a xml standard for digital asset exchange -...

© Copyright Khronos Group, 2007 -

A XML standard for A XML standard for Digital Asset Exchange Digital Asset Exchange

Dr. Rémi ArnaudSony Computer Entertainment – US R&D


AgendaAgenda• Goals and accomplishments• COLLADA business model• Tools and samples• COLLADA FX• COLLADA Physics• COLLADA Roadmap• Q&A session

PS3 ducky - Image courtesy of Sony Computer Entertainment


Design Goals (1)Design Goals (1)• Content creation has become increasingly demanding

- 3D devices expands in complexity and capabilities- Size of content ever growing- Shrinking production schedules- Ever growing budgets

• DCC tools not keeping pace with technology- Dynamic content- Shader FX- Physics- Collaborative development

• Need Export and Import !- Need flexibility creating content pipeline- Enable mixing tools for better productivity- Opening the door to a variety of third party tools- Need a language – import and export required for true communication

Content production

Device capability


Design Goals (2)Design Goals (2)• Improve Asset Management System

- Assets are not files, but XML elements- Interactive development- Collaborative design

• Content pipeline processing- Contain enough information to enable creation of target optimized format- Can store both DCC centric formatted data and game engine data

- From Polygons to Triangle strips• Extensibility

- Final user can easily extend the features- Extension by substitution- Extension by addition

- Tool vendors can add elements- Tool specific data for no-loss import / export- Candidate for standardization in future releases

• Modularity- Libraries of assets- Many things can be externally referenced

• Need validation capability- Syntax to be validated, regardless of the content

- XML Schema validation- Need to enable verification of exporter and importer quality

- COLLADA needs a full fledge conformance test


ObjectivesObjectives• Raise the quality and feature set of content• Liberate content from proprietary formats and API• Bring more tools to developers/artists• Drastically improve productivity• Lower the barrier to entry for tool & middleware companies• Bring ‘advanced’ features into the main stream• Enable user content flow• Remove the wall between 3D industries (movie, game, CAD…)

Image courtesy of DAZ Production (www.daz3d.com)


COLLADA adopted by KhronosCOLLADA adopted by Khronos• COLLADA 1.4.0 adopted as industry standard by Khronos 01/06

- Not an API, COLLADA is a language- Intermediate Digital Asset Exchange format (.dae)- XML Schema technology

www.khronos.org/collada


StatusStatus• 1.4.1 released August 2006

- Patch update from 1.4.0 (January)- Very stable specification !

• Thousands of active users- 15% game developers using COLLADA today- 40% investigating the technology

- Most engines have COLLADA support- ~15,000 1.4.1 specification downloaded

• Adopted by Google Earth for 3D models- COLLADA content manipulated by mainstream users- SketchUp, 3D warehouse- Photomodeler, realviz, 3D nature ….

• More DCC tools have COLLADA support- Since COLLADA 1.0: 3dsMax, Maya, XSI- Since COLLADA 1.4.x: Blender, Houdini- Photoshop CS3 extended : 3D, with COLLADA support- Work in progress: DAZ, Modo, Lightwave

• Official conformance test in development- Early access available to Khronos members- Publicly available reference viewer and coherency test

PS3 ducky on earthImage courtesy of Google Inc

(earth.google.com)



Digital Berlin – 44000 COLLADA buildings !Image courtesy Berlin Senate Department of Urban Development


Why contribute to COLLADA ?Why contribute to COLLADA ?• There is only one good reason for standards to exist:

- Companies supporting the standard make/save money if the standard exists- Contributing is expensive (resource, IP, membership)

- Benefit need to be much higher than cost• Follow the money

- Game Console vendors make most of this money selling content (games)- Better content = more consumers = larger business- Better content tools = cheaper content = more incentive to create better content …

- (Graphics) Hardware companies make money selling GPUs.- Need to keep the market hungry for more features/performance- Need more advanced content…- Also need standard API.

- Digital Content Creation tools- Need to create content that can be used - Customers do not want their data prisoner of the tool- WARNING – Some DCC tools company want to own your data, so you always have to go

through them to get access to your own data. (undocumented binary formats, licensed API – no source code).

- Google makes money selling advertisement and technology- The more users = the more money- Content need to be attractive and entertaining- Focusing on user content


Why adding COLLADA support ?Why adding COLLADA support ?• Yet another format ?

- Reduce the number of formats you have to support – get rid of vintage formats- example: RealViz went from 6 to 1 format to support

- Grow your customer base- COLLADA let you interface with more tools, in different business sectors- Example: SketchUp entry in the game industry for rapid prototyping

- Follow COLLADA feature set and roadmap- Start with geometry and textures- Then add animation, physics, skinning ….- This provides your customer a clear roadmap, and a definite way to get there“We decided to use COLLADA because there are many features I do not yet support”

- Stop wasting money writing exporters and fighting with DCC SDK bug- Max+Maya+Softimage+…. exporters is more expensive than 1 COLLADA importer

- Reduce your support cost- COLLADA validation and coherency test- Exporters are supported, report the bug and let them do the work


Example COLLADA businessesExample COLLADA businesses• Feeling Software - contractor

- COLLADA plug-ins development for tool vendors- Gold support contracts for developers- Special projects – highly competitive due to re-use of COLLADA technology

• Pixel Academy - training- COLLADA 101 Web course- Special training sessions- Advanced follow-up trainings

- Game development with COLLADA- …

• Other business opportunities- COLLADA asset management and content pipeline tools- COLLADA asset creation (sub-contracting to game developers)- COLLADA binary distribution format (codec)- COLLADA community / user content (flikr / youtube for 3D)



COLLADA Book – AK Peter publisher


Demo reelDemo reel


Workgroups and Workgroups and COLLAborativeCOLLAborative workspacesworkspaces

• Taking advantage of the URI technology• Assembly of scene involving asset created by multiple parties

- Use reference models to externally reference 3D assets• Multi task on 3D assets (i.e. rigging, modeling, animating)

- Rig, geometry and animation are stored in different COLLADA files- They are assembled in the final scene

DCC 1

DCC2

3D character

Rig reference

3D geometry reference

3D asset (COLLADA file)

3D asset (COLLADA file)Modeler

animationAnimation fileAnimator

Rigger

DCC2


XSI COLLADA aggregator demo reelXSI COLLADA aggregator demo reel


Skeletal Bone Animation and Skeletal Bone Animation and Skinning with Skinning with ColladaCollada Models in XNAModels in XNA


Import of COLLADA models on XNAImport of COLLADA models on XNA

• This technique creates a ColladaModel.cs class


Dungeon Quest game Dungeon Quest game –– GDC07GDC07


Refinery Refinery –– Content Pipeline ToolContent Pipeline ToolFree, Open Source• Prototype tool chain• Java based user interface• C++ (dll) conditioners• Can run as a batch (command line), once conditioning pipeline established

• Triangulate• Optimize (T-mesh)• File cleaning (kmz files)• Conversion (1.4.0 -> 1.4.1)• Axis conversion (X_UP -> Y_UP)• Coherency tests are conditioners• …

Expect more conditioners in the future, or create your own


COLLADA Contest COLLADA Contest –– www.colladacontest.comwww.colladacontest.comParticipants must write one or more conditioners for the COLLADA

Refinery. Example entries are:• An importer conditioner (load .3ds, .obj, .x3d, .vrml, cad, terrain ) • An exporter conditioner (to a game engine, or other formats .3ds, .obj, .x3d) • Data processing for content pipeline (processing of geometry, optimization,

conversion) • Debugging and monitoring tools (statistics, diff tool) • Automatic LOD generation - takes a geometry and creates a specified

number of LOD geometries with names like (GeometryID)_LOD_1



Papervision 3D – www.papervision3d.comCOLLADA in FLASH


NVIDIA NVIDIA FXComposerFXComposer 2.0 2.0 -- a breakthrougha breakthrough

Rapid shader authoring


User Interface OverviewUser Interface Overview• Management

- Project Explorer - Library Viewer

• Coding- Modify shader code

• Properties- Modify parameter values

• Preview- Multiple platform views

• Info- Tasks and errors- Python scripting - Shader Performance

• Textures- Explore image resources- View render targets

Properties

PreviewInfoTextures

CodingManagement


Easy Shader Performance TuningEasy Shader Performance Tuning


Mental Mill Artist EditionMental Mill Artist Edition


Streamlined Pipeline IntegrationStreamlined Pipeline Integration


COLLADA FX Demo ReelCOLLADA FX Demo Reel



Little Big Planet – PLAYSTATION 3Image courtesy Sony Computer Entertainment


Why COLLADA Physics ?Why COLLADA Physics ?

• Standard physics representation with industry support

• Make use of growing number of available tools and assets

• Open standard allows your own extensions

• Improve compatibility between physics tools

• Researchers can start using it- Stanford bunny with physics properties

• Collaboration and Benchmarking


‘‘Rube GoldbergRube Goldberg’’ Physics DemoPhysics Demo

• Demo entries from a Bullet Physics Contest 2007

• Converted to COLLADA Physics

• Difference in physics behavior is a challenge for a standard

• COLLADA Physics baked into COLLADA animation

• COLLADA RT Viewer with physics• Eurographics physics competition• http://gv2.cs.tcd.ie/eg07/

Images courtesy of moobins.com and Samuel Muse


FeaturesFeatures

• Collision volumes- Box, sphere, capsule, cylinder, convex mesh, concave triangle mesh, composite etc.

• Rigid-bodies- Mass, inertia, dynamic (movable) or static (inactive), collision shape

• Constraints- Generic representation with motors, springs and limits, for ragdolls etc.

• Physics materials- Friction, restitution


Analytic shapesAnalytic shapes


Features continuedFeatures continued

• Complex physics models- Grouping of multiple rigid bodies and constraints

• Instancing- Re-use of collision shapes, rigid bodies, physics materials, constraints and physics models

• Force-fields- Gravity, wind etc.

• Multiple simulation environments- Multiple physics scenes

• Extensible for custom properties- Attach your own data to elements


Rigid Body ExampleRigid Body Example

<library type="PHYSICS"><rigid_body id="hammerHandleRigidBody"><shape><mass> 0.25 </mass><inertia> ... </inertia><cylinder><height> 8.0 </height><radius> 0.5 0.5 </radius>

</cylinder><physics_material url="#WoodPhysMtl"/></shape>

</rigid_body></library>

<library type="PHYSICS"><rigid_body id="hammerHandleRigidBody"><shape><mass> 0.25 </mass><inertia> ... </inertia><cylinder><height> 8.0 </height><radius> 0.5 0.5 </radius>

</cylinder><physics_material url="#WoodPhysMtl"/></shape>

</rigid_body></library>

<library type="GEOMETRY"><geometry id="hammerHandleToRender"><mesh>

...</mesh>

</geometry></library>

<library type="GEOMETRY"><geometry id="hammerHandleToRender"><mesh>

...</mesh>

</geometry></library>


Constraint ExampleConstraint Example

• Generic representation- X & Y min/max angles: elliptical “swing cone”- Z min/max angles: “twist” range

<rigid_constraint id="rigidHingeConstraint"><ref_attachment body="#wallRigidBody">

<translate sid="translate">5 0 0</translate></ref_attachment><attachment body="#doorRigidBody">

<translate sid="translate">0 8 0</translate><rotate sid="rotateX">0 1 0 -45.0</rotate>

</attachment><technique_common>

<limits><swing_cone_and_twist>

<min> 0 90 0 </min><max> 0 -90 0 </max>

</swing_cone_and_twist></limits>

</technique_common></rigid_constraint>

<rigid_constraint id="rigidHingeConstraint"><ref_attachment body="#wallRigidBody">

<translate sid="translate">5 0 0</translate></ref_attachment><attachment body="#doorRigidBody">

<translate sid="translate">0 8 0</translate><rotate sid="rotateX">0 1 0 -45.0</rotate>

</attachment><technique_common>

<limits><swing_cone_and_twist>

<min> 0 90 0 </min><max> 0 -90 0 </max>

</swing_cone_and_twist></limits>

</technique_common></rigid_constraint>


COLLADA Physics toolsCOLLADA Physics tools

• Feeling Software and Ageia- 3ds Max plugin with COLLADA Physics export- Maya ColladaMaya plugin exporting Maya

dynamics and PhysX- Maya Nima plugin- Feeling Viewer has physics simulation

• XSI- Physics export planned

• Blender 2.43- COLLADA Physics export and import

Images courtesy of Feeling Software (www.feelingsoftware.com),and AGEIA (www.ageia.com)


Other standalone physics toolsOther standalone physics tools

• Create Dynamics- Convex decomposition- Cloth and deformable skinning authoring

• Open Physics Composer- Early prototype, steered by feedback- Similar idea to FX Composer, but for physics

• Scythe Physics Editor- Multiple physics engine support

• Several in-house, command-line or stand-alone physics tools


SDK support for COLLADA PhysicsSDK support for COLLADA Physics

• Ageia PhysX SDK- Provides NxuStream library with COLLADA Physics support

• Bullet Physics SDK- Open source with COLLADA Physics import and export samples

• COLLADA DOM- Open source lossless COLLADA import and export based on libxml- Autogenerated from the COLLADA XML Schema

• FCollada- Open source import/export library by Feeling Software- Used in ColladaMaya, ColladaMax plugins and various other tools



COLLADA training DVDwww.pixelboxacademy.tk


COLLADA AutomationCOLLADA Automation

• IK, Robot collision, Programming, Security, Human interaction• Virtual factory, asset identification/management, cabling• Presentations (rendering), training, simulation• Interchange – CAE / CAD / Robot Simulation / PLC / …

Images courtesy Daimler Chrysler


COLLADA for User Interface objects ?COLLADA for User Interface objects ?Interested parties: OpenVG WG, Omegame, …

Image courtesy of Omegame (www.omegame.com)


No more files !!!No more files !!!• Artist feedback loop is a major issue for embeded content development

- Modify asset in tool, then export (wait), then load asset on target (wait), and then look at result with a different user interface

• Asset management based on opaque files- Can’t do a diff between two assets !- Cannot do a merge- All the software productivity tools are missing from content development

• Using an interactive database system, instead of a file system- Send updates in real time to the database- Listen to database changes – not all applications can handle this.- No more import/export- No problem if the tool crashes- Collaborative development- Simultaneous display of model on the target platform

• Collaboration COLLADA / Verse- Demonstrated at GDC (PS3/Windows/Linux/Mac)- Using COLLADA to load data in database and save data from database when work is done- Modified COLLADA DOM to listen to Verse database and real-time display on PS3


LinksLinks• Khronos www.kronos.org/collada• COLLADA www.collada.org• Ageia www.ageia.com• Bullet Physics bulletphysics.com• Scythe Physics editor www.physicseditor.com• Feeling Software www.feelingsoftware.com• John Ratcliff’s blog codesuppository.blogspot.com• Softimage|XSI www.softimage.wiki.avid.com/index.php/COLLADA_for_XSI• Blender COLLADA colladablender.illusoft.com/downloads.html• Houdini www.sidefx.com/download• COLLADA DOM/RT/Refinery sourceforge.net/projects/collada-dom• Open Scene Graph www.openscenegraph.org• Remograph www.remograph.com• C4 engine www.terathon.com/c4engine/index.php


More linksMore links• DAZ 3D www.daz3d.com• ANARK www.anark.com• Papervision3D www.papervision3d.org• Xnormal www.xnormal.net• Lightsprint lightsprint.com• Adobe Photoshop www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/photoshopextended• COLLADA book www.akpeters.com/product.asp?ProdCode=2876• Web3D / Khronos liaison www.web3d.org/news/archives/2007_04.php#000779• COLLADA contest www.colladacontest.com• 3d warehouse sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse• Google Earth earth.google.com• nVidia FXComposer 2.0 developer.nvidia.com/page/home.html• RealViz www.realviz.com• 3D nature www.3dnature.com

Apologies to those not mentioned


Questions ?Questions ?

Thank You!Thank You!

a xml standard for digital asset exchange -...

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