Upcoming format and / or converter changes

[fabrobinet]

This issue is just a placeholder to track changes on glTF specification and converter until final draft is done.

[fabrobinet]

As of revision 8011c52 the converter carries many updates.

First, it implements some format changes:

• Most important change - direct GL values: direct GL APIs values in GLTF files. #96
• we should have semantics in instanceTechnique along with values #110

Then, it brings Open3DGC compression:
A huge thanks to @kmammou for all the support and taking care of all the coder (c++) and decoder (js) code.
We will follow-up with more information about compression (usage,stats..) in a WIKI inside this repo.
Note: geometry, animation (TRS), weights and boneId compression are supported.

• Open 3DGC option in collada2gltf convertor #128

Misc bugs fixes like:

• Update WebGL profile version #4
• Confusing example #102
• Crash during conversion #124

[fabrobinet]

dev-2 has been merged in master since 61eb39d

Here are the format changes and fixes:

• default uniforms semantic need to be added to the spec #83
• Should we keep one or more mesh,camera,light per node. #13
• rename semantics as attributes property in primitive #162
• Spec for camera should be simplified #101
• Use GL values for ARRAY_BUFFER and ELEMENT_ARRAY_BUFFER #170

Converter fixes:

• Animation data not preserved #172
• Invalid fragment shader generated #168
• Guarantee typed array compatible byte alignment #167
• Sampler output as time #171
• Cleanup duck.json example #169

[fabrobinet]

dev-3 has been merged in master since 676eb5d

It's a short release because of quite busy times at work and I prefer to release dev-3 now - even though some coming-next flagged bugs are pending - work for dev-4 will resume after devCon5 (after 12/11).

The converter has now a configuration file (JSON) that allows much more granularity and express better options than the command line:

• converter should have a configuration file #166
  more details to come on the converter WIKI page.

Here the format changes and fixes:

• Proposal: unification of bufferViews and the parameters that goes along with them #161
• Animation: node transforms #147
• Program doesn't know attributes #152

Converter fixes:

• Trivial animations authored in blender are not reproduced #174
• Conversion crash #192

[fabrobinet]

dev-4 has been merged since 8037062

It is also a short release.

We made one general improvement to manage assets, you can now create a bundle: #213 , a bundle is folder that contains the main JSON and the surroundings files (binary datas, images...).

Format Changes (quite minimal this time):

• Texture properties #195
• consider adding type to shader #189

Converter fixes:

• Model created without material #194
• Converter outputs invalid JSON #182
• Zero-length bufferView #201

[fabrobinet]

• dev-6 has been merged since 63e9329
• master has been tagged as v0.6
• build available

dev-6 is a bug fix release, but still we have one very minor but helpful format change:

• better version info #229 a version in the json file.

bug fixes:

• Model with same geometry rendered with multiple materials only picks last material #268
• add support for pre-multiplied alpha. #19
• Converter creates solid black models #231
• Converter generates invalid texture coordinates #253
• Segmentation fault for one model conversion  #263

Additionally, some fixes to better handle C++11 across all platforms and namespace cleaning.

[fabrobinet]

Another branch for v0.6 has been merged(v0.6-fixes) since 484bc37 it brings fixes for:

• skinning: Improve skinning shader #183 along with many other fixes for problems that were found while importing complex assets.
• normals maps: support add support for normal maps #155
• lights: now directional, ambient, point lights and spot lights are imported from COLLADA and shaders are generated accordingly, this in combination of handling of Blinn and Phong with normal maps too...
• other: Generated vertex shaders do not need to normalize normals #184

[fabrobinet]

Merged dev-7 that carries mostly pipeline improvements implemented by @tfili (thanks man!) and a format change (path is now uri that accepts data uri).

• dev-7 merged since ded2e56
• master tagged as v0.7

format change:

• use uri & data uri: Format should support references and inline data #68

pipeline changes:

• support for lines: Line Support in glTF format #129
• axis-up unification to y-up unify scenes axis-up #22
• units unification (meters) should glTF specify unit property ? #23

bug fixes:

• dev-7 regression, buffer uri isn't relative #286
• libpng dependency (cmake) fails on windows #32
• Unique file name extension for glTF, instead of .json #260 -> now we output .gltf (not .json, but it's still JSON of course).

builds to come...

[fabrobinet]

Merged dev-8 since 47c51b9 which comes format changes.
These changes have been discussed in length in the referred issues...

• Master tagged as v0.8

Format changes:

• JOINT_MATRIX or JOINTMATRIX? #187
• need size for uniforms #258
• Accessor type values #232
• state parameters should be an array instead of a list of named parameters #85
• Remove confusion between node id and jointId #216
• Rename extras to extra? #240
• Use accessor for inverse-bind matrices #238
• instanceSkin.sources or instanceSkin.meshes? #188

[fabrobinet]

added this format change still for 0.8 -> #216

[pjcozzi]

Closing now that dev-1.0 is merged. For those changes, see https://github.com/KhronosGroup/glTF/wiki/glTF-0.8-to-1.0-Guide