In the new version of x3dom it is possible to use IndexedFaceSet nodes with concave polygons.

To use this features you only need to add an attribut like convex=’false’ to the IndexedFaceSet  element.

This features is realized on the basis of the Ear Clipping  algorithm. This algorithm has two restrictions:

• you should not use polygons with hole
• and you should not use polygons with overlap.

Example:

With the current developer build of X3DOM we provide a component system which allows you to load a core X3DOM library and then subsequently add extensions from separate files. You can also create your own extensions to X3DOM.

Resources:

• Documentation
• Example

There are some geological models visualized. Below the first point there is a real geologic model of a mine in Freiberg/ Germany. Everything is stored in a database and comes directly out of it.

TU Darmstadt offers two scholarships in Visual Computing technologies. One position has a strong focus on declarative 3D in the web (esp. X3DOM and WebGL development) :

• Declarative 3D in the Web – Efficient and flexible declaration and visualization of interactive 3D web content

The other one is more focused on the development of a software platform for Augmented and Mixed Reality applications:

• Visual Computing Platforms – A “unified reality” platform for a direct coupling of image analysis and synthesis metaphors

More information can be found here: http://www.gris.tu-darmstadt.de/home/jobs/

These PhD positions at the TU Darmstadt will give the possibility to perform the PhD studies in close cooperation with Fraunhofer IGD, an internationally renowned research institute. The scholarships are initially limited to two years and can be complemented with an additional contract at Fraunhofer IGD in Darmstadt.

The Technical University of Darmstadt is an equal opportunity employer. Women are especially encouraged to apply. Handicapped applicants with comparable qualification will be given preferential treatment.

Flash 11 has been released. This opens the Internet Explorer for X3DOM through our flash render backend for a wide range of users, because you don’t have to deal with an “in development” flash player anymore.

UMIT Research Lab in Umeå uses X3D to guide visitors to the correct office. The app runs on a big touch screen by the entrance. When the visitor clicks a name, a picture of that person pops up and the corresponding office in the 3D model of the lab is being pointed out.

Another external use case using our technology.

X3DOM runs now on mobile devices with the standard WebGL shader composer: above are screenshots from an N900 and an Android device running the latest Firefox build (Beta 7).

Hint: Watch the size of your 3D content. The devices are not as capable as desktop GPUs. In addition, some devices are still rather fragment-limited — so obviously, we have some TODOs here concerning shader optimization…

Another great external show-case from Sandra: The just completed project on lighthouse technology and history, which uses lots of HTML5 and also X3DOM to explore a 3D model of an Irish lighthouse. Hovering over some of the 3D objects in the scene gives additional historical information about the lighthouse. Attention: The model is nice but takes quite some time to load.

In our ongoing mission to improve quality of X3DOM our recent addition is an attempt in creating a more comprehensive documentation. The new developer documentation focuses on developers who want to create applications using X3DOM. It features introduction, step-by-step guides, reference material, and notes on various topics of interest.

The documentation is in its very early stages and is in constant flux. We hope to release a stable documentation with the 1.3 release. In the interim, just consider it work in progress.  In order to constantly improve it we need help from you. We are especially interested in the needs of developers, things like

• what is your background (designer, web developer, etc.),
• what info do you need,
• which aspects should be emphasized,
• which are less important,

would help us in improving it. Patches and corrections are also most welcome, as are bug reports.

There is a new effort underway in order to improve code quality of X3DOM. In addition to the more casual functional tests, we started flesh out some  unit tests for portions of the library code. You can run the tests in your browser by visiting this link.

Test coverage is pretty low at the moment and we need help from the community to continuously improve that. Interested in getting involved with X3DOM? This is a very good opportunity to start. If tackling Unit tests seems too adventurous to you, no problem, the documentation needs some work as well.

In order to get involved, please contact us via the developers mailing list.

Today the W3C announced the Launch of Community Groups. We are proud to be co-founder of one of these groups. Our mission is to create a declarative standard for 3D content which will become a part of HTML. Feel free to join the ongoing discussion about how an integration of declarative 3D content should look like.

There is a major update of the prior posted CAE Prototype visualisation online. The new version supports now probing simulation results directly on the data set. This is a very nice showcase for application specific extensions in HTML 5 Events.

Have a look at the new version.

There will be two BOFs at Siggraph next week related to X3DOM. Both in Room 101:

“Web3D Consortium – Declarative 3D for the Web “, 9 Aug, 2:00-3:00
“X3D and HTML5/X3DOM”, 10 Aug, 3:15-4:30

Come by if you would like to talk to x3dom developer, see some new demos or even better: Show your own related stuff.

Following up Michael’s and Jens’  Kinect-Experiment: Freezing like Han Solo earlier this year, we ported their Processing version to our instantreality platform.

Come meet us at Siggraph, booth #814, Vancouver, and get freezed through our demo and learn about the power of instantreality, X3D and X3DOM which livens every single triangle and all your 3D content in your browser — plugin-free.

The wonderful blender 2.5 tool comes with an improved X3D exporter and now X3DOM is even featured on blendernation.com. Looks like an content path we really should build on even further.

The internet is reaching the next dimension. Three-dimensional content adds value to the web. Fraunhofer IGD invites participants to discuss the future of the internet together with representatives from research and business.

What used to be only possible with additional programs will be directly visible in the browser. Together with our partners, we are working on standards which will make this possible. On August 17, 2011, we will discuss the solutions so far available on the market together with designers and users at our Science-meets-Business workshop “WWW goes 3D” in Darmstadt.

The workshop is focused on researcher, developer and user in Germany and hold in German. The programm and more informations you can find at www.goes-3d.de (in German).

We have moved our main Repository from SourceForge to GitHub. We think that this will facilitate the community development of X3DOM through the Fork and Pull convenience.

After many months of work, we’re proud to announce the release today of X3DOM 1.2. There’s plenty of cool stuff we have worked on since the last release. You can also swing by the downloads page to grab a copy of the release package.

Major Feature: Flash11/MoleHill Render backend

The new version supports an additional render-backend. The system now looks for a Flash11 plugin if the browser does not provide a SAI-Plugin or WebGL interface. This enables the user to view X3DOM pages, with some restrictions, using the Internet Explorer 9 browser. It utilizes the Adobe Flash MoleHill 3D-API for GPU-Accelerated rendering. To use Adobe Flash-based X3DOM you need the latest Adobe Flash Player Incubator build (11.01.3d).

Our x3dom.swf must either be placed in the same folder as your xhtml/html files, or you can specify a path with the swfpath-Parameter of the X3D-Node. With the X3D-Nodes backend-Parameter you can set Flash as default backend.

• At the moment the Flash-backend is still in an early beta state with most of base nodes working.
• Special features like multiple lights, shadows, CommonSurfaceShader, etc. are being worked on

Additional Changes

• Internal reorganization of sources. Node type have now their own submodule (src/nodes) and are split into groups.
• Text node is partially working now. You can use any font available to the browser. This includes WebFonts of CSS3.
• Added system to pass parameters to runtime. The use attributes with the X3D element will be deprecated in 1.3. Currently supported parameters
• Partially working MT support with on Firefox beta. Experimental.
• It is now possible to directly apply CSS styles to the X3D element.
• Fixed display problem with textures which have dimensions not to the power of two.

The X3DOM/VCST team (Johannes, Tobias, Karsten, and Yvonne — except for Timm, who has fun in Spain) is currently at Web3D 2011 in Paris for presenting our latest paper on X3DOM. So, if you’re around, feel free to ask or discuss topics…

EDIT: Below is a photo of the first “Declarative 3D – W3C Community Group Meeting”, which took place directly after the conference on June 22nd.