[sldev] [AWG] Standard geometry data format for viewers?

Ben Francis mail at tola.me.uk
Tue Jan 6 05:27:18 PST 2009


Dear group,

I have been reading the Geometry and Physics
VAG<https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Geometry_and_Physics_VAG>page and
Burhop Piccard's Geometry
Based Architecture
View<https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Geometry_Based_Architecture_View>page
on the Second Life Wiki and have some opinions I would like to share.
Forgive me if these sources of information are outdated or outside the scope
of the AWG.

I agree that it is sensible to support multiple interchange formats and
persistent storage formats for geometry. This will allow a wide range of
content deployment paths from popular modelling tools and a will allow the
interchange of different formats of geometric data between virtual world
servers via web services.

However, the latter linked page describes a possible viewer architecture
which includes a range of plugins to render different geometry formats. In
my opinion this approach would make the vision of seamlessly moving between
virtual worlds very unlikely.

I propose a single standard format for sending geometry data to viewers,
rather than supporting multiple formats. Perhaps even more contraversially,
I would urge the Architecture Working Group to examine the binary and XML
encodings of X3D <http://web3d.org> in this context. X3D is the ISO standard
for delivering interactive 3D content over the the web (HTTP) and due to its
maturity and open nature seems on the surface to be a good fit for this use
case.

I suspect that there may be a certain level of stigma attached to the X3D
specification and its origins in VRML (even the term Web3D), but I welcome
informed discussion around the advantages and disadvantages of using X3D in
this specific context. Perhaps some value can be derived from the years of
work put into the X3D specification.

I admit to not being hugely familiar with the architecture of Second Life
and OpenSim, but I can not envision how a collection of 3D worlds can be
truly inter-operable if users have to download a different viewer plugin to
visit each world. To me this would be like browsing the web where each web
page uses a different alternative to HTML.

Regards

Ben
(Second Life: tola Cult)

-- 
Ben Francis
http://tola.me.uk
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