Khronos Group Delivers COLLADA Adopters Package &

Khronos Group Delivers COLLADA Adopters Package & Conformance Tests

New conformance results determine COLLADA specification adherence for 3D applications

SAN FRANCISCO — (BUSINESS WIRE) — March 11, 2010 — Game Developer Conference – The Khronos Group (Beaverton, OR) today announced that the COLLADA^™ 1.4 Adopters Package is complete and under final review prior to public release (anticipated in April, 2010). The Adopters Package contains both conformance testing software and documentation intended to drive rapid evaluation, deployment and acceptance of the COLLADA specification in 3D content creation, and asset management software.

The COLLADA specification defines an XML-based schema to enable 3D authoring applications to freely exchange digital assets without loss of information, enabling multiple software packages to be combined into extremely powerful tool chains. The COLLADA 1.4 Adopters Package and conformance tests are designed to provide distinct levels of conformance and specification adherence that informs users about the suitability of a software authoring environment for use in a COLLADA tool chain.

Three new levels of COLLADA compliance are offered in the Adopters Package: Baseline, Superior and Exemplary. Baseline conformance establishes the lowest level of interoperability between applications within a tool-chain. Superior and Exemplary conformance increases the level of interoperability with broader feature support and asset information preservation without transformation. Exemplary software is suitable for the advanced processing and archiving of your valuable 3D assets. Content creation tools can now be certified to provide a trusted chain for preserving 3D content for future usage, while utilizing the latest 3D modeling features.

Access to the COLLADA Adopters Package is available to any interested company by executing the Khronos COLLADA 1.4 Adopters Agreement. The Adopters Program is intended to promote consistent implementations of the format by many vendors across multiple platforms and to create an objective definition of conformance for the specification. The Adopters Package defines a peer-reviewed Conformance Testing Procedure by which conformant products may use the COLLADA trademark (available after paying a Conformance Test Submission Fee that covers the costs of development and maintenance of the Adopters Program). Full details of the Adopters Agreement, the Adopters Package and the COLLADA Conformance Testing Procedure can be found at www.khronos.org/adopters.

“Autodesk^® is dedicated to providing open solutions for digital entertainment creation,” said Stig Gruman, Autodesk Vice President, Digital Entertainment and Visual Communication. “Today’s digital pipelines require ever greater flexibility to integrate a wide assortment of applications and drive production efficiency. Autodesk is proud to be a major contributor to the COLLADA Adopters Program and associated Conformance Test Suite development. This program will help tool developers ensure their products work well together.”

“IBM® is excited to see the availability of the COLLADA Conformance Test Suite,” said Neil Katz, Distinguished Engineer, Innovation Initiatives, IBM. “As 3D content continues to become more important across industries as diverse as gaming, healthcare, transportation and financial services, interoperability will be a key factor in setting the pace for its acceptance.”

“Kanzi Solution for User Interfaces and graphical content creation applauds Khronos' COLLADA conformance testing,” said Arto Ruotsalainen, Technical Project Manager, Rightware. “This official testing procedure directly enhances Rightware's Kanzi™ Solution customer benefits by enabling them to select certified COLLADA compliant tools.”

“Yumetech and the COLLADA Working Group worked closely to create a conformance test suite that will help adopters and inform users of the quality of COLLADA implementations. COLLADA has significant adoption and this suite will bring everyone together into one ecosystem for the COLLADA standard,” noted Alan Hudson, President, Yumetech and the Web3D Consortium. “The Khronos Adopters Program will encourage high-quality COLLADA implementations across multiple platforms, and we strongly encourage content developers and platform developers to seek out conformant products to minimize their development costs.”

Learn about COLLADA at Game Developer Conference March 11-13, 2010

Attend the COLLADA session at GDC to see developers present the latest cutting-edge DCC tools and applications for gaming, automation, 3D web and visualization and learn about the new COLLADA conformance framework. Also discover how COLLADA assets and tool chains fit naturally with WebGL's plugin-less acceleration of 3D on the web - and how the combination of COLLADA and WebGL provide a compelling 3D pipeline for 3D Web content creation and deployment. Additionally, Khronos is offering sessions on OpenCL, OpenGL, and Mobile APIs.

All Khronos GDC Sessions are in Room 123, North Hall, Moscone Center, San Francisco: