Tweak Films does not have a stranglehold on CG. I fail to see how the GTO format and associated code could not be continued by any number of other people if they so choose. But to reiterate: GTO is not being offered as a universal standard -- if it became one for whatever reason the authors would certainly be bewildered.
FYI, Microsoft has "collaborated" on an even broader project in the past called Fahrenheit. That is an interesting piece of CG history which people may want to remember when buying in to projects like this.
And finally, I cannot for the life of me understand why anyone would want to exchange 3D geometric and animation data over a network using XML -- especially in a human readable form. That's simply masocistic. Even moderately sized data of that type becomes unwieldy in that form. If there was ever a less appropriate use of XML I can't think of it.
I can't speed for Softimage, but Tweak Film's GTO is not a "proprietary format". Its released under LGPL as evidenced by its FSF listing. There are a number of free tools in the download that read, write, and edit it. We have no aspirations to have it become a standard. On the other hand, there are people in the special effects industry using it right now on real projects.
The "huge industry players" that have designed the U3D format are not people that use these types of things on a day-in day-out basis. Both our GTO file and the Softimage format (from what I can tell) are evolved from actual usage not from a committee. My guess is that the same applies to the Kaydera FBX format which at least they seem to claim is in wide usage outside of their software (I have not personally used it).
Probably the single most successful 3D format -- albeit restricted to polygonal data -- is the ancient Wavefront OBJ format. The reasons for its success are the same some future format might become popular; it's simple and it doesn't make any assumptions about the applications that use it. If U3D really fits that description I'm sure it will become a "standard" in usage not just in name.
There is a GTO freshmeat project, but we have not been actively updating it. However a new version of the tools and spec will be released soon.
Note that this is not intended as a "Universal File Format" which IMHO sounds like something thought up by marketers and middle management types who don't know better. However, it is GPL/LGPL'd and more importantly its not vaporware and is used to do real work.
There is a GTO freshmeat project, but we have not been
actively updating it. However a new version of the tools and spec will be released soon.
Note that this is not intended as a "Universal File Format" which IMHO sounds like something thought up by marketers and middle management types who don't know better. However, it is GPL/LGPL'd and more importantly its not vaporware and is used to do real work.
Here is the link again:
GTO file format
This is a work in progress, but its been used on a number
of big films over the last two years by a few F/X houses:
http://tweakfilms.com/main/software/software_gto.h tml
Slashdot Mirror
FYI, Microsoft has "collaborated" on an even broader project in the past called Fahrenheit. That is an interesting piece of CG history which people may want to remember when buying in to projects like this.
And finally, I cannot for the life of me understand why anyone would want to exchange 3D geometric and animation data over a network using XML -- especially in a human readable form. That's simply masocistic. Even moderately sized data of that type becomes unwieldy in that form. If there was ever a less appropriate use of XML I can't think of it.
The "huge industry players" that have designed the U3D format are not people that use these types of things on a day-in day-out basis. Both our GTO file and the Softimage format (from what I can tell) are evolved from actual usage not from a committee. My guess is that the same applies to the Kaydera FBX format which at least they seem to claim is in wide usage outside of their software (I have not personally used it).
Probably the single most successful 3D format -- albeit restricted to polygonal data -- is the ancient Wavefront OBJ format. The reasons for its success are the same some future format might become popular; it's simple and it doesn't make any assumptions about the applications that use it. If U3D really fits that description I'm sure it will become a "standard" in usage not just in name.
Note that this is not intended as a "Universal File Format" which IMHO sounds like something thought up by marketers and middle management types who don't know better. However, it is GPL/LGPL'd and more importantly its not vaporware and is used to do real work.
Here is the link again: GTO file format
There is a GTO freshmeat project, but we have not been actively updating it. However a new version of the tools and spec will be released soon. Note that this is not intended as a "Universal File Format" which IMHO sounds like something thought up by marketers and middle management types who don't know better. However, it is GPL/LGPL'd and more importantly its not vaporware and is used to do real work. Here is the link again: GTO file format
This is a work in progress, but its been used on a number of big films over the last two years by a few F/X houses: http://tweakfilms.com/main/software/software_gto.h tml