glTF Overview

glTF™ (GL Transmission Format) is a royalty-free specification for the efficient transmission and loading of 3D scenes and models by applications. glTF minimizes both the size of 3D assets, and the runtime processing needed to unpack and use those assets. glTF defines an extensible, common publishing format for 3D content tools and services that streamlines authoring workflows and enables interoperable use of content across the industry.

Specification

• glTF Specification, 2.0 (or all specification versions)
• glTF Extension Registry

Please provide spec feedback and community updates by submitting issues. For quick questions, use gitter.

Quickstart

Overview

^{From github.com/javagl/gltfOverview/}
Japanese translation by Takuto Takahashi

For developers

• Sample models for testing runtime engines and content pipeline tools.
  • glTF-Asset-Generator provides assets for robust importer validation.
  • 100,000+ models under Creative Commons license on Sketchfab (check license for individual models).
• Drag-and-drop validator for verifying correctness of existing glTF files.
• glTF Tutorial Series

For artists

Blender exporter for creating and converting models with glTF 2.0.

Preview tools: - Sketchfab - BabylonJS Sandbox - Drag-and-drop viewer

Contents

• glTF Tools
  • Converters and Exporters
  • Optimizers
  • Validators
  • Editors and Modeling Tools
  • Viewers and Debugging
  • Applications
  • Loaders and Viewers
  • WebGL Engines
  • WebGL Sample Code
  • Game Engines
  • Languages
  • Utilities
• Stack Overflow
• Presentations and Articles
  • Intros
  • All Presentations and Articles

glTF Tools

Converters and Exporters

Tool	Input	Output	Description
Khronos Group Blender Exporter	—		Official exporter for Blender
3DS Max Exporter	—		Export glTF files using BabylonJS plugin for 3DS Max 2015 or later
Unity Exporter (Sketchfab fork)	—		Unity editor wizard that exports to glTF Format
Unity COLLADA & glTF Exporter Unity 5 & Unity 2017	—		Commercial unity asset store editor extension to export COLLADA and glTF via collada2gltf
Sketchup export and import	—		Separate extensions for export and import
PBR extension for SketchUp	SKP		PBR Material Editor, glTF Exporter, PBR Viewport
obj2gltf	OBJ		Command-line converter
blendergltf	—		glTF exporter for Blender aimed at streaming scenes to other applications
BlackThread.io converter	Multiple		Online drag and drop converter powered by three.js
Assimp	Multiple		General-purpose online conversion pipeline
PiXYZ Studio	Multiple		Interactively prepare & optimize any CAD data
FBX2glTF (Facebook)	FBX		Command-line converter
FBX2glTF (ClayGL)	FBX, COLLADA, OBJ		Python tool to convert models to glTF2.0 format, model is parsed by FBX SDK.
glTF API	FBX, COLLADA, OBJ		Web API to convert OBJ, FBX and COLLADA files to glTF or GLB
Simplygon Cloud	Multiple		Cloud based asset optimization pipeline
Verge3D	—		glTF 2.0 exporters for Blender and 3ds Max
COLLADA2GLTF	COLLADA		Official command-line converter, with updates for glTF 2.0 in progress
Cesium drag-and-drop converter	OBJ, COLLADA		Online drag and drop converter
batchgltf	COLLADA		Batch converter with GUI
FBX-glTF (Cyrillef)	FBX		Plug-in and command-line converter
jgltf-obj	OBJ		Java programmatic and command-line converters
Docker collada2gltf	COLLADA		Docker container for Python web service, built on COLLADA2GLTF
collada2gltf-web-service	COLLADA		Node.js web service, built on COLLADA2GLTF
cqparts	STEP		Python CAD for programmers (import / export doc) (GLTFExporter)

Optimizers

Tool	Status	Description
gltf-import-export		NPM package to convert between glb and gltf files
makeglb		Drag and drop browser tool to convert gltf to self contained binary glb
gltf-toolkit		Collection of tools and libraries to modify and optimize glTF assets for Windows Mixed Reality home
glTF Pipeline		Official Node.js command-line tool for optimizing glTF assets
gltf2glb		Python tool to convert glTF to Binary glTF
binary-gltf-utils		Node.js tool to convert glTF to Binary glTF

Validators

Tool	Status	Description
glTF Validator		Official command-line and drag-and-top tool to validate glTF assets against the specification

Editors and Modeling Tools

Tool	Status	Description
glTF VSCode Extension		Cross-platform JSON schema validation and previews for glTF 2.0 and 1.0
Blender Importer		Blender importer for glTF 2.0 (alpha)
Blender Importer		glTF 2.0 Blender Importer

Viewers and Debugging

Tool	Status	Description
BabylonJS Sandbox		Drag-and-drop online viewer for model preview and debugging, using BabylonJS
three.js glTF Viewer		Drag-and-drop viewer (web and desktop) for model preview and debugging, using three.js
three.js Editor		Editor with drag-and-drop support
Clay Viewer		Drag-and-drop glTF2.0 viewer with high quality rendering and PBR material editing.
glTF Animation Visualizer		Frame-by-frame debugging for glTF animations.
VirtualGIS Viewer		Cesium-based glTF viewer.
GLTFQuickLook		macOS QuickLook plugin for glTF files
glTF Viewer		Android and iOS apps for glTF 2.0 viewing and link sharing: supports embedded glTF 2.0 files and links
DirectX glTF Viewer		DirectX11, C++ desktop app for loading and rendering glTF files

Applications

Application	Status	Description
Paint 3D by Microsoft		3D creation tool
Remix 3D by Microsoft		Share and print 3D creations
Facebook		Use .glb files to create 3D Posts
Sketchfab		Platform to publish, share & discover 3D online and in VR
Wordpress (plugin)		Inline glTF renderer for WordPress
Modo by Foundry		3D modeling, texturing & rendering tools
Substance Painter by Allegorithmic		3D painting software with glTF 2.0 export
Marmoset Toolbag		3D real-time rendering, animation, and baking suite
Aspose.3D		File Format APIs for creating, editing, and converting over 100 file formats
3D Slash		Web-based and app-based 3D modeling imitating a stonecutter
Archilogic		Web-based 3D platform for architecture and interiors
Plex.Earth		Connects AutoCAD with Google Earth and the Real World.

Loaders and Viewers

WebGL Engines

To compare WebGL-based glTF loaders, see gltf-test.

Engine	Status	Scope	Related
three.js (loader)		All	<gltf-model/> component
BabylonJS (loader)		All
Cesium (loader)		All	Drag-and-drop viewer, tutorial
OSG.JS (loader)		All
Grimoire.js (loader)		Geometry and materials, partial animation
Hilo3d (loader)		All	Doc
A-Frame (loader)		All	Doc
xeogl (loader)		Geometry and materials	Tutorial
ClayGL (loader)		All	Examples
Verge3D (loader)		All
ReactVR		All
CZPG (loader)		All	Examples
PEX (loader)		Geometry and materials
GLBoost (loader)		?	Examples
xml3d.js (loader)		Geometry and materials
X3DOM (loader)		Geometry and materials

WebGL Sample Code

Sample	Status	Description
Sample glTF loader with WebGL PBR shader		Engine-agnostic reference implementation for PBR shading with WebGL in glTF 2.0 (source code)

Game Engines

Tool	Status	Description
UnityGLTF		Unity3D library for exporting, loading, parsing, and rendering glTF assets
Godot Game Engine		Godot 3.0 fully supports glTF import
jMonkeyEngine		jME 3.2 supports glTF 2.0

Languages

JavaScript / Node.js

Tool	Status	Description
gltf-viewer		Web component to display glTF models on a website
minimal-gltf-loader		A minimal, engine-agnostic JavaScript glTF Loader, with a raw WebGL 2 renderer example
THREE.GLTFLoader		Loads glTF assets into a three.js scene.
THREE.GLTFExporter		Exports three.js scenes to a glTF asset
gltf-walker		Convenience library for processing glTF
RedCube.js		glTF viewer without dependencies
gltf-bounding-box		Computes the global bounding box of a gltf model

C++

Tool	Status	Description
Tiny glTF loader		Header only C++ glTF parsing library, with Alembic→glTF and CyHair->glTF converters
yocto-gltf		Single file, header only, C++ glTF loading/writing automatically generated from the spec
glTF2-loader		C++14 glTF (2.0 only) parsing library, by Lugdunum3D
gltfpp		glTF 2.0 loader for C++14
fx-gltf		A C++14/C++17 header-only library for simple, efficient, and robust serialization/deserialization of glTF 2.0
TGen		Simple C++ Tangent Generator
Microsoft.glTF.CPP		A C++ library for serializing and deserializing gltf/glb files. | |
Qt 3D		Qt 3D provides functionality for near-realtime simulation systems
Laugh Engine		Vulkan PBR and IBL renderer
Lugdunum3D		A modern cross-platform 3D rendering engine built with Vulkan and modern C++14
UX3D Engine		Cross-platform multi-threaded Vulkan 3D Engine with glTF 2.0 import and export
Cinder		Work-in-progress glTF importer
nvpro-pipeline		Research rendering pipeline by NVIDIA for minimizing CPU cost
AssetKit	?	3D asset importer/exporter/util library
libgltf		glTF 2.0 parser for C++11
libgltf_ue4		A third-party library for UE4.10+ to load glTF files
glTF for UE4		A plugin for UE4.10+ to import glTF files

Objective-C

Tool	Status	Description
GLTFKit		An Objective-C glTF 2.0 loader and Metal-based renderer

C

Tool	Status	Description
C# glTF loader		C# reference loader for glTF
Aspose.3D for .NET		Import, export, and convert glTF
MixedRealityToolkit-Unity		A collection of scripts and components intended to accelerate development of applications targeting Microsoft HoloLens and Windows Mixed Reality headsets.

C

Tool	Status	Description
AssetKit		3D asset importer, exporter library.

Go

Tool	Status	Description
gltf		go library for marshaling and unmarshaling glTF

Rust

Tool	Status	Description
Loader		A crate for loading glTF 2.0
Viewer		glTF 2.0 Viewer written in Rust

Haxe

Tool	Status	Description
haxe-gltf		A Haxe library for reading glTF

Java

• JglTF - Java libraries for glTF
  • jgltf-impl - Classes representing a glTF model, auto-generated from the glTF JSON schema
  • jgltf-impl-v1 - glTF 1.0
  • jgltf-impl-v2 - glTF 2.0
  • jgltf-impl-v2-technique-webgl - KHR_technique_webgl extension
  • jgltf-model - Classes for reading, processing, converting and writing glTF
  • jgltf-obj - Library for converting OBJ to glTF
  • jgltf-viewer - Viewer for glTF, with different implementations:
    • jgltf-viewer-jogl - glTF viewer based on JOGL
    • jgltf-viewer-lwjgl - glTF viewer based on LWJGL version 2
  • jgltf-browser - Application combining the above libraries
  • jgltf-validator - Simple glTF validator, only intended for internal use

Ada

Tool	Status	Description
Orka		The OpenGL 4.5 Rendering Kernel in Ada

TypeScript

Tool	Status	Description
gltf-typescript-generator		CLI to generate a TypeScript interface for glTF

Swift

Tool	Status	Description
GLTFSceneKit		glTF loader for SceneKit

Utilities

• gltf-utilities - JavaScript utility library to help load glTF
• wetzel - Generate Markdown documentation from JSON Schema
• gltf-enum - Simple site to help work with all the different enums in glTF spec

Stack Overflow

• glTF tagged questions

Presentations and Articles

Intros

• glTF 2.0 Launch by Neil Trevett. June 2017
• glTF Webinar (video, slides) by Marco Hutter. February 2017
• glTF Brief by Tony Parisi, FormVR and Amanda Watson, Oculus. October 2016

Tutorials

• glTF Tutorials
• Physically-Based Rendering: From Theory to glTF

All Presentations and Articles

• Sketchfab uses glTF to bring a search bar to the world of 3D. May 2018
• Draco Compressed Meshes with glTF and 3D Tiles by Gabby Getz. April 2018
• glTF Momentum Accelerates with New Support from Facebook, Epic, Unity, and Adobe by Khronos. April 2018
• GDC 2018 Khronos Developer Days - WebGL & glTF video. March 2018
• glTF Ecosystem Update, GTC by Neil Trevett. March 2018
• glTF Ecosystem Update, GDC by Patrick Cozzi. March 2018
• Adobe Dimension & glTF by Mike Bond. March 2018
• Draco 3D Compression Extension to glTF 2.0 by Frank Galligan. March 2018
• Mixed Reality with glTF by Tom Mignone. March 2018
• glTF Texture Transmission Extension by David Wilkinson. March 2018
• glTF in Unreal Engine by Mike Erwin. March 2018
• glTF Asset Generator Deep Dive by Gary Hsu. March 2018
• GLB Tutorials (exporting from Modo, Substance Painter, Maya, and others) by Facebook. February 2018
• Convert FBX format to glTF format on Blender and animate it with Three.js (Japanese) by Ryosuke Sakaki. February 2018
• Art Pipeline for glTF by Patrick Ryan. January 2018
• Call for Participation: glTF Creating a Compressed Texture Extension by Khronos. December 2017
• Using glTF Models with A-Frame by Josh Marinacci. December 2017
• Creating animated glTF Characters with Mixamo and Blender by Don McCurdy. November 2017
• glTF - Seattle Khronos Group Meetup by Saurabh Bhatia. September 2017
• State of glTF 2.0 for WebVR Devs by Don McCurdy, Google. September 2017
• glTF Exporter in three.js and A-Frame by Fernando Serrano. August 2017
• SIGGRAPH 2017 glTF BOF video. August 2017
  • glTF 2.0 and Community Update: Tony Parisi, Unity, and Patrick Cozzi, Cesium
  • Microsoft update - Paint 3D, View 3D, 3D in Office and one more thing…: Saurabh Bhatia and Gary Hsu, Microsoft
  • glTF VSCode editor: Ed Mackey, AGI
  • Autodesk Forge and glTF: Nop Jiarathanakul, Autodesk
  • Three.js and A-Frame update: Don McCurdy, Google and Ricardo Cabello, Google
  • Introduction to geometry compression on the web with Draco: Michael Hemmer and Jamieson Brettle, Google
  • WebGL PBR reference implementation: Scott Nagy, Microsoft, and Mohamad Moneimne, Cesium
  • Sketchfab update: Aurelien Chatelain, Sketchfab
  • glTF 2.0 Export in InstantUV: Max Limper, Fraunhofer
• Physically-Based Rendering in Cesium by Mohamad Moneimne. August 2017
• Why we should all support glTF 2.0 as THE standard asset exchange format for game engines by Juan Linietsky. August 2017
• Exporting glTF 2.0 from Maya LT by Don McCurdy. June 2017
• glTF 2.0: PBR Materials by Saurabh Bhatia. May 2017
• glTF Workflow for a Saturday Night by Diego F. Goberna. April 2017
• 2017 GDC WebGL/WebVR/glTF Meetup YouTube recording. March 2017
• Reach the Largest Gaming Platform of All: The Web. WebGL, WebVR and glTF. March 2017
• PBR-ready glTF in instant3Dhub / instantUV by Max Limper. March 2017
• Call for feedback on glTF 2.0 by Neil Trevett. February 2017
• Improve expressiveness of WebGL with the topic 3D file format glTF now! (in Japanese) by Yuki Shimada(@emadurandal), WebGL advent calendar 2016 at Qiita. December 2016
• A new 3D horizon: glTF import and export with Archilogic by Martin Splitt. December 2016
• Bringing 3D to everyone through open standards by Forest W. Gouin and Jean Paoli. October 2016
• Using Quantization with 3D Models by Rob Taglang. August 2016
• glTF and Mobile VR: Inclusive standards for a 3D world. Amanda Watson, Oculus, WebGL + glTF BOF. July 2016
• glTF Update and Roadmap. Tony Parisi, WebGL + glTF BOF. July 2016
• PBR in glTF: Current State. Max Limper, Johannes Behr, and Timo Sturm, WebGL + glTF BOF. July 2016
• glTF:// The Runtime Asset Format for GL-based Applications. July 2016
• glTF working group updates (slides, video). Patrick Cozzi and Tony Parisi, WebGL + glTF BOF. March 2016
• FBX to/from glTF (slides, video). Cyrille Fauvel, WebGL + glTF BOF. March 2016
• Khronos Group glTF Webinar. Neil Trevett, Virtual AR Community meeting. October 2015
• An Introduction to glTF 1.0. October 2015
• The state of WebGL and glTF. Patrick Cozzi, The Graphical Web. September 2015
• glTF ecosystem and mesh compression update. Khronos 3D Formats Working Group, SIGGRAPH 2015. August 2015
• glTF and the WebGL Art Pipeline. Tony Parisi, WebGL Meetup. March 2015
• Writing an FBX importer / Exporter plug-in. Cyrille Fauvel. January 2015
• glTF Tips for Artists. Branden Coker. December 2014
• 3D for the Modern Web: Declarative 3D and glTF. Brian Coughlin. Summer 2014
• glTF:// Designing an Open-Standard Runtime Asset Format. Fabrice Robinet et al, GPU Pro 5. May 2014
• Building a WebGL Santa with Cesium and glTF. Patrick Cozzi. December 2013
• glTF update. Tony Parisi. August 2013
• How I got involved in glTF and Khronos. Patrick Cozzi, WebGL Meetup. March 2013

We believe the true usefulness of glTF goes beyond the spec itself; it is an ecosystem of tools, documentation, and extensions contributed by the community. You are encouraged to get involved!