Enhancing X3DOM declarative 3D with rigid body physics support

Given that physics can be fundamental for realistic and interactive Web3D applications, a number of JavaScript versions of physics engines have been introduced during the past years. This paper presents the implementation of the rigid body physics component, as defined by the X3D specification, in the X3DOM environment, and the creation of dynamic 3D interactive worlds. We briefly review the state of the art in current technologies for Web3D graphics, including HTML5, WebGL and X3D, and then explore the significance of physics engines in building realistic Web3D worlds. We include a comprehensive review of JavaScript physics engine libraries, and proceed to summarize the significance of our implementation while presenting in detail the methodology followed. The results obtained so far from our cross-browser experiments demonstrate that real-time interactive scenes with hundreds of rigid bodies can be constructed and operate with acceptable frame rates, while the allowing the user to maintain the scene control.