Model-driven multi-platform development of 3D applications with round-trip engineering

Abstract

While model-driven approaches are nowadays common-place in the development of many kinds of software, 3D applications are often still developed in an ad-hoc and code-centric manner. This state of affairs is somewhat surprising, as there are obvious benefits to a more structured 3D development process. E.g., model-based techniques could help to ensure the mutual consistency of the code bases produced by the heterogeneous development groups, i.e. 3D designers and programmers. Further, 3D applications are often developed for multiple platforms in different programming environments for which some support for synchronization during development iterations is desirable. This paper presents a model-driven approach for the structured development of multi-platform 3D applications based on round-trip engineering. Ab- stract models of the application are specified in SSIML, a DSL tailored for the development of 3D applications. In a forward phase, consistent 3D scene descriptions and program code are generated from the SSIML model. In a reverse phase, code refinements are abstracted and synchronized to result in an updated SSIML model. And so on in subsequent iterations. In particular, our approach supports the synchronization of multiple target platforms, such as WebGL-enabled web applications with JavaScript and immersive Virtual Reality software using VRML and C++.