X3DV

Draft

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.

See also: AJAX3D, VRML

Software

X3D Clients

• Octaga Player.
• BS Contact VRML X3D VRML/X3D. Commercial software, but 60 days of trial. A free version that includes a crawling banner is available
• Flux from Media Machines. Free player.

• Alpharis, uses X3D (not tested yet / 3/2005)

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

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

Servers

• Any webserver can serve X3D contents for stand-alone usage. You only have to make sure to confiture the following mime-types:

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

Authoring tools

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

Links

General

• web3D Consortium Home 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