X3D shape and geometry
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Introduction
This short tutorial introduced basic X3D modeling concepts.
Prerequisites: X3D, X3D graphics principles and X3D shape and geometry
In X3D, 3D "things" are defined with shape nodes. Shape nodes can appear under any grouping node (including the Scene node). Usually, a geometry is included under at least a Transform node for positioning, rotation, etc.
A Shape node includes:
- A mandatory geometry node, of which several exist
- An optional (quasi-mandatory) Appearance node which in turn includes a Material node for coloring.
X3D includes several kinds of geometry nodes:
- Simple geometric primitives
- Points, lines and polygone nodes
- Geometric 2D nodes
- Triangle nodes
Translations and color
In order to position geometric shapes we need to use a so-called Transform node and in order to see a node we need to color it. Below we just introduce a minimal design pattern that you should use and understand before playing with geometry nodes.
Geometric primitives
The five geometric primitives are most often used for hand coding, and implementation details (i.e. tessellation/polygon count) is left to the client.
Links
Reference manuals
- Node Reference (very incomplete as of oct. 2010)
- X3D Tooltips (ok)
- X3D Scene Authoring Hints