"We have been pleasantly surprised to find how fast game developers picking up and working with COLLADA as soon as we made it available for download," said Mark Barnes, chairman of the COLLADA work group. "COLLADA has been available for just one year as an open standard, and every major software tool already supports COLLADA and it is being used in the development of literally thousands of games."
Widespread 3D Authoring Tools Support
COLLADA 1.4 is now supported by the industry's leading 3D authoring tools including 3ds Max, Blender, DAZ Studio, Feeling Viewer, FX Composer, Google Earth, Houdini, Maya, Sketchup, and XSI as well as Khronos' COLLADA Test Framework, COLLADA DOM/FX/RT/Refinery.
DAZ Productions Inc., is a new Khronos member and a leading developer of professional quality 3D models and software, has announced the immediate release of their COLLADA exporter. Users of DAZ Studio software can now export digital content into the COLLADA file format for use within any other COLLADA developer tool. Both DAZ Studio and the COLLADA exporter are available at no charge on the DAZ3D.com website.
"DAZ is moving with the momentum of the industry and has just joined Khronos to help evolve the COLLADA standard -- we are fortunate to be among such luminaries in the 3D world," said Dan Farr, president of DAZ Productions. "We're also very excited about the prospect of game developers now being able to more readily take advantage of our rich library of 3D content -- COLLADA is fulfilling its promise of enabling a thriving tools and content ecosystem that can benefit tools vendors and content developers alike."
Google Earth adds COLLADA Support
Google Earth offers a virtual globe of the planet which users can populate with maps, overlays, and 3D models. The new Google Earth v4 supports import of COLLADA through KML v2.1 to enable users to import COLLADA models such as buildings, monuments, and statues with full support for textures and increased performance through level of detailing for both place marks and high-resolution imagery.
Feeling Software announces COLLADA Viewer
The Feeling Viewer from Feeling Software now supports all the features available in the COLLADA 3D file format including advanced shading effects, complex animations (e.g. skinning and morphing) and physics. The underlying C++ engine is extensible and has been integrated in several third party applications. A free windows version download is available at http://www.feelingsoftware.com/content/view/40/66/lang/en/
Unreal Engine supports COLLADA
Unreal Engine 3 is a complete game development framework for next-generation consoles and gaming PC's, providing the vast array of core technologies, content creation tools, and support infrastructure required by top game developers. It is using COLLADA to transport content between all the DCC tools to the game engine tools. More information at http://www.unrealtechnology.com
First COLLADA Book
During SIGGRAPH 2006, AK Peters will be releasing the first book about COLLADA: "COLLADA: Sailing the Gulf of 3D Digital Content Creation." This book explains in detail how to use the COLLADA technology in a project utilizing 3D assets, and ultimately how to create an effective content creation pipeline for the most complex development. It was created as a guide to the COLLADA 1.4 specification with the goal of providing readers with all the information that will help them understand the concepts, learn how the technology is already implemented by various tools, and provide guidance for using COLLADA in their applications.
"This book makes available the results of a joint industry effort, spearheaded by Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc., to create a standard for digital asset exchange that enables Playstation(R) 3 to bring more realistic content to life and into the home like never before."
Ken Kutaragi, President and CEO Sony Computer Entertainment
COLLADA at SIGGRAPH 2006, Boston, July 31st to August 4th 2006
Any members of the press and industry are invited to visit the Khronos Booth #611 to see demonstrations by Khronos Group members and to attend any Khronos-sponsored events:
-- Tech Talk: OpenGL ES, OpenVG & OpenKODE
Wednesday 2nd August 10AM-3:30PM, Room 206A
-- OpenGL BOF - Wednesday 2nd August 4-6PM Room 206A
-- COLLADA BOF & Social Event - Wednesday 2nd August 6-8PM Room
206A
-- OpenGL ES BOF - Thursday 3rd August 10AM-12PM Room 251
-- Tech Talk: COLLADA - Thursday 3rd August 12-2PM Room 251
More details at
http://www.khronos.org/news/events/detail/siggraph_2006
About Khronos
The Khronos Group is a member-funded industry consortium focused on the creation of open standards such as OpenKODE(TM), OpenGL(R) ES, OpenMAX(TM), OpenVG(TM), OpenSL ES(TM), OpenML(TM) and COLLADA(TM) to enable the authoring and acceleration of dynamic media on a wide variety of platforms and devices. All Khronos members are able to contribute to the development of Khronos specifications, are empowered to vote at various stages before public deployment, and are able to accelerate the delivery of their cutting-edge media platforms and applications through early access to specification drafts and conformance tests. Please go to www.khronos.org for more information.
Khronos, OpenKODE, OpenVG, OpenMAX and OpenSL ES are trademarks of the Khronos Group Inc. COLLADA is a trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. used by permission by Khronos. OpenGL and OpenML are registered trademarks and the OpenGL ES logo is a trademark of Silicon Graphics Inc. used by permission by Khronos. All other product names, trademarks, and/or company names are used solely for identification and belong to their respective owners.
Contact:
Khronos Group Public Relations Elizabeth Riegel, 740-649-7755 Email Contact