The Motion Pictures Expert Group (MPEG) and the Web3D Consortium announced that the X3D specification for interactive 3D content has been integrated within the MPEG-4 multimedia standard.

MPEG-4 is a toolkit for developing networked multimedia applications based on any combination of audio, video, 2D, and 3D content. It is widely supported by companies such as Apple, DivX, Microsoft and Real, and is being deployed in products ranging from cell phones to set-top boxes and DVD players.

X3D is an open file format standard for 3D visual effects, behavioral modeling and interaction. It provides an XML-encoded scene graph and a language-neutral Scene Authoring Interface (SAI) that enable programmers to incorporate interactive 3D into Web services architectures and distributed environments.

Incorporating X3D into MPEG-4 enables interactive 3D content to be delivered to wide range of Web- and non-Web-based platforms, including handheld devices and mobile phones, for applications such as entertainment, product and data visualization, electronic commerce, distance learning and interactive instructional and product manuals, the groups said.

The announcement means that "X3D content is now interoperable across multiple standards and can be communicated in a broad variety of Web, broadcast and networked applications -- further delivering on X3D's promise of enabling communications with real-time 3D across applications, networks and XML Web services," said Neil Trevett, senior vice president at 3Dlabs and president of the Web3D Consortium.

The X3D Interactive profile is now a part of the MPEG-4 ISO/IEC 14496 specification, which will formally become an International Standard in January 2005.

For more information, visit the Web3D Consortium here.