view3dscene 3.0 release: X3D, events, MovieTexture, and more

I'm pleased to present the new, shiny view3dscene 3.0 release, with a lot of new VRML/X3D features implemented. Also underlying Kambi VRML game engine 1.4.0 is released and some other programs here get minor updates.

New features of the engine and view3dscene:

• X3D support (both XML and classic encoding). Our VRML implementation status page has detailed information about supported features.

• Events mechanism (routes, exposed events, sensors, interpolators etc.) is implemented. This allows you to define interactions and animations of 3D world within a single VRML/X3D file, as envisioned in the specifications.

  Four basic sensors are implemented now: TimeSensor, TouchSensor, KeySensor and ProximitySensor. Also Anchor is "clickable" now. For now you have to be in Walk mode with Collision Checking enabled to have picking (TouchSensor, Anchor) working.

  Linear interpolators are also implemented. Some "event utilities" nodes are implemented (including useful Logger node from Avalon extensions). Events to work with bindable nodes (Background, Fog and such) work. Routing events to GLSL shaders uniform variables works perfectly.. Events to control behavior of Inline (and InlineLoadControl for VRML 97) work too. Prototypes and external prototypes also work 100% with events according to specification, so you can pass events to/from prototypes. New Kambi VRML test suite 2.2.0 has some simple demos of our events implementation.

• MovieTexture is handled, with very useful extension to load movie from a sequence of images (with possible alpha channel), this is great for pre-rendered animations of flames, smoke etc. Normal movie formats are also handled if ffmpeg is installed and available on $PATH.

• Recording movies from view3dscene is possible. This allows recording 3D animations to a movie file (with perfect quality, as opposed to using independent programs that capture OpenGL output).

• GNOME users will be happy to hear that view3dscene can be easily used as nautilus thumbnailer, so you can see thumbnails of your VRML / X3D and other 3D model files.

• Many other features, including

  • Extrusion node handling,
  • BlendMode extension,
  • KambiInline extension to automatically replace nodes within inlined content,
  • extension to force VRML time-origin to start at loading time, because standard VRML time origin is uncomfortable in my opinion,
  • new X3D Indexed Triangles/Quads primitives (thanks to completely reorganized mesh renderer code),
  • HAnim nodes support.

• "The Castle" 0.8.2 release also deserves mention, as it fixes support for OpenAL Soft implementation (available on newer Linux distros). It also allows creators of future levels and creatures to use X3D, animating with standard VRML/X3D interpolators, defining level interactions by VRML events etc.

Have fun! You may also enjoy reading an interview with me about our VRML engine on Hiperia3D News (regards go to Jordi R. Cardona!).