The Khronos Group has announced that glTF 2.0 has been released as an International Standard for 3D assets, which it hopes will become as pervasive as JPEG is for images.
The open consortium of industry-leading companies creating advanced interoperability standards developed glTF 2.0 for the efficient transmission and loading of 3D models.
glTF minimises the runtime processing to unpack and process 3D assets, while enabling sophisticated pervasive graphics functionality. 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
Unanimously approved by all national standards bodies with no requested technical changes – a massive vote of confidence in glTF’s stability and pervasiveness as a 3D format – glTF 2.0 was submitted to the Joint Technical Committee of the International Standards Organization and the International Electrotechnical Commission (ISO/IEC) through their Publicly Available Specification (PAS) submission process.
Under the JTC 1 PAS transposition process, Khronos says it retains full control over the glTF specification, and glTF’s status as an ISO/IEC standard will not slow its evolution.
Instead, the consortium says it will make regular submissions to bring updates and new widely adopted glTF functionality into refreshed versions of ISO/IEC 12113 to ensure that there is no long-term divergence between the ISO/IEC and Khronos specifications.
This should provide developers the choice to use the Khronos specification that defines the latest glTF functionality and extensions, or ISO/IEC 12113 for the compatible set of glTF functionality that has been approved as an International Standard.
“In 2013, Khronos launched the glTF initiative with the goal to create a 3D asset format that was as pervasive as JPEG for images – and now glTF, like JPEG, is an International Standard,” said Neil Trevett, vice president developer ecosystems at Nvidia and Khronos Group president.
“ISO/IEC International Standards are recognized throughout the world, and often constitute the technical regulatory basis for public procurement of IT goods and services. Khronos is proud to be an ISO/IEC JTC 1 PAS Submitter, and intends to proactively transpose additional widely-adopted Khronos specifications to International Standards for the benefit of the industry.”
