- COLLADA
-
COLLADA 
Filename extension .daeDeveloped by Sony Computer Entertainment,
Khronos GroupInitial release October 2004 Latest release 1.5.0 / August 2008 Type of format 3D computer graphics Extended from XML Website collada.org COLLADA is a COLLAborative Design Activity for establishing an interchange file format for interactive 3D applications. COLLADA is managed by the nonprofit technology consortium, the Khronos Group.
COLLADA defines an open standard XML schema for exchanging digital assets among various graphics software applications that might otherwise store their assets in incompatible file formats. COLLADA documents that describe digital assets are XML files, usually identified with a .dae (digital asset exchange) filename extension.
Contents
History
Originally created at Sony Computer Entertainment by Rémi Arnaud and Mark C. Barnes,[1] it has since become the property of the Khronos Group, a member-funded industry consortium, which now shares the copyright with Sony. The COLLADA schema and specification are freely available from the Khronos Group[2]. The COLLADA DOM uses the SCEA Shared Source License.
Several graphics companies collaborated with Sony from COLLADA's beginnings to create a tool that would be useful to the widest possible audience, and COLLADA continues to evolve through the efforts of Khronos contributors. Early collaborators included Alias Systems Corporation, Criterion Software, Autodesk, Inc., and Avid Technology. Dozens[quantify] of commercial game studios and game engines have adopted the standard.
Members of the developer team:
- Lilli Thompson[3]
Software tools
COLLADA was originally intended as an intermediate format for transporting data from one digital content creation (DCC) tool to another application. Applications exist to support the usage of several DCCs, including:
- 3ds Max (ColladaMax)
- Adobe Photoshop
- ArtiosCAD
- Blender
- Bryce
- Carrara
- Cinema 4D (MAXON)
- CityEngine
- CityScape
- DAZ Studio
- EskoArtwork Studio
- GPure
- Houdini (Side Effects Software)
- LightWave 3D (v 9.5)
- Maya (ColladaMaya)
- MeshLab
- modo
- OpenRAVE
- Poser Pro (v 7.0)
- Presagis Creator
- Shade 3D (E Frontier, Mirye)
- SketchUp
- Softimage|XSI
- Strata 3D
- Ürban PAD
- VUE 9 xStream (e-on software)
- Wings 3D
Game engines
Although originally intended as an interchange format, many game engines now support COLLADA natively, including:
- Ardor3D
- C4 Engine
- CryEngine 2
- GLGE
- Irrlicht Engine
- ShiVa
- Torque 3D
- Unity
- Unreal engine
Applications
Some games and 3D applications have started to support COLLADA:
- ArcGIS
- TNTmips
- Google Earth - (release 4) has adopted COLLADA (1.4) as its native format for describing the objects populating the earth. Users can simply drag and drop a COLLADA (.dae) file on top of the virtual Earth.
- Google SketchUp Pro (or any version of SketchUp starting with 8.0) can also be used to create .KMZ files: a zip file containing a KML file, a COLLADA (.dae) file, and all the texture images.
- Mac OS X 10.6's Preview allows opening collada files for viewing in 3D.
- OpenSimulator
- Second Life
Libraries
There are several libraries available to read and write COLLADA files under programmatic control:
- COLLADA DOM (C++) - The COLLADA DOM is generated at compile-time from the COLLADA schema. It provides a low-level interface that eliminates the need for hand-written parsing routines, but is limited to reading and writing only one version of COLLADA, making it difficult to upgrade as new versions are released.
- OpenCOLLADA (C++) - The OpenCOLLADA project provides the next generation plugins for 3ds Max & Maya and the sources of utility libraries which were developed for the plugins.
- FCollada (C++) - A utility library available from Feeling Software. In contrast to the COLLADA DOM, Feeling Software's FCollada provides a higher-level interface. FCollada is used in ColladaMaya, ColladaMax, and several commercial game engines. The development of the open source part was discontinued by Feeling Software in 2008. The company continues to support its paying customers and licenses improved versions of its software.
- pycollada (python) - A python module for creating, editing and loading COLLADA. The library allows the application to load a COLLADA file and interact with it as a python object. In addition, it supports creating a collada python object from scratch, as well as in-place editing.
Physics
As of version 1.4, physics support was added to the COLLADA standard. The goal is to allow content creators to define various physical attributes in visual scenes. For example, one can define surface material properties such as friction. Furthermore, content creators can define the physical attributes for the objects in the scene. This is done by defining the rigid bodies that should be linked to the visual representations. More features include support for ragdolls, collision volumes, physical constraints between physical objects, and global physical properties such as gravitation.
Physics middleware products that support this standard include Bullet Physics Library, Open Dynamics Engine, PAL and NVIDIA's PhysX. These products support by reading the abstract found in the COLLADA file and transferring it into a form that the middleware can support and represent in a physical simulation. This also enables different middleware and tools to exchange physics data in a standardized manner.
The Physics Abstraction Layer provides support for COLLADA Physics to multiple physics engines that do not natively provide COLLADA support including JigLib, OpenTissue, Tokamak physics engine and True Axis. PAL also provides support for COLLADA to physics engines that also feature a native interface.
Versions
- 1.0: October 2004
- 1.2: February 2005
- 1.3: June 2005
- 1.4.0: January 2006; added features such as character skinning and morph targets, rigid body dynamics, support for OpenGL ES materials, and shader effects for multiple shading languages including the Cg programming language, GLSL, and HLSL. First release through Khronos.
- 1.4.1: July 2006; primarily a patch release.
- 1.5.0: August 2008; added kinematics and B-rep as well as some FX redesign and OpenGL ES support[4]
See also
- WebGL
- FBX
- U3D
- OpenFlight
- X3D / VRML
- 3DMLW (3D Markup Language for Web)
- List of vector graphics markup languages
- iED 3D/VR
References
- ^ "COLLADA Sailing the Gulf of 3D Digital Content Creation". 2006-12. http://www.akpeters.com/product.asp?ProdCode=2876.
- ^ "COLLADA FAQ". 2011-08. https://collada.org/mediawiki/index.php/COLLADA_FAQ#Is_COLLADA_Open_Source.3F.
- ^ Building Game Development Tools with App Engine, GWT, and WebGL, Google i/o 2011, Lilli Thompson.
- ^ "Khronos Releases Collada 1.5 Specification". 2008-08-07. http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=19729. Retrieved 2008-10-13.
External links
- Official homepage
- COLLADA website
- COLLADA DOM
- FCollada
- OpenCOLLADA Project
- pycollada
- ColladaLoader
- GLC_Player
Vector graphics markup languages and file formats By type 2D3DSee also Categories:- Computer file formats
- CAD file formats
- XML-based standards
- 3D graphics software
- Graphics standards
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
