X3D should not be confused with 3DXML

3DXML

3DXML is a proprietary 3D file format developed by Dassault Systemes under its 3D Via Brand. It uses an XML container whose specification were published....

, which is a proprietary 3D file format.

X3D is the ISO standard XML

XML

Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....

-based file format

File format

A file format is a particular way that information is encoded for storage in a computer file.Since a disk drive, or indeed any computer storage, can store only bits, the computer must have some way of converting information to 0s and 1s and vice-versa. There are different kinds of formats for...

 for representing 3D computer graphics

3D computer graphics

3D computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data that is stored in the computer for the purposes of performing calculations and rendering 2D images...

, the successor to the Virtual Reality Modeling Language

VRML

VRML is a standard file format for representing 3-dimensional interactive vector graphics, designed particularly with the World Wide Web in mind...

 (VRML). X3D features extension

Extension (computing)

Software extension, is a file containing programming that serves to extend the capabilities of or data available to a more basic program. It is a kind of list of commands which are directly included in the program. This term often coincides with the plug-in...

s to VRML (e.g. Humanoid animation

Humanoid Animation

Humanoid Animation is an approved ISO standard for humanoid modeling and animation. H-Anim defines a specification for defining interchangeable human figures so that those characters can be used across a variety of 3D games and simulation environments.The H-Anim Standard was developed in the late...

, NURBS, GeoVRML etc.), the ability to encode the scene using an XML syntax

Syntax

In linguistics, syntax is the study of the principles and rules for constructing phrases and sentences in natural languages....

 as well as the Open Inventor

Open Inventor

Open Inventor, originally IRIS Inventor, is a C++ object oriented retained mode 3D graphics API designed by SGI to provide a higher layer of programming for OpenGL. Its main goals are better programmer convenience and efficiency.-Early history:...

-like syntax of VRML97, or binary

Binary file

A binary file is a computer file which may contain any type of data, encoded in binary form for computer storage and processing purposes; for example, computer document files containing formatted text...

 formatting, and enhanced application programming interfaces (API

Application programming interface

An application programming interface is a source code based specification intended to be used as an interface by software components to communicate with each other...

s).

X3D extension supports multi-stage and multi-texture render, it also supports shader with lightmap and normalmap.