3DMLW ('' 3D Markup Language for Web'') is a discontinued open-source project, and a XML-based

Markup Language Markup language refers to a text-encoding system consisting of a set of symbols inserted in a text document to control its structure, formatting, or the relationship between its parts. Markup is often used to control the display of the document ...

for representing interactive 3D and 2D

content Content or contents may refer to: Media * Content (media), information or experience provided to audience or end-users by publishers or media producers ** Content industry, an umbrella term that encompasses companies owning and providing mas ...

on the

World Wide Web The World Wide Web (WWW), commonly known as the Web, is an information system enabling documents and other web resources to be accessed over the Internet. Documents and downloadable media are made available to the network through web se ...

. The project has been inactive since 2009; as of 2016, the website, including the documentation, is no longer available.

3DMLW platform

The 3DMLW platform is an

open-source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...

software suite aimed at showing dynamic 3D content. It included its own scripting language for software design, and a format support for 3D models.

3DMLW language

3DMLW is an XML standard 1.0 based markup language that allows for

data exchange Data exchange is the process of taking data structured under a ''source'' schema and transforming it into a ''target'' schema, so that the target data is an accurate representation of the source data.A. Doan, A. Halevy, and Z. Ives.Principles of da ...

between

applications Application may refer to: Mathematics and computing * Application software, computer software designed to help the user to perform specific tasks ** Application layer, an abstraction layer that specifies protocols and interface methods used in a c ...

linked with 3DMLW plug-in interface. A schema definition is provided for verifying the notation with 3rd party software such as jEdit or other XML editors capable of checking XSD constraints.

3DMLW renderer

The rendering engine uses industry standard

OpenGL OpenGL (Open Graphics Library) is a cross-language, cross-platform application programming interface (API) for rendering 2D and 3D vector graphics. The API is typically used to interact with a graphics processing unit (GPU), to achieve hardwa ...

. It can be plugged into 3DMLW Plug-in Interface and consists of a scene library and a graphics library, which provides an optimized rendering pipeline for the scene library structures. The scene library can be utilized independently for the manipulation or conversion of meshes without rendering them.

3DMLW plug-in interface

The plug-in interface mediates input events and output from host windows (e.g. web browsers) or an independent output window. It is extendible to allow integration into 3rd party software. Native support has been implemented for common web browsers.

3DMLW server toolset

The toolset provides batch conversion for several filetypes ( .obj,

.3ds 3DS is one of the file formats used by the Autodesk 3ds Max 3D modeling, animation and rendering software. It was the native file format of the old Autodesk 3D Studio DOS (releases 1 to 4), which was popular until its successor (3D Studio MAX ...

.xyz .xyz is a top-level domain name. It was proposed in ICANN's New generic top-level domain (gTLD) Program, and became available to the general public on June 2, 2014. The domain name came about both because the three letters are the last in the ...

, .pts) and texture atlas generation capable of processing multiple models concurrently. It can be employed

server-side In the client–server model, server-side refers to programs and operations that run on the server. This is in contrast to client-side programs and operations which run on the client. General concepts Typically, a server is a computer application ...

to provide automatic conversion of

3D models In 3D computer graphics, 3D modeling is the process of developing a mathematical coordinate-based representation of any surface of an object (inanimate or living) in three dimensions via specialized software by manipulating edges, vertices, an ...

and textures.

3DMLW file format

A 3DMLW file is a simple

text file A text file (sometimes spelled textfile; an old alternative name is flatfile) is a kind of computer file that is structured as a sequence of lines of electronic text. A text file exists stored as data within a computer file system. In operating ...

containing instructions confined to 3DMLW language syntax: In 3DMLW 2D and 3D content are handled independently from each other, but they are free to overlap. For animating 3D scenes and handling different events a

Lua Lua or LUA may refer to: Science and technology * Lua (programming language) * Latvia University of Agriculture * Last universal ancestor, in evolution Ethnicity and language * Lua people, of Laos * Lawa people, of Thailand sometimes referred t ...

scripting facility is provided. The following script snippet demonstrates colour fading: The use of

, .obj, .an8, and .blend file formats is supported, but 3DMLW Plug-in interface allows for easy extension to include other formats. 3DMLW files use .3dmlw (e.g. filename.3dmlw) as

extension Extension, extend or extended may refer to: Mathematics Logic or set theory * Axiom of extensionality * Extensible cardinal * Extension (model theory) * Extension (predicate logic), the set of tuples of values that satisfy the predicate * E ...

and can be linked together similar to

HTML The HyperText Markup Language or HTML is the standard markup language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser. It can be assisted by technologies such as Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and scripting languages such as JavaScri ...

Displaying 3DMLW

3DMLW content could be viewed using applications provided b
3D Technologies R&D
including plug-ins for

Internet Explorer Internet Explorer (formerly Microsoft Internet Explorer and Windows Internet Explorer, commonly abbreviated IE or MSIE) is a series of graphical user interface, graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft which was used in the Microsoft Wind ...

and

NPAPI Netscape Plugin Application Programming Interface (NPAPI) was an application programming interface (API) of the web browsers that allows plugins to be integrated. Initially developed for Netscape browsers, starting in 1995 with Netscape Navigato ...

compatible browsers (

Mozilla Firefox Mozilla Firefox, or simply Firefox, is a free and open-source web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. It uses the Gecko rendering engine to display web pages, which implements current and a ...

Opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...

etc.). However, these applications are not available anymore.

Usage of 3DMLW

3DMLW was used fo
Tallinn's old town 3D application
3D Technologies R&D also is using some parts of 3DMLW engine in their 3D Wayfinder application.

References

External links

* (unmaintained)
3D Technologies R&D
* * {{vector graphics markup languages 3D graphics software Animation software Lua (programming language)-scriptable software Vector graphics markup languages