DAILY NEWS AND INFORMATION FOR THE GLOBAL GRID COMMUNITY / AUGUST 4, 2003; VOL. 2 NO. 31    ( Table of Contents )

Breaking News - Operating Systems & Middleware:

Web3D Consortium Announces X3D Standard Gains Momentum

The Web3D Consortium announced that its Extensible 3D (X3D) standard has made strong progress both in standardization milestones and industry momentum. At a recent International Standards Organization (ISO) meeting in Korea, X3D received all necessary approvals for advancement to final-form Draft International Standard. The X3D specification documents have been successfully reviewed, implemented and evaluated by Consortium membership and the Web3D community. Separately, the Web3D Consortium continues executing a strong strategic partnership with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), ensuring the broadest possible X3D interoperability with the growing family of Extensible Markup Language (XML) specifications. Attendees at the SIGGRAPH trade show in San Diego California, July 29-31 have the opportunity to meet with Web3D Consortium representatives and receive a free copy of the latest X3D SDK on the Web3D Consortium booth #3533. As part of its ongoing outreach program the Consortium is also sponsoring the Web3D 2004 Symposium in Monterey California, March 2004.

"The W3C and Web3D Consortium share the same ideals of increasing the utility and richness of the web through encouraging royalty-free standards for all core Web specifications," said Neil Trevett, senior vice president of market development at 3Dlabs and President of the Web3D Consortium. "Our deepening strategic partnership with the W3C lets the two organizations better work to ensure that 2D and 3D web standards are seamlessly integrated -- a significant step toward weaving 3D graphics into the very fabric of the Web itself."

Within the Web3D Consortium, the X3D Working Group is now is now preparing to accept Binary Encoding technology proposals for review, and expects to create a format definition that combines progressive geometric compression with XML serialization, encryption and authentication, all in a streamable format by the end of calendar year 2003. Additionally, the Consortium has formed the Extensible Modeling and Simulation Framework (XMSF) Working Group to enable large-scale X3D deployment for simulation using Web Services. An ongoing series of XMSF workshops and test-bed exhibitions are demonstrating that all manner of modeling and simulation can be performed across the Web, focused on business, government and military application environments.

"X3D reaching final ISO Draft International Standard confirms it is an effective basis for 3D graphics on the Web. Many companies, organizations and government agencies need to build models on the firm foundation of an international standard," said Don Brutzman, research professor at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) and X3D Working Group co-chair. "NPS and Sun are also finding significant interest in the XMSF initiative, applying Web Services with X3D to major unfilled needs of business and government. We are delighted to see the Consortium establish a forum for continued progress with formation of the XMSF working group."