OpenFlight Scene

The OpenFlight Scene Description Database Specification, commonly referred to as simply “OpenFlight,” is a 3D scene description file format used for real-time visual simulation of 3D terrain features and moving models, such as ground and air vehicles.

OpenFlight was submitted to OGC for consideration as a community standard by its creator and maintainer, Presagis. While OpenFlight databases are often created and edited using Presagis software tools, the format is widely adopted and, as a result, many tools exist in the marketplace that are able to seamlessly read and write OpenFlight files.

The OpenFlight file format supports both simple and relatively sophisticated real-time software applications. The full implementation of OpenFlight supports variable levels of detail, degrees of freedom, sound, instancing (both within a file and to external files), replication, animation sequences, bounding volumes for real-time culling, scene lighting features, light points and light point strings, transparency, texture mapping, material properties, and many other features.