Hi,

I'm implementing a software which shows special 3D environments and information about them in the web browser. As I don't want to use Flash and WebGL based tools are useless due to missing support by Microsoft, I decided to try with Silverlight and finally found this project. First I have to say I'm really impressed. This seems to be (or become) exactly what I was looking for. And I expect a massive boost as soon as Silverlight 5 with native 3D acceleration is ready.

However, what I need is support for Collada files. I tried to use files created by the PolyTrans Collada export plugin, but Balder was not yet able to read it, even the current revision of the source code that contains a Collada loader.

So my question is: what level of support for Collada is planned for version 1.0? Will there be support for materials (colors and textures) and visual scenes. So far, I have extended the Collada loader myself according to my requirements (for testing).

And, beyond Collada, will switching to a Right-Handed coordinate system be possible in a future version? Are there any plans or thoughts about supporting even VRML2 in future?

Btw: does anyone see any chance that one day Balder will even run with Mono/Moonlight on Linux?

Hi and thanks,

Collada is something that will be fully supported - the support today is a bit experimental, research on how the format works. So its buggy at best. 

As for the handedness - this is something that will also be possible in the future. I'll put an issue on it, so its visible to everyone. 

When it comes to Moonlight - it all depends on the implementation of Moonlight and how fast they get to a parity point with at least SL4. Balder has software rendering today which should go fine with SL4 parity, although not optimal - hardware rendering is preferred ofcourse. I've tried a couple of times getting it running on Moonlight, but with less luck - I'm afraid. 

Another thing I've been experimenting with is to use WebGL from Balder on those platforms not having the Hardware acceleration out of the box through the JS/DOM bridge - that would give hardware acceleration on browsers that support WebGL (Chrome, FF, Safari soon, Opera)

Thanks for your input.

Thanks for the response.

Is there any schedule for these features?

Not at the moment, I'm afraid. 

I'm working heavily on refactoring and stabilizing of the engine - and for the time being my work is tied up with clients using Balder, unfortunately that means that features prioritized by those gets bumped up the chain.

WIthin August this year, Balder should be in the state I want it to be in and then I can start moving on to things like Collada.
One thing that will be done within August however, is the ability to load things from any source - not only within the XAP, and also async loading.