Web3D was initially the idea to fully display and navigate Web sites using 3D. By extension, the term now refers to all interactive 3D content which are embedded into web pages html

HTML

HyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages....

, and that we can see through a web browser.

Web3D Technologies usually require to install a Web 3D viewer (plugin) to see this kind of content.

Nowadays many formats and tools are available:

• 3DMLW
  3DMLW
  3DMLW is an XML-based Markup Language for representing interactive 3D and 2D content on the World Wide Web. It serves as a cornerstone for a broader platform also referred to as 3DMLW.3DMLW platform=...
  
  
• Adobe Shockwave
• Burster
  Burster
  The term burster can refer to:* a machine used to separate continuous-form paper* an X-ray burster, one type of X-ray binary star* a manufacturer of electronic equipment* an open source plugin for displaying Blender files in a web browser...
  
   (Web plugin to play Blender
  Blender (software)
  Blender is a free and open-source 3D computer graphics software product used for creating animated films, visual effects, interactive 3D applications or video games. The current release version is 2.60, and was released on October 19, 2011...
  
   content)
• Cult3D
• Java 3D
  Java 3D
  Java 3D is a scene graph-based 3D application programming interface for the Java platform. It runs atop either OpenGL or Direct3D. Since version 1.2, Java 3D has been developed under the Java Community Process....
  
  
• JOGL
• LWJGL
• O3D
  O3D
  O3D is an open source JavaScript API created by Google for creating interactive 3D graphics applications that run in a web browser window or in a XUL desktop application...
  
  
• Oak3D
  Oak3D
  - General Informaition :Oak3D is a free JavaScript library for 3D graphics development based on the HTML5 WebGL standard, dedicated in realizing the Web3D applications with GPU acceleration for all the front-end developers in an easy and efficient way....
  
  
• ShiVa
  Shiva
  Shiva is a major Hindu deity, and is the destroyer god or transformer among the Trimurti, the Hindu Trinity of the primary aspects of the divine. God Shiva is a yogi who has notice of everything that happens in the world and is the main aspect of life. Yet one with great power lives a life of a...
  
  
• TurnTool
• Unity
  Unity (game engine)
  Unity is an integrated authoring tool for creating 3D video games or other interactive content such as architectural visualizations or real-time 3D animations. Unity's development environment runs on Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X, and the games it produces can be run on Windows, Mac, Xbox 360,...
  
  
• Virtools
  Virtools
  Virtools is a software developer and vendor, created in 1993 and owned by Dassault Systèmes since July 2005.-History:Virtools was a company founded 1993. They offered a development environment to create 3D real-time applications and related services, targeted at system integrators, game studios and...
  
  
• VRML
  VRML
  VRML is a standard file format for representing 3-dimensional interactive vector graphics, designed particularly with the World Wide Web in mind...
  
  
• Viewpoint
  Viewpoint
  Viewpoint may refer to:* A camera angle in photography, filmmaking, and other visual arts* Viewpoint model, a computer science technique for making complex systems more comprehensible to human engineers* Viewpoint , shooter video game...
  
  
• Web3D Consortium
  Web3D Consortium
  The Web3D Consortium is a not-for-profit, member-funded industry consortium whose purpose is to define and develop the X3D royalty-free open standards file format and runtime architecture to represent and communicate 3D scenes....
  
  
• WebGL
  WebGL
  WebGL is a software library that extends the capability of the JavaScript programming language to allow it to generate interactive 3D graphics within any compatible web browser...
  
  
• WireFusion
  WireFusion
  Demicron WireFusion an authoring tool for creating interactive Web3D presentations. A typical work flow consists of loading a 3D model, configuring/optimizing the 3D model and lastly adding widgets and logic to the presentation. The 3D model is created in a 3D modeling program, like 3DS Max, Maya...
  
  
• X3D
  X3D
  X3D is the ISO standard XML-based file format for representing 3D computer graphics, the successor to the Virtual Reality Modeling Language . X3D features extensions to VRML X3D is the ISO standard XML-based file format for representing 3D computer graphics, the successor to the Virtual Reality...
  
   (extension of VRML)
• AMF
  Additive Manufacturing File Format
  Additive Manufacturing File Format is an open standard for describing objects for additive manufacturing processes such as 3D printing. The official ASTM F2915standard is an XML-based format designed to allow any computer-aided design software to describe the shape and composition of any 3D object...
  
   - Additive Manufacturing File Format

They are mainly distinguished by five criteria:

• Simplicity (Automatic Installation, rates facilities already high)
• Compatibility (Windows, Mac, Unix ..)
• Quality (Performances, see Frames per second, and indirectly display quality)
• Interactivity (Depending on the solutions, their programming opportunities, the creators of content have more or less freedom in the creation of interactivity.)
• Standardization
  Standardization
  Standardization is the process of developing and implementing technical standards.The goals of standardization can be to help with independence of single suppliers , compatibility, interoperability, safety, repeatability, or quality....
  
   (none, "market position", by a standards organization
  Standards organization
  A standards organization, standards body, standards developing organization , or standards setting organization is any organization whose primary activities are developing, coordinating, promulgating, revising, amending, reissuing, interpreting, or otherwise producing technical standards that are...
  
  , etc.)

External links

• Lateral Visions Lateral Visions Software Company : 3D Web specialist and platform developers.
• TDT3D European 3D Community : specialized in computer graphics and real-time 3D rendering (updated regularly).

• Canvas3D