3D file formats

disclaimer

There are many different file formats in use concerning 3D. They can be looked up at Wotsit. I'll summarize their specifications here.
The summary is admittedly biased with a side glance to OpenGL and GLScene. There are some formats that only hold
shapes. Depending on the application they may differ in one or another aspect. A milling machine is happy with shapes,
no colors needed. Some file hold only shapes and surface information. Their viewer may or may not use light. There are
files that hold a complete scene including a camera with a certain setting. It all depends on what is required.

feature matrix

format Shapes Surfaces Textures Lights Transformations Camera Animation special
3D2 y y   y        
3DMF y y y y y y    
3DS y y y y y y   morphing, raytracing
3DX y     y   y    
GeoTIFF y              
Imagine y y y y        
Infini-D y y y y y y y  
Inventor y y y y   y    
ISFF y              
Lightwave_3D y y            
MC4D y y y y y y    
MGF y y y y y     physical light
NFF y     y   y    
NMGF                
OBJ y y y          
OpenFlight y y y y   y y  
POL y y            
POV y y y y y y y shadows, dust, halo
RPI y              
SDML y y       y y triggers
SHP y              
SLC y              
STL y              
VRML y y y y y y y triggers

The content is browsed from a few files and may contain errors. Reporting of an error is encouraged : send a mail

3D2 - stereo CAD 3D 2.0

40 named objects, 3 lights + ambient. Colorpalette. positions are in fixedpoint format as integer. Objects from vertices.

3DMF - metaformat

Hierarchical description of a scene : named objects, textures, surfaces, lights, camera, position, rotation, fog, nurbs, matrix - & quaternion transforms

3DS - 3D studio

Binary. Hierarchical description of a scene : named objects, textures, surfaces, lights, camera, position, rotation, distances, fog, raytracing, morphing.

3DX

Appears game oriented. 3 lights, 3 distance grades allow 3 different representations.

Geo TIFF

A geographic format, basically 2D with height optionally. Focuses on system transformations and projections

Imagine

Hierarchical description of a scene: textures, lights, fog, surfaces, tracks.

Infini-D

Hierarchical description of scene or animation :textures, surfaces, objects, terrains, lights, fog, text, camera, path, sequencer, ...

Inventor

Hierarchical scene description. Triangle lists, quad lists, and primitives build a shape. The complexity can be controlled. The environment allows ambient light, spotlight, fog. Material, camera, picking, translation, rotation, texture.

ISFF - Intergraph Standard File Format

Hierarchical description of objects only.

Lightwave 3D

Objects stored as mesh. The surface has a detailed list of attributes, such as color, shade, glossiness, reflection mode, refractive index, transparency, texture

MC4D - Cinema 4D

named objects, lights, camera, textures, positions, rotations.

MGF - materials and geometry format

textformat. Describes bodies from primitives. Transformations, chromaticity, colorspectrum, materials with transmittance, reflectance, complex fraction index, no lights though.

NFF - neutral file format

Simple scene description. Background, lights, viewpoint, frustrum, cylinder, cone, sphere, polygon

NMGF - noise model grid format

Specialized to hold acoustic noise data together with geographic data.

OBJ - Wavefront object files

grouped vertices allow any form to be described. Simple rendering choices : colors, shadows, reflections, textures, no lights though.

OpenFlight

Scene description, Level of detail, sound, bounding boxes, lights, textures

POL - polygonal models

Vertices define polygons. Optional color information.

POV Ray

Scene description with bodies, lights and shadows, textures, pigments, reflection, refraction, attenuation, halos, fog, dust, rainbows, animation.

RPI - enhanced STL

instead of unordered triangles, this format uses facets, edges, faces and primitives such as cube, cylinder, cone, sphere and torus to describe a shape. The file is more compact than STL.

SDML - spatial data modelling language

vertices and polygons define shapes. Colors, viewpoints, animation, triggers to URL's. expecilly suited for terrain viewing.

SHP - shape file

Binary. build shapes from points, arcs, polygons and multipoints, fans or strips. The shapes have bounding boxes. It appears the shapefile is a very versatile set of files :more info (pdf)

SLC - layered contour

Defines (x,y) contours on layers (z) in a text format.

STL - stereo lithography

Binary or text. Triangles with or without normal. No neighbour or color information. Triangles can be grouped as objects.

VRML - virtual reality modelling language

Hierarchical description of a scene. Bodies, materials, camera, transformations, lights. Newer versions have fog, animation, multimedia, sensors (triggers), grouped objects.

OpenGL
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last updated: 5.march.01


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