Resources for the Mobile Developer Community
COLLADA Implementations, Tutorials and Sample Code
Utilities & Projects
COLLADAloader
An open source application to load and visualize COLLADA files in real time using OpenGL. It uses FCOLLADA from Feeling Software to parse XML files.
COLLADA Refinery
COLLADA Refinery is a GUI-based application for creating content pipelines for 3D assets using modular components called conditioners.
COLLADA RT Loader
The COLLADA RT Loader is a sample that was developed to load COLLADA document scene files, and render them using CG 1.5. It provides scene heirarchy, cameras, animation, and skinning support as well as basic COLLADA_FX rendering with the assistance of the COLLADA_FX lib. Currently COLLADA_RT only loads COLLADA 1.40 files and has been tested some though not in a rigorous fashion. It is a sample COLLADA loader / render implementation in OpenGL and is not a reference viewer; meaning it is not and isn't intended to support everything that COLLADA can represent. The loader uses the COLLADA DOM for importing the raw COLLADA data and refactors it into renderable data at run-time when a file is loaded.
COLLADA FX Loader
The COLLADA FX Loader project is a sample that was developed to load a basic COLLADA FX document, and to make all of the calls to the Cg / CgGL runtime to create and initialize the materials and effects defined in COLLADA. It also provides an API to apply those effects through calls to set and reset the pass state of an effect. The framework is easily extensible to add implementation for any types or states that are needed and currently unsupported. The sources for the COLLADA FX loader build into a library called libcfx.a that must be linked into the application. The loader uses the COLLADA DOM when loading assets directly out of COLLADA, or the effects and materials can be converted into a binary format native to libcfx.
Tutorials, Technical Whitepapers and How to Guides
Developing Web Applications with COLLADA and X3D
COLLADA and X3D are two royalty-free open standards that use XML schema technology to represent 3D content. This whitepaper will assist developers in understanding the similarities and differences between COLLADA and X3D, the design goals that informed their development, and how and where the two standards can be used together as a powerful tool set for developing Web and enterprise applications.
Skeletal bone animation and skinning with COLLADA models in XNA
This comprehensive XNA tutorial explains how to do skeletal bone animation and skinning using COLLADA models, which allow for complex animations exported as XML that DirectX .X files can't handle.
COLLADA Getting Started Guide
A basic summary of resources and steps for getting started using COLLADA as a digital content creator or as a software developers. The guide the steps to take if you want to use COLLADA to import/export data from tools or if you want to implement COLLADA in your application.
Tech Talks and BOF presentations from SIGGRAPH 2006
PPT presentations from the OpenGL ES, OpenVG, OpenKODE and COLLADA Tech Talks and BOFs at SIGGRAPH 2006.
Books
COLLADA: Sailing the Gulf of 3D Digital Content Creation book
This book explains in detail how to use the COLLADA technology in a project utilizing 3D assets, and ultimately how to create an effective content creation pipeline for the most complex development.
It was created as a guide to the COLLADA 1.4 specification with the goal of providing readers with all the information that will help them understand the concepts, learn how the technology is already implemented by various tools, and provide guidance for using COLLADA in their applications.
The book will be useful for content developers interested in exchanging data between several tools, application developers planning to take advantage of COLLADA in their tool chain and tool providers wanting to add COLLADA compatibility.
