CesiumMan conversion by online converter, various issues

[brutzman]

Joe Williams and I worked on an interesting example. Here is a report on our converting a file, some interesting improvements are needed.

a. Example is CesiumMan at https://github.com/KhronosGroup/glTF-Sample-Assets/tree/main/Models/CesiumMan/glTF

b. Results will be maintained at

• https://www.web3d.org/x3d/content/examples/HumanoidAnimation/Skin/
• https://sourceforge.net/p/x3d/code/HEAD/tree/www.web3d.org/x3d/content/examples/HumanoidAnimation/Skin/

c. Currently there is no Skin node in X3D, your output should indicate that it is experimental. If we try to include Skin node in X3D 4.1 draft, then you should use 4.1 in the three header lines (DOCTYPE, schema, X3D).

d. OrientationInterpolator outputs include an illegal field keyValueQuaternions='true'

e. Another illegal node: ValueTrigger, excerpt follows. Is this a special prototype? Seems superfluous.

<ValueTrigger DEF='ValueTrigger_setBBox_unnamed_Cesium_Man_Primitive0'>
  <field accessType='inputOutput' name='bboxCenter' type='SFVec3f' value='0.0053292065858840942 -0.057926803827285767 0.74419540166854858'/>
  <field accessType='inputOutput' name='bboxSize' type='SFVec3f' value='0.91308486461639404 0.50516420602798462 1.5096808671951294'/>
</ValueTrigger>

f. I wanted to use X3DJSAIL to reduce unnecessary floating point precision, likely greatly reducing file size, but am unable to while illegal X3D nodes are present.

g. We ran various validators (XML well-formed, DOCTYPE, Schema, Schematron) in X3D-Edit. It reported errors d and e.

h. We tried to launch your converter output into Castle and got many errors.
81 warnings:

X3D: Unknown X3D node type "Skin"
X3D: Unknown X3D field name (indicated by containerField value) "" by node "Skin:TX3DUnknownNode(Armature_2)" inside node "Transform(Armature)"
X3D: Route destination node name "Skeleton_torso_joint_1" not found
X3D: Route destination node name "Skeleton_torso_joint_1" not found
X3D: Route destination node name "Skeleton_torso_joint_1" not found
X3D: Route destination node name "Skeleton_torso_joint_2" not found
X3D: Route destination node name "Skeleton_torso_joint_2" not found
X3D: Route destination node name "Skeleton_torso_joint_2" not found
X3D: Route destination node name "torso_joint_3" not found
X3D: Route destination node name "torso_joint_3" not found
X3D: Route destination node name "torso_joint_3" not found
X3D: Route destination node name "Skeleton_neck_joint_1" not found
X3D: Route destination node name "Skeleton_neck_joint_1" not found
X3D: Route destination node name "Skeleton_neck_joint_1" not found
X3D: Route destination node name "Skeleton_neck_joint_2" not found
X3D: Route destination node name "Skeleton_neck_joint_2" not found
X3D: Route destination node name "Skeleton_neck_joint_2" not found
X3D: Route destination node name "Skeleton_arm_joint_L__4_" not found
X3D: Route destination node name "Skeleton_arm_joint_L__4_" not found
X3D: Route destination node name "Skeleton_arm_joint_L__4_" not found
X3D: Route destination node name "Skeleton_arm_joint_L__3_" not found
X3D: Route destination node name "Skeleton_arm_joint_L__3_" not found
X3D: Route destination node name "Skeleton_arm_joint_L__3_" not found
X3D: Route destination node name "Skeleton_arm_joint_L__2_" not found
X3D: Route destination node name "Skeleton_arm_joint_L__2_" not found
X3D: Route destination node name "Skeleton_arm_joint_L__2_" not found
X3D: Route destination node name "Skeleton_arm_joint_R" not found
X3D: Route destination node name "Skeleton_arm_joint_R" not found
X3D: Route destination node name "Skeleton_arm_joint_R" not found
X3D: Route destination node name "Skeleton_arm_joint_R__2_" not found
X3D: Route destination node name "Skeleton_arm_joint_R__2_" not found
X3D: Route destination node name "Skeleton_arm_joint_R__2_" not found
X3D: Route destination node name "Skeleton_arm_joint_R__3_" not found
X3D: Route destination node name "Skeleton_arm_joint_R__3_" not found
X3D: Route destination node name "Skeleton_arm_joint_R__3_" not found
X3D: Route destination node name "leg_joint_L_1" not found
X3D: Route destination node name "leg_joint_L_1" not found
X3D: Route destination node name "leg_joint_L_1" not found
X3D: Route destination node name "leg_joint_L_2" not found
X3D: Route destination node name "leg_joint_L_2" not found
X3D: Route destination node name "leg_joint_L_2" not found
X3D: Route destination node name "leg_joint_L_3" not found
X3D: Route destination node name "leg_joint_L_3" not found
X3D: Route destination node name "leg_joint_L_3" not found
X3D: Route destination node name "leg_joint_L_5" not found
X3D: Route destination node name "leg_joint_L_5" not found
X3D: Route destination node name "leg_joint_L_5" not found
X3D: Route destination node name "leg_joint_R_1" not found
X3D: Route destination node name "leg_joint_R_1" not found
X3D: Route destination node name "leg_joint_R_1" not found
X3D: Route destination node name "leg_joint_R_2" not found
X3D: Route destination node name "leg_joint_R_2" not found
X3D: Route destination node name "leg_joint_R_2" not found
X3D: Route destination node name "leg_joint_R_3" not found
X3D: Route destination node name "leg_joint_R_3" not found
X3D: Route destination node name "leg_joint_R_3" not found
X3D: Route destination node name "leg_joint_R_5" not found
X3D: Route destination node name "leg_joint_R_5" not found
X3D: Route destination node name "leg_joint_R_5" not found
X3D: Route destination node name "Cesium_Man_Primitive0" not found
X3D: Route destination node name "Cesium_Man_Primitive0" not found
VRML/X3D: Exported node name "Cesium_Man-effect" not found
VRML/X3D: Exported node name "Skeleton_torso_joint_1" not found
VRML/X3D: Exported node name "leg_joint_R_1" not found
VRML/X3D: Exported node name "leg_joint_R_2" not found
VRML/X3D: Exported node name "leg_joint_R_3" not found
VRML/X3D: Exported node name "leg_joint_R_5" not found
VRML/X3D: Exported node name "leg_joint_L_1" not found
VRML/X3D: Exported node name "leg_joint_L_2" not found
VRML/X3D: Exported node name "leg_joint_L_3" not found
VRML/X3D: Exported node name "leg_joint_L_5" not found
VRML/X3D: Exported node name "Skeleton_torso_joint_2" not found
VRML/X3D: Exported node name "torso_joint_3" not found
VRML/X3D: Exported node name "Skeleton_arm_joint_R" not found
VRML/X3D: Exported node name "Skeleton_arm_joint_R__2_" not found
VRML/X3D: Exported node name "Skeleton_arm_joint_R__3_" not found
VRML/X3D: Exported node name "Skeleton_arm_joint_L__4_" not found
VRML/X3D: Exported node name "Skeleton_arm_joint_L__3_" not found
VRML/X3D: Exported node name "Skeleton_arm_joint_L__2_" not found
VRML/X3D: Exported node name "Skeleton_neck_joint_1" not found
VRML/X3D: Exported node name "Skeleton_neck_joint_2" not found

Scene URL: "C:\x3d-code\www.web3d.org\x3d\content\examples\HumanoidAnimation\Skin\CesiumMan.x3d".
Use "File->View Warnings" menu to view these warnings again.

i. Loading the CesiumMan.gltf directly in Castle Model Viewer, and then saving out as .x3d, worked satisfactorily (including animation) without warnings. We will create a separate issue for any problems we find there.

j. Here is version number of my local Castle Model Viewer.
viewer for all 3D and 2D model formats supported by Castle Game Engine.

Supported formats:

• glTF 2.0
• X3D
• VRML 2.0 (aka VRML 97) and 1.0
• Spine JSON
• Sprite sheets in Starling and Cocos2d formats
• castle-anim-frames
• OpenInventor (IV)
• 3DS
• MD3
• Wavefront OBJ
• Collada
• STL

Version 5.3.0.
By Michalis Kamburelis.

See https://castle-engine.io/castle-model-viewer .

Created using Castle Game Engine ( https://castle-engine.io/ ) version 7.0-alpha.3.snapshot.
Compiled with FPC 3.2.2.

[michaliskambi]

Thanks for the report!

In general, I agree we should communicate better what are CGE extensions, and just expose a checkbox in online converter to disable the CGE extensions, and honor the --no-x3d-extensions option for command-line converter better. If possible -- avoiding some of our extensions usage at conversion is possible, some not, e.g.:

• avoiding ValueTrigger should be possible, it can be likely realized using other standard nodes (a bit less efficient, but same effect),
• avoiding keyValueQuaternions is likely possible, it will just be less efficient to play it (more calculations need to be done by players),
• avoiding Skin is not possible, that's the only way to handle glTF skinning animation we have, see also https://github.com/michaliskambi/x3d-tests/wiki/Converting-glTF-to-X3D#skinned-mesh-animation and https://castle-engine.io/skin . But of course we can communicate it clearly to user, after conversion we could make a warning like "This model is using glTF skinned animation, we make Skin from it which is not in X3D standard, here are links: ...".

I'll give a detailed answer to everything later :) Just posting quick answer now.

Answers to:

AD e (ValueTrigger) : This is our extension node, documented here. We need this functionality to update bounding box of the animation when it starts (having a one bounding box, once the animation starts, allows for both more performance and GPU skinning). But it is possible I could achieve the same without ValueTrigger, just using standard X3D nodes.

AD h ("We tried to launch your converter output into Castle and got many errors") : The output indicates you used an older version of Castle Model Viewer / Castle Game Engine, before Skin support was added. Make sure you used latest snapshot from https://castle-engine.io/castle-model-viewer , for engine latest build from https://castle-engine.io/download .