Structure editors

X3D-Edit X3D-Edit is a graphics file editor for Extensible 3D (X3D) that enables simple error-free editing, authoring and validation of X3D or VRML scene-graph files. Context-sensitive tooltips provide concise summaries of each VRML node and attribute. These tooltips simplify authoring and improve understanding for novice and expert users alike.
To handcode X3D you also can use any XML editor that supports DTD or XSD, e.g. Xemacs.

Conversion software

crossroads (Win only)

Links

General / Indexes

web3D Consortium Home Page
- X3D resources from web3D (Applications, Players and Plugins for X3D / VRML Viewing) X3D Page from DR
VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language) and X3D (Cover page)

Specification

X3D and Related Specifications Page at web3d.org
X3D Wiki at web3D. A nice alternative to the specification ! Hopefully this will evolve [1/2006]

Tutorials

Extensible 3D: XML Meets VRML xml.com tutorial by Len Bullard, Aug 2003
The public X3D wiki contains tutorials for X3D Nodes and concepts.

Examples

On-A-Slant Virtual Village. Interactive X3d. A Social Science Education Project.

References

Chittaro, L. and R. Rano (editors) (2007). Web3D Technologies in Learning, Education and Training, Computers & Education Volume 49, Issue 1, Pages 1-130 (August 2007). Table of Contents. The introductory article is availabe as preprint from [HCI Lab].

Davis, Wiki A. (2007), The frontier of education: Web 3D, The Cool Cat Teacher, Blog Entry. HTML

Weber, Jay C. and Tony Parisi (2007.). An open protocol for wide-area multi-user X3D, Proceedings of the twelfth international conference on 3D web technology, ACM Press, http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1229390.1229413 (Access restricted).

Osvaldo Gervasi, Donald P. Brutzman (Eds.): Proceeding of the Twelfth International Conference on 3D Web Technology, Web3D 2007, Perugia, Italy, April 15-18, 2007. ACM 2007, ISBN 978-1-59593-652-3 TOC.

@@ Line 67: / Line 67: @@
 ;Multi user ([[3D interactive environment]]s)
+It seems to [[User:Daniel K. Schneider|Daniel K. Schneider]] that VRML/X3D-based multi-user servers will never become popular enough to attract open source developers or companies. The ongoing pattern since the mid-1990's seems to be announcements, prototypes and then death of both the product and the companies ...
 * [http://www.blaxxun.com/ Blaxxun]. One of the first VRML-based systems. The company at some went broke, but seems to be alive again (12:48, 1 April 2007 (MEST)).
@@ Line 72: / Line 74: @@
 ** [http://community.blaxxun.com/ community.blaxxun.com]
 ** [http://www.cybertown.com/ Cybertown] one of the blaxxun-based worlds.
-* [http://www.mediamachines.com/press/pressrelease-03292007.php Flux World] (announcement March 2007). Simple Wide Area Multi-User Protocol, or SWMP (pronounced "swamp").
+* [http://www.mediamachines.com/press/pressrelease-03292007.php Flux World] (announcement March 2007). Simple Wide Area Multi-User Protocol, or SWMP (pronounced "swamp"). This seems to be a dead product, though Mediamachines now renamed [http://www.vivaty.com/ Vivaty] does now offer an online 3D chat service with a similar developer model as [[second life]]. You can design your own scences which then run on their server. We just wonder if they can compete with bigger fish, like [ http://www.lively.com/ lively] (from Google). On the other hand, they got a deal with Facebook....
 === Authoring tools  ===