The Complete JT to VRML Conversion Guide

Free-Form Surfaces Support:

JT: Full support | VRML: Partial support

VRML Notes:

Limited NURBS support in VRML 2.0

Impact:

Free-form surfaces allow a CAD user to design surfaces with advanced controls over curvature and continuitiy. While these surfaces are common for CAD models (in the form of so-called boundary representations or "B-reps"), they need to be converted to polygonal triangle or quad data to work with most 3D rendering engines - a process called tessellation. In this example, a surface patch is used to describe a part of a curved surface of a product. Without support for this feature, the free-form surface has to be tessellated into quads or triangles.

Geometry Compression Support:

JT: Full support | VRML: No support

Impact:

Geometry compression describes the process of compressing the representations of a 3D model's geometry, usually a triangle mesh. 3D geometry compression does not change the topology of a 3D model, but just changes the way that a 3D model and its 3D positions and related vertex data is stored. Geometry compression can be lossy (just like JPEG compression in image processing can be lossy, for example), in which case one might notice slight artifacts like variations in 3D vertex positions (compared to the uncompressed 3D model). However, such differences are often not noticeable. There are only very few standards for geometry compression, like glTF's support of Draco compression and similar extensions.

Quad Meshes Support:

JT: Full support | VRML: Partial support

VRML Notes:

Primarily triangle-based with some quad support

Impact:

Quad meshes are a common way to hand-model and edit 3D models. 3D artists get intuitive control and such meshes are also easy to refine, as well as well-suited for creation of skinned animations. However, real-time rendering pipelines and hardware are usually all based on triangles, so if a 3D model should not be edited any more, it is safe to convert quads to triangles (and engines will do this automatically before sending data to the rendering hardware). In this example, a part of a mesh is modeled with quads. Without support for this feature, quads will have to be triangulated, producing a pure triangle mesh.

Texture Compression Support:

JT: Partial support | VRML: No support

JT Notes:

Efficient compression for visualization

Impact:

Texture compression refers to a process of compressing 2D texture images for memory-efficient rendering (and sometimes for efficient transmission). The decompression of compressed texture data is therefore performed on-the-fly during rendering, so that it never has to be stored in unpacked form, but can be kept as-is in GPU memory. Formats supporting texture compression methods, such as the ones offered by glTF through KTX2 containers, therefore allow 3D models to use a smaller memory footprint on the client device during rendering. This can speed up rendering time, and also make it possible to store and use larger amounts of texture data than it would otherwise be possible.

Embedded Textures Support:

JT: Partial support | VRML: No support

JT Notes:

Textures can be embedded for self-contained files

Impact:

Embedded textures allow the storage and exchange of an entire 3D model and its materials within a single file, by embedding the texture images directly into the 3D file (and not storing them as separate image files). Without support for this feature, textures have to be stored in separate image files, and referenced from the main 3D model file.

Normal Mapping Support:

JT: Partial support | VRML: No support

JT Notes:

Basic normal mapping for enhanced visualization

Impact:

Normal maps are used to model shading differences that are arising from small geometric details on a surface, such as fabric structures, visible gaps between bricks forming a wall, or rough rock surfaces. In this example, a normal map is used to model a fabric structure. Without support for this feature, the rendered fabric will look smoother than it actually is in the real world, as the fabric structure won't be visible.