COLLADA
Encyclopedia
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 asset
s 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
.
by Rémi Arnaud and Mark C. Barnes, 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. 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 of commercial game studios and game engines have adopted the standard.
Members of the developer team:
(DCC) tool to another application. Applications exist to support the usage of several DCCs, including:
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.
File format
A file format is a particular way that information is encoded for storage in a computer file.Since a disk drive, or indeed any computer storage, can store only bits, the computer must have some way of converting information to 0s and 1s and vice-versa. There are different kinds of formats for...
for interactive 3D applications. COLLADA is managed by the nonprofit technology consortium, the Khronos Group
Khronos Group
The Khronos Group is a not-for-profit member-funded industry consortium based in Beaverton, Oregon, focused on the creation of open standard, royalty-free APIs to enable the authoring and accelerated playback of dynamic media on a wide variety of platforms and devices...
.
COLLADA defines an open standard
Open standard
An open standard is a standard that is publicly available and has various rights to use associated with it, and may also have various properties of how it was designed . There is no single definition and interpretations vary with usage....
XML schema
XML schema
An XML schema is a description of a type of XML document, typically expressed in terms of constraints on the structure and content of documents of that type, above and beyond the basic syntactical constraints imposed by XML itself...
for exchanging digital asset
Digital asset
A digital asset is any item of text or media that has been formatted into a binary source that includes the right to use it. A digital file without the right to use it is not an asset. Digital assets are categorised in three major groups which may be defined as textual content , images and...
s 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
Filename extension
A filename extension is a suffix to the name of a computer file applied to indicate the encoding of its contents or usage....
.
History
Originally created at Sony Computer EntertainmentSony Computer Entertainment
Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc. is a major video game company specializing in a variety of areas in the video game industry, and is a wholly owned subsidiary and part of the Consumer Products & Services Group of Sony...
by Rémi Arnaud and Mark C. Barnes, it has since become the property of the Khronos Group
Khronos Group
The Khronos Group is a not-for-profit member-funded industry consortium based in Beaverton, Oregon, focused on the creation of open standard, royalty-free APIs to enable the authoring and accelerated playback of dynamic media on a wide variety of platforms and devices...
, a member-funded industry consortium, which now shares the copyright with Sony. The COLLADA schema and specification are freely available from the Khronos Group. The COLLADA DOM uses the SCEA Shared Source License.
Several graphics companies collaborated with Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
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
Alias Systems Corporation
Alias Systems Corporation , headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, was a software company that produced high-end 3D graphics software. The company was formed in 1995 when Silicon Graphics bought Alias Research, which was founded in 1983, and Wavefront Technologies, founded in 1984, then merged...
, Criterion Software, Autodesk, Inc.
Autodesk
Autodesk, Inc. is an American multinational corporation that focuses on 3D design software for use in the architecture, engineering, construction, manufacturing, media and entertainment industries. The company was founded in 1982 by John Walker, a coauthor of the first versions of the company's...
, and Avid Technology
Avid Technology
Avid Technology, Inc. is an American company specializing in video and audio production technology; specifically, digital non-linear editing systems, management and distribution services. It was created in 1987 and became a publicly traded company in 1993...
. Dozens of commercial game studios and game engines have adopted the standard.
Members of the developer team:
- Lilli Thompson
Software tools
COLLADA was originally intended as an intermediate format for transporting data from one digital content creationDigital content creation
Digital Content Creation is a modern term denoting the creation and modification of digital content, such as animation, audio, graphics, images and video, as part of the production process before presentation in its final medium. This large field encompasses many segments such as 3D graphics,...
(DCC) tool to another application. Applications exist to support the usage of several DCCs, including:
- 3ds Max (ColladaMax)
- Adobe PhotoshopAdobe PhotoshopAdobe Photoshop is a graphics editing program developed and published by Adobe Systems Incorporated.Adobe's 2003 "Creative Suite" rebranding led to Adobe Photoshop 8's renaming to Adobe Photoshop CS. Thus, Adobe Photoshop CS5 is the 12th major release of Adobe Photoshop...
- ArtiosCADArtiosCADArtiosCAD is a software program dedicated to the design of folded packaging, mainly corrugated boxes and folding carton.ArtiosCAD is designed in Ludlow, Massachusetts in a subsidiary of EskoArtwork, with headquarters in Gent, Belgium....
- BlenderBlender (software)Blender is a free and open-source 3D computer graphics software product used for creating animated films, visual effects, interactive 3D applications or video games. The current release version is 2.60, and was released on October 19, 2011...
- BryceBryce (software)Bryce is a 3D modeling, rendering and animation program specializing in fractal landscapes. The name is taken from Bryce Canyon—a rugged region with many of the same landscapes that were first simulated with the software.- History :...
- CarraraCarrara (software)Carrara is a general purpose 3D figure posing, modeling, landscape design, rigid and soft-body dynamics, animation and rendering application. Carrara is now owned and developed by DAZ 3D...
- Cinema 4DCinema 4DCINEMA 4D is a 3D modeling, animation and rendering application developed by MAXON Computer GmbH of Friedrichsdorf, Germany. It is capable of procedural and polygonal/subd modeling, animating, lighting, texturing, rendering, and common features found in 3d modelling applications.- Overview:The...
(MAXON) - CityEngineCityEngineCityEngine, is a 3D modeling application specialized in the generation of three dimensional urban environments. With the procedural modeling approach, CityEngine enables the efficient creation of detailed large-scale 3D city models with merely a few clicks of the mouse instead of the time...
- CityScape
- DAZ StudioDAZ StudioDAZ Studio is a 3D figure illustration/animation application released by DAZ 3D Inc. It is compatible with most files intended for use by Poser. It is available free of charge . Version 1.0 was released in Fall 2005. Version 4.0.0.335 is the current release as of June 29, 2011...
- EskoArtwork Studio
- GPureGPureGPure is software application to prepare 3D scenes from Digital mockup for :* project review,* 3D animation,* content editing,* training tools ,* interactive technical documentation* physical simulation,...
- HoudiniHoudini (software)Houdini is a high-end 3D animation package developed by Side Effects Software which is headquartered in Toronto, Canada. It is a rewrite of the PRISMS ecosystem of standalone tools. Its chief distinction from other packages is that it has been designed as a purely procedural environment...
(Side Effects Software) - LightWave 3D (v 9.5)
- MayaMaya (software)Autodesk Maya , commonly shortened to Maya, is 3D computer graphics software that runs on Microsoft Windows, Mac OS and Linux, originally developed by Alias Systems Corporation and currently owned and developed by Autodesk, Inc. It is used to create interactive 3D applications, including video...
(ColladaMaya) - MeshLabMeshLabMeshLab, is a free 3D mesh processing software program; MeshLab, started in late 2005, is an open-source general-purpose system aimed to help the processing of the typical not-so-small unstructured 3D models that arise in the pipeline of processing of the data coming from 3D scanning...
- modoModo (software)modo is a polygon and subdivision surface modeling, sculpting, 3D painting, animation and rendering package developed by Luxology, LLC. The program incorporates features such as n-gons, 3D painting and edge weighting, and runs on Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows platforms.-History:modo was created...
- OpenRAVEOpenRAVEOpen Robotics Automation Virtual Environment provides an environment for testing, developing, and deploying motion planning algorithms in real-world robotics applications. The main focus is on simulation and analysis of kinematic and geometric information related to motion planning. OpenRAVE’s...
- PoserPoserPoser is a 3D CGI rendering and animation software program optimized for models that depict the human figure in three-dimensional form, mostly used to pose and animate the figures in a similar way as a mannequin...
Pro (v 7.0) - Presagis Creator
- Shade 3DShade 3DShade is a 3D modeling, rendering, and animation software program developed by E Frontier Japan and published by Mirye Software.-History:Shade was first published in Japan in the late 1980s, making it one of the oldest 3D applications on Mac OS and Windows. E Frontier, a Japanese software company...
(E FrontierE Frontierwas founded in 1999 and is a major developer and publisher of graphic design and consumer entertainment titles. E Frontier is based in Tokyo, Japan. E Frontier develops Shade 3D, a modeling, rendering and animation software on Windows and Mac OS X....
, Mirye) - SketchUpSketchUpSketchUp is a 3D modeling program marketed by Google and designed for architectural, civil, and mechanical engineers as well as filmmakers, game developers,...
- SoftimageSoftimage XSIAutodesk Softimage, or simply Softimage is a 3D computer graphics application, owned by Autodesk, for producing 3D computer graphics, 3D modeling, and computer animation...
- Strata 3DStrata 3DStrata 3D is a commercial 3D modeling and animation program developed in St. George, Utah by Corastar. It is the current incarnation of a program that was previously called Strata Studio Pro and StrataVision 3D....
- Ürban PAD
- VUEVUEIn computing, Visual User Environment was Hewlett-Packard's Desktop environment for the X Window System. It was a rival and precursor to the Open Group's CDE. Work began on VUE in 1988 at Apollo Computer for use with Domain/OS, as an alternative to Apollo's standard DM and wmgr...
9 xStream (e-on software) - Wings 3DWings 3DWings 3D is a free, open source, subdivision modeler inspired by Nendo and Mirai from Izware. Wings 3D is named after the winged-edge data structure it uses internally to store coordinate and adjacency data, and is commonly referred to by its users simply as Wings.Wings 3D is available for most...
Game engines
Although originally intended as an interchange format, many game engines now support COLLADA natively, including:- Ardor3DArdor3DArdor3D is a scengraph based 3D game engine, written entirely in Java and utilizing OpenGL for high performance gaming and visualization.-History:...
- C4 EngineC4 EngineThe C4 Engine is a computer game engine developed by Terathon Software that is used to create 3D games and other types of interactive virtual simulations for Windows , Mac OS X , and PlayStation 3...
- CryEngine 2
- GLGEGLGE (programming library)GLGE is a programming library for use with WebGL and JavaScript.GLGE is a JavaScript library intended to ease the use of WebGL; which is basically a native browser JavaScript API giving direct access to OpenGL ES 2, allowing for the use of hardware accelerated 2D/3D applications without having to...
- Irrlicht EngineIrrlicht EngineIrrlicht is an open source 3D engine written in C++. It is cross-platform, officially running on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and Windows CE and due to its open nature ports to other systems are available, including Xbox, PlayStation Portable, SymbianOS and iPhone.Irrlicht is known for its small size...
- ShiVaShiVa (game engine)ShiVa3D is a nextgen 3D game engine with a graphical editor designed to create applications and video games for the Web, Consoles and Mobile devices....
- Torque 3D
- UnityUnity (game engine)Unity is an integrated authoring tool for creating 3D video games or other interactive content such as architectural visualizations or real-time 3D animations. Unity's development environment runs on Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X, and the games it produces can be run on Windows, Mac, Xbox 360,...
- Unreal engineUnreal EngineThe Unreal Engine is a game engine developed by Epic Games, first illustrated in the 1998 first-person shooter game Unreal. Although primarily developed for first-person shooters, it has been successfully used in a variety of other genres, including stealth, MMORPGs and RPGs...
Applications
Some games and 3D applications have started to support COLLADA:- ArcGISArcGISArcGIS is a suite consisting of a group of geographic information system software products produced by Esri.ArcGIS is a system for working with maps and geographic information...
- TNTmipsTNTmipsTNTmips is a geospatial analysis system providing a fully featured GIS, RDBMS, and automated image processing system with CAD, TIN, surface modeling, map layout and innovative data publishing tools. TNTmips has a single integrated system with an identical interface, functionality, and geodata...
- Google EarthGoogle EarthGoogle Earth is a virtual globe, map and geographical information program that was originally called EarthViewer 3D, and was created by Keyhole, Inc, a Central Intelligence Agency funded company acquired by Google in 2004 . It maps the Earth by the superimposition of images obtained from satellite...
- (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 SketchUpSketchUpSketchUp is a 3D modeling program marketed by Google and designed for architectural, civil, and mechanical engineers as well as filmmakers, game developers,...
Pro (or any version of SketchUp starting with 8.0) can also be used to create .KMZ files: a zip file containing a KMLKeyhole Markup LanguageKeyhole Markup Language is an XML notation for expressing geographic annotation and visualization within Internet-based, two-dimensional maps and three-dimensional Earth browsers. KML was developed for use with Google Earth, which was originally named Keyhole Earth Viewer. It was created by...
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.
- OpenSimulatorOpenSimulatorOpenSimulator is an open-source server platform for hosting virtual worlds. It is compatible with the client for Second Life and can host alternative worlds with differing feature sets with multiple protocols.-Features:...
- Second LifeSecond LifeSecond Life is an online virtual world developed by Linden Lab. It was launched on June 23, 2003. A number of free client programs, or Viewers, enable Second Life users, called Residents, to interact with each other through avatars...
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, physicsPhysics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
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
Bullet (software)
Bullet is an open source physics engine featuring 3D collision detection, soft body dynamics, and rigid body dynamics. It is used in games, and in visual effects in movies. The Bullet physics library is published under the zlib license. Erwin Coumans, its main author, worked for Sony Computer...
, Open Dynamics Engine
Open Dynamics Engine
The Open Dynamics Engine is a physics engine in C/C++. Its two main components are a rigid body dynamics simulation engine and a collision detection engine...
, PAL
Physics Abstraction Layer
The Physics Abstraction Layer is an open source cross-platform physical simulation API abstraction system. It is similar to a physics engine wrapper, however it is far more flexible providing extended abilities...
and NVIDIA's PhysX
PhysX
PhysX is a proprietary realtime physics engine middleware SDK developed by Ageia with the purchase of ETH Zurich spin-off NovodeX in 2004...
. 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
Physics Abstraction Layer
The Physics Abstraction Layer is an open source cross-platform physical simulation API abstraction system. It is similar to a physics engine wrapper, however it is far more flexible providing extended abilities...
provides support for COLLADA Physics to multiple physics engines that do not natively provide COLLADA support including JigLib, OpenTissue, Tokamak physics engine
Tokamak physics engine
The Tokamak Game Physics SDK is an open-source physics engine.At its beginnings, Tokamak was free for non commercial uses only. Since May 2007, it has become open sourced under a BSD License...
and True Axis. PAL
Physics Abstraction Layer
The Physics Abstraction Layer is an open source cross-platform physical simulation API abstraction system. It is similar to a physics engine wrapper, however it is far more flexible providing extended abilities...
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 languageCg programming languageCg is a high-level shading language developed by Nvidia in close collaboration with Microsoft for programming vertex and pixel shaders...
, GLSLGLSLOpenGL Shading Language , is a high-level shading language based on the syntax of the C programming language...
, and HLSL. First release through Khronos. - 1.4.1: July 2006; primarily a patch release.
- 1.5.0: August 2008; added kinematicsKinematicsKinematics is the branch of classical mechanics that describes the motion of bodies and systems without consideration of the forces that cause the motion....
and B-rep as well as some FX redesign and OpenGL ESOpenGL ESOpenGL for Embedded Systems is a subset of the OpenGL 3D graphics application programming interface designed for embedded systems such as mobile phones, PDAs, and video game consoles. OpenGL ES is managed by the not-for-profit technology consortium, the Khronos Group, Inc.- Versions :Several...
support
See also
- WebGLWebGLWebGL is a software library that extends the capability of the JavaScript programming language to allow it to generate interactive 3D graphics within any compatible web browser...
- FBXFBXFBX is technology and a file format owned and developed by Autodesk. It is used to provide interoperability between digital content creation applications.-History:...
- U3D
- OpenFlight
- X3DX3DX3D is the ISO standard XML-based file format for representing 3D computer graphics, the successor to the Virtual Reality Modeling Language . X3D features extensions to VRML X3D is the ISO standard XML-based file format for representing 3D computer graphics, the successor to the Virtual Reality...
/ VRMLVRMLVRML is a standard file format for representing 3-dimensional interactive vector graphics, designed particularly with the World Wide Web in mind... - 3DMLW (3D Markup Language for Web)3DMLW3DMLW is an XML-based Markup Language for representing interactive 3D and 2D content on the World Wide Web. It serves as a cornerstone for a broader platform also referred to as 3DMLW.3DMLW platform=...
- List of vector graphics markup languages
- iED 3D/VR