JSON-3D is the JSON format for exchanging virtual-reality scenes and events between nodes. It is an extension of JSON-LD, so a document carries its own vocabulary context and can be read as linked data; the classes and properties that vocabulary names are the Gargontology. It borrows concepts from, but is not compatible with, GeoJSON.
JSON-3D is what the Scene Composition Protocol puts on the wire: the scene hierarchy with its transforms and meshes as structure, plus the events and value updates that flow over structural and parameter streams.
Relationship to glTF and USD#
The industry has since converged on formats that overlap JSON-3D’s remit. glTF in particular is a JSON scene format designed for efficient transmission and for loading straight into WebGL, and it is now the de-facto interchange format for 3D on the web; USD occupies the same ground for composed, large-scale scenes.
Both are prior art for anything JSON-3D specifies, and any case for a distinct format has to rest on what Gargantis needs and they do not: streamed events and continuously-varying parameters with higher-order derivatives, rather than a static scene delivered as a file. That case is not yet argued in detail, and adopting or profiling an existing format remains open.
External links#
Similar concepts and prior art:
- glTF — Khronos; the 2.0 specification and Wikipedia
- Universal Scene Description (USD) — Wikipedia
- JSON-LD — the playground and Wikipedia
- GeoJSON — the same “JSON for one domain of geometry” idea, and JSON-3D’s acknowledged influence
- X3D and VRML — earlier web-3D scene languages, both with JSON and XML encodings
- Open Metaverse Interoperability Group — cross-world scene and identity interchange