N3d4

N3d4 is a proposed open specification for representing three-dimensional scenes and assets. It aims to enable efficient storage, streaming, and interchange of meshes, materials, textures, animations, and scene graphs, while emphasizing compactness, extensibility, and clear validation rules.

The specification defines two representations: a human-readable text form and a compact binary form. The text form uses a concise, token-based syntax describing a scene as graphs of nodes with optional components such as meshes, materials, or animation data. The binary form encodes the same information as a sequence of typed blocks, with optional compression for fast loading and streaming. Core concepts include a scene graph, mesh primitives with per-vertex attributes, materials and textures, skinning, morph targets, animation timelines, and level-of-detail support. Extensions allow vendors to add data without breaking compatibility, while a schema language supports validation and tooling.

N3d4 originated from an open community project in the 2010s and has evolved through multiple revision cycles. Governance emphasizes openness, interoperability testing, and reference implementations across programming languages. Tooling exists for parsing, validating, and converting N3d4 data, with pipelines designed to integrate into graphics engines and content-creation tools. The format is designed to interoperate with existing standards through converters and compatibility layers.

Adoption is modest compared with other well-established formats, but N3d4 is used in research, education, and some indie development pipelines where streaming performance and extensibility are priorities. See also glTF, OBJ, FBX, USD, and other 3D data formats.