Bruno Patatas - Biodroid March 2009 · • Brief overview of COLLADA • COLLADA 1.4 and 1.5 (and what it means to the games industry) • Case Study: ZbluCops – Wii game being

© Copyright Khronos Group, 2009 - Page 1

Bruno Patatas - Biodroid March 2009


• Brief overview of COLLADA • COLLADA 1.4 and 1.5 (and what it means to the games industry) • Case Study: ZbluCops – Wii game being developed by Biodroid


• COLLADA is designed as an intermediate language for 3D content and is a neutral interchange format between several industries -  Video Games -  Film and Entertainment -  Mechanical Engineering -  GIS -  Visual Simulation

• COLLADA defines an “intermediate” format -  Doesn’t try to define the beginning (authoring) or end (run-time acceleration) of the pipeline -  Designed for moving content along the content pipeline

• Freedom to innovate! -  COLLADA provides stability and flexibility so authoring toolchains and run-time engines can evolve independently


• COLLADA is a XML database schema for 3D assets -  Can hold everything to do with a scene: geometry with full skinning, advanced material and -  visual effects, animation, physical properties and collisions

• COLLADA can be used to transport 3D assets between applications -  Enables binding of diverse DCC and 3D processing tools into a production pipeline

• COLLADA can be lossless – never lose information -  Retains all information - even multiple versions of the same asset

• COLLADA is an open, archive-grade format that retains meta information – When your DCC tool upgrades, you keep your assets


•  Mesh Geometry •  Transform hierarchy (rotation, translation, shear, scale, matrix) •  Materials / Textures •  Shader programs (Cg, GLSL, GLES) •  Shader effects (FX) •  Lights / Cameras •  Skinning / Morphing •  Animation •  Physics (rigid bodies, constraints, rag dolls, collision volumes) •  Instancing •  Techniques / Multi-representations •  Assets / Libraries •  User data


• B-rep (boundary representation) descriptions of complex CAD objects -  Enables complex models to be rebuilt and modified exactly - with less data than meshes

• Kinematics -  Joints and Compound joints with Definition of degree-of-freedom using MathML formulas

• Accurate geo-referencing of assets – latitude, longitude and altitude -  GIS applications can blend real and virtual 3D assets

•  “.ZAE” archive package specification (Zipped Asset Exchange) -  Enables distribution through the warehouses such as Google 3D Warehouse -  Will be support in SketchUp version 7, due out later this summer

• Games and Graphics -  Enhanced profiles for rendering systems - including OpenGL ES 2.0 -  Bridge profiles for tools frameworks such as CgFX -  Improved texturing and multi-pass effects


• COLLADA.org is the place to look for tools to help in game development pipelines

• Autodesk Plug-ins -  ColladaMaya and ColladaMax open source project on sourceforge.net for Maya, 3ds Max, and

MotionBuilder -  ColladaMaya NextGen and ColladaMax NextGen

• Coherency Test -  XML validation + content coherency checker -  An open source Refinery conditioner

• COLLADA Asset Manager – Asset management tool developed in windows .net – Directed to artists, art directors and tool makers

• COLLADA RT – COLLADA RT – example Run Time / viewer (PC (OpenGL), PS3 (PSGL)… – COLLADA CFX – FX loader for Cg shader (companion to RT)

• COLLADA Refinery – processing content framework – User interface to create the conditioning pipeline – C++ conditioners can be combined


• COLLADA is the de facto asset interchange file format in game development • DCC Tools -  Maya -  3ds Max -  Autodesk Softimage -  etc

• Game Engines – Unreal Engine – Gamebryo –  Torque 3D –  Virtools – Unity –  etc

• GUI and HUD Creation – Menus Master


• Creation of COLLADA FX Document -  Created and edited in a shader authoring tool

•  FX Composer 2.0; RenderMonkey • Applied to 3D assets in a modeling package

– Maya, Max, Autodesk Softimage, etc

• 3D assets uploaded to Svn server – Managed with COLLADA Asset Manager

• Assets loaded and used by Game Engine – Unreal, Gamebryo, Torque 3D, Virtools, etc –  .dae file converted to run-time file format (eg. .nif files in

Gamebryo)

• Game runs in target hardware – On any platform like PlayStation 3, XBOX360, etc



•  ZbluCops is an action/adventure game being developed by Biodroid for Wii


• Animation and Modeling -  Maya -  Autodesk Softimage

• 3d Asset management –  Svn server – COLLADA Asset Manager

• Texturing –  Photoshop CS3 Extended

• Game Engine –  Emergent’s Gamebryo

• Coding –  Visual Studio 2005 – CodeWarrior for Wii

• Sound Engine – Wwise


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Bruno Patatas - Biodroid March 2009 · • Brief overview of COLLADA • COLLADA 1.4 and 1.5 (and what it means to the games industry) • Case Study: ZbluCops – Wii game being