Portal:Post 2010

This page is being created in the second week of 2017 to provide perspective on the content of this wiki, as it can paint a deceptive picture if you are not a time traveler visiting from the years 2006-2008! It is by no means a definitive account of the ensuing years. It could benefit from a diversity of perspectives. Nevertheless, modern readers need consider it a primer.

In and around 2006 COLLADA was a golden child, a promising new technology, an almost Messianic event. It was to address problems that have plagued the field of 3-D graphics from inception. Everyone was eager to get on board the COLLADA love train. Much of this wiki reflects that. But alas (and this is not a history of COLLADA) by the mid 2010s it seemed clear to all that it was ahead of its time, or not to be, or simply ill-equipped, or ill-fated. Interest waned as 3-D company after 3-D company were consolidated until the original notion that competing enterprises could not entertain a proprietary data-format no longer applied.

Still, the same problems remain still, and because of the Internet, today there is much more interest in non-commercial needs and actors, and small companies and enthusiasts trying to navigate an environment that appears actively hostile to their existence and innovation. The complexity of 3-D makes meaningful standardization difficult to do, enforce, and have carried out. In all of this time, alternatives to COLLADA have not materialized, and so if you find yourself working in this benighted field, and face to face with these problems, COLLADA can easily look like your most attractive option.

Unfortunately, looks can be deceiving. In truth, you'll decide on a more expedient fix, begrudgingly. It's not your job to slay these primordial 3-D dragons. This is the situation that is repeated endlessly every time a fresh new face aims to make a video game, or something else; and so it will continue, until one or more of us says: No! no other option will do! (We could also finally resolve to solve these difficult problems once and all; but let's face it, that's not in people's DNA.)

Large commercial companies will not likely take the lead. There is little incentive for them to. The third decade of the new millennium is only three years off. The responsibility falls on our shoulders. We know who we are. We must take up the mantle. We must carry COLLADA's banner forward anew. Renewed.

This process begins by turning a new page on this wiki. That page is this page. Here is a portal for all activity that is new and modern about COLLADA.

See also

• ColladaDOM 3, a modern guide (post 2017)