Developer Information

Introduction

When you open a website location using a legacy (HTML) browser, the browser looks for a file called index.html on your server, which is then displayed.

When you open a website location using a 3D web browser such as Infinity, the browser first looks for a file called root.xsg which if present defines a 3D website zone at that location. If no root.xsg file is present, the 3D web browser looks for index.html and presents that as normal.

XSG can be thought of as the 3D equivalent of HTML. XSG stands for eXtendable Scene Graph. XSG encoded directed scene graphs define 3D web content. XSG is an XML based format, optionally binary encoded (FastInfoSet with an external dictionary).

Please see tutorials accessible from the products page for information regarding how to create XSG content using 3D content creation packages such as 3D Studio Max and Blender.

Lets dive into a couple of examples.

Core Essentials

A basic 3D website zone with an embedded webpage and one hyperlink.

XSG <?xml version="1.01"?> <xsg version="1.01"> <scene ambient="0.105882 0.105882 0.105882"> <material id="wall" base="0.588235 0.588235 0.588235"> <part id="diffuse"> <input color="0.588235 0.588235 0.588235" position="0.5 0" scale="10 -1" src="wall.jpg"/> </part> </material> <material id="floor" base="0.588235 0.588235 0.588235"> <part id="diffuse"> <input color="0.588235 0.588235 0.588235" scale="5 -5" src="floor.jpg"/> </part> </material> <node id="[xref:link]" transform="1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 6.65769 0.755332 12.4115"> <object src="./link.xsg"> <link id="That other thing ..." dest="./zone_2/root.xsg"/> </object> </node> <node id="[xref:frame]" transform="0 0 -1 0 1 0 1 0 0 -0.16509 0.496387 12.445"> <object src="./frame.xsg"> <material id="page"> <input type="webpage" src="./main.html"/> </material> </object> </node> <node id="FDirect01" transform="0.997322 -0.035822 0.063758 -0.013654 0.765279 0.643554 -0.071846 -0.642701 0.762741 1.76177 77.137604 -84.469902"> <light color="0.780392 0.780392 0.780392" param="shadow:1" type="spot" inner="43" main="45" begin="50" end="850"/> </node> <node id="Camera01" transform="1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 -0.199084 1.7 -8.31972"> <camera/> </node> <node id="zone"> <mesh> <position>-10 0 -12.5 10 0 -12.5 -10 0 12.5 10 0 12.5 -10 2 -12.5 10 2 -12.5 -10 2 12.5 10 2 12.5 -10 0 -12.5 10 0 -12.5 10 0 -12.5 10 2 -12.5 10 0 12.5 10 0 12.5 10 2 12.5 -10 0 12.5 -10 0 12.5 -10 2 12.5 -10 2 -12.5 -10 0 -12.5</> <normal>0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 -1 -1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 -1 0 0 -1 0 0 -1 0 0 0 0 -1 0 0 -1 0 0 -1 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0</> <texture>1 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 0</> <faces material="wall">8 4 5 5 9 8 10 11 7 7 12 10 13 14 6 6 15 13 16 17 18 18 19 16</> <faces material="floor">0 1 3 3 2 0</> </mesh> </node> </scene> </xsg>

User Interface

Like 3D website content, the Infinity browser UI and any custom UI overlay or embedded scene component UI is also delivered in XSG.

The eXtendable Scene Graph File Format

Copyright (c) Advance Software Limited 2026

Document version 0.44

This format will be used for authoring 3D websites at Internet scale.
Input is welcome from all stakeholders.
Please consider joining the XSG Consortium to align and support this work.

Audience

This document is intended for use by 3D website designers, real-time 3D computer artists, tools programmers and website programmers for the purposes of writing exporters, importers and conversion tools to/from the XSG file format. A good understanding of 3D graphics principles is assumed. The reader is expected to be familiar with real time 3D graphics concepts such as lighting, animation and scene graph hierarchies.

Introduction

The XSG file format is a text file format (optionally binary compressed as fastinfoset with an external dictionary) derived from the Internet standard XML grammar. XSG is used to describe 3 dimensional directed scene graph hierarchies which are rendered as 3D website zones and zone components by the Infinity 3D Internet browser rendering engine. Currently, each .XSG file describes one directed scene graph hierarchy. Nodes within each hierarchy can reference other XSG hierarchies which enables geometry “instancing”, resulting in efficient management of complex geometries.


This document describes the current XSG file format, version 1.0 .

XSG can optionally be encoded as binary XML using the FastInfoSet encoding, with an external dictionary.

Link to FastInfoSet ITU Specification

Coordinate System

XSG uses a right-handed Y-up coordinate system.
+Y is up, +Z is forward (camera look direction), +X is right.

Basic data types used in this document

• uint8 unsigned 8 bit integer
• uint16 unsigned 16 bit integer
• uint32 unsigned 32 bit integer
• scalar single precision floating point
• vector2 scalar (u,v)
• vector3 scalar (x,y,z)
• matrix34 vector3 (right, up, front, position)
• colour unsigned scalar (red, green, blue) range 0 to 1 (or larger for high dynamic range use)
• uint8 character encoding ascii

Type may be extended later in the document using the <> syntax. (same as C++ template syntax).

Example : vector2<uint32> defines a data type built from two 32 bit unsigned integers.

Other data types are defined later in the document, as they are introduced. The type keyword is used to indicate a new type is being defined.

Arrays

Syntax : array type name[size]

A contiguous array of entries of type with identifier name.

Where an array must be of fixed size, the constraint is defined as shown above.

Character Strings

type string : array character[string length]

Note: The current XSG specification does not yet support UNICODE strings.

Uniform Resource Locators

type url : string (encoding W3C::URL) Interpretation : Path to a data source in W3C standard URL format.

XML Element Syntax

Required XSG elements are shown in square brackets as follows : [element]

If these elements are missing, the file is invalid.

Required elements must exist exactly once unless otherwise stated.

Optional XSG elements are defined in curly brackets as follows : {element}
... and may occur zero or more times.

Element instantiations are written in XML grammar.

For example : <element></>

... where 'element' is a valid XSG grammar element keyword.

Note how XSG extends XML syntax to include the new close current element construct </>

Element Attribute Syntax

Optional XSG element attributes are shown as follows : {attribute}

XSG element attribute assignments must be double quoted if they contain any spaces.
Unlike the current XML specification, XSG does not require double quotes on attribute values that don't contain spaces.

Example : <element attribute=”my value” another=5/>

Each attribute should either not be present, in which case a sensible default is selected, or should occur at most once. Multiple instantiations of the same attribute within a given element are invalid and will result in implementation specific behaviour - multiple instantiations are either ignored or duplicates override earlier definitions. Please avoid doing this. TODO: Behaviour should be strictly specified to prevent standard divergence.

Attribute Syntax : Vectors

Where attributes are vectors, vector elements are separated by spaces.

For example : position=”0 0 5”

Attribute Syntax : Arrays

Where element data arrays are instantiated, array elements are separated by spaces.

For example, triangular polygon meshes are defined as follows : array vector3<uint32> faces

An example instantiation : <faces> 0 1 2 1 2 3 </faces>

... which might define a two triangle quad.

XSG Structure

Each XSG scene graph is defined in an XML hierarchy as follows :

[header] : File header

[scene] : Scene header

{material} : Materials

{node} : Nodes - written recursively from the root.

{animation} : Animation channels

Section Descriptions

File Header

type header

Syntax : <xml version="1.01"><xsg version=1>

XML identification header, followed by XSG identification header, versioned as shown. This section must be present.

XML version 1.01 is our proposal (not yet ratified), which is XML 1.0 with the addition of

1. </> which means close current XML element.
2. Optimally unquoted XML element attribute values. Quote as XML 1.0 if the value contains whitespace.

Scene Header

type scene

The scene element opens a directed scene graph hierarchy. This section must be present.

Syntax : <scene {id} {ambient}>

string id : The name of the scene (as it should appear in the browser's title bar)

default : none

colour ambient : The ambient scene lighting

default : none (black).

Audio Sources

type sound

Syntax : <sound {id} {src} {volume} />

string id : Sound identifier e.g. ambient, footsteps.
Some identifiers are reserved for general purpose use. At this time, the only reserved identifier is 'ambient'.

url src : Path to sound source. e.g. "seashore.ogg"

scalar volume : Range : 0-1

Surface Materials

type material : Defines the characteristics of a geometry surface material.

Each material may contain multiple parts.

Syntax : <material {id} {opacity} {base} > </material>

string id : Material name (referenced later by geometry) or material overrides). scalar opacity : Range 0-1 Defines how geometry rendered with this material blends with the contents of the frame buffer.
(0=transparent 1=opaque) colour base : The base colour used to render geometry when the material's textures have not yet been loaded in order to get a pleasing incremental load visualisation.

Material Parts

type material::part

XSG supports multiple parts per materials which are combined to generate resultant pixel values. Some parts support multiple inputs.

Syntax :

<part id =part_id {position} {scale} {rotation} {animation} >
{input}
</part>

part_id = "constant" | "diffuse" | "normal" | "reflect" | "refract"

Each part may reference multiple inputs. When multiple inputs are defined, they are displayed in sequence, generating a “flipbook” animation or are combined according to a specified or default blending mode.

Material Part Inputs

type material::part::input

Syntax :

<input {src} {type} {tint} </input>
tint : colour multiplier to be applied to modulate the input.
src : url specifying where image data for this part can be found (its texture)
type : specifies what format the image data is delivered in.
vector2 position : texture coordinate offset.
vector2 scale: texture coordinate offset.
vector2 rotation : texture coordinate rotation.
id animation : Animation identifier, to enable texture coordinate modifiers (position scale, rotation) to be animated.
Currently supported input types are : webpage, texture, text, video Default: texture

Directed Scene Graph Hierarchy Nodes

type node

Syntax : <node {id} {transform} {position} {scale}> {attachment} {node}</node>

string id : Node identifier – used to enable this node to be referenced from elsewhere.

matrix34 : transform
vector3 : position
vector3 : scale

Reserved Hierarchy Structures

XSG compatible browsers use a reserved name convention in order to implement certain generic functionality. This currently includes hyperlink highlights, activations and selections. When generating new content, one must be aware of this reserved word naming convention in order to ensure content functions as intended.

Scene Graph Node Attachments

abstract type : attachment

XSG supports the following built in node attachment types :

mesh : Geometry meshes, build from triangles or quads.
skin : Flexible skin modifier which can be applied to a mesh (also called armature)
object : Places a reference to another scene graph hierarchy within the current graph.
light : Real-time light sources.
camera : Cameras – view configuration.
Only one camera is currently supported per hierarchy.
Additional “points of interest” can be added via the viewpoint element.

Referenced Geometry Objects

type object

Syntax : <object geometry={url} root={id}> {link}<object/>

url geometry : Path to the instantiated (referenced) xsg geometry.
id root : Node in referenced hierarchy from where to begin traversal. (default: root)

Light Sources

type light

Syntax : <light {colour} {type} {inner} {main} {range} />

colour colour : The light source colour (default : white)
string type : The type of light source. Valid values : point, spot, dir (default: [dir]ectional).
scalar inner : The inner cone value (spot light parameter)
scalar main : The main cone value (spot light parameter)
scalar range : The end of the falloff for attentuated light sources.

Camera

type camera

Syntax : <camera/>

The camera is placed and oriented by its parent <node>.

XSG cameras look down their local +Z axis (the front vector of the node’s transform matrix).

Only one camera is currently supported per hierarchy. Additional points of interest can be added via the viewpoint element.

Hyperlinks

type link
Syntax : <link id={id} {dest}} />

string id: The name of the hyperlink
url dest : The hyperlink destination.

TODO[proposal]: Multi-lingual hyperlinks ?
<link><variant
lang=”eng” id=”here”dest=”mysite.com/welcome_eng”/> <variantlang=”fr” id=”ici” dest=”mysite.com/welcome_fr”/></>

Polygonal Meshes

type mesh

Geometry is defined using separate attribute streams followed by one or more face lists.

Syntax :

<mesh>
  <position> vector3[vertex_count] </position>
  {<normal> vector3[vertex_count] </normal>}
  {<texture> vector2[vertex_count] </texture>}   (up to 3 texture sets may appear)
  {<faces material="id"> ... </faces>}   (one or more)
</mesh>

A richer form that allows independent indexing per attribute (and explicit face size) is also supported:

<mesh>
  <position> ... </position>
  <normal> ... </normal>
  <texture> ... </texture>
  <material id="mat_id">
    <faces size="3|4">
      <position> indices... </position>
      <normal> indices... </normal>
      <texture> indices... </texture>
    </faces>
  </material>
</mesh>

Mesh Attribute Streams

The following child elements of <mesh> define the vertex attribute arrays. All values are space-separated.

<position> — required
vector3 array of vertex positions. The number of triples defines the vertex count.

<normal> — optional
vector3 array of vertex normals. When present, the number of triples must match the position count (unless using the independent-index form).

<texture> — optional (may appear up to three times)
vector2 array of texture coordinates.

>

Polygonal Connectivity (Faces)

type faces

Simple form:

<faces material="material_id">
  uint32 indices...
</faces>

Indices are a flat list. Triangles use groups of 3 indices; quads use groups of 4. Multiple <faces> elements may appear inside one mesh, each referencing a different material.

Example (two triangles + one quad):
<faces material="wall">0 1 2 2 3 0 4 5 6 7</faces>

Independent-index form (supports different index streams for position / normal / texture and explicit face size):

<material id="mat_id">
  <faces size="4">
    <position>5 4 0 1 1 0 2 3 ...</position>
    <normal>13 13 13 13 12 12 12 12 ...</normal>
    <texture>20 21 22 23 16 17 18 19 ...</texture>
  </faces>
</material>

size="3" = triangles, size="4" = quads.
The material referenced by faces (or the enclosing <material>) must have been defined earlier in the file.

Animations

type animation : Animation code_section
Animation can currently be applied to node transforms and texture coordinate transforms.

Syntax:

<animation {id}>
{animation::component}
</animation>

Multiple components may be defined in an animation, with multiple keyframe sequences defined per component.

Animation Channels

type animation::channel

Syntax:
<component {id} {loop} {period}> {keyframes} </component>

string id (TODO: Rename dest ?)
bool loop
scalar period

Animation Keyframes

type keyframes

<keyframes {dest}> <time> scalar[nkeyframes]</time>
<value>type[nkeyframes]</value>
</keyframes>

string dest : Keyframe destination (the type of the keyframe).

uint32 nkeyframes : The number of keyframes in the animation.

type value : depends on the type of the keyframes as specified in dest.

XSG Uniform Resource Name Specification

XSG Schema

Peer Reviews