Call For Papers: Special Issue on 3D Web Technologies

Important Dates

• Submissions deadline: 31 October 2025
• Publication: May 2026

Open standards for 3D graphics and visualization play a crucial role in various fields, such as virtual and augmented reality, simulation, training systems, 3D visualization, 3D printing, and digital twins.  Broadly suitable for import/export composition and Web publishing across various file formats and codebases, unifying publication standards such as X3D offers a path for deliberately sharing any 3D graphics models that include animation, user interactivity, navigation support, and HTML integration.  What impacts are there on the world and the Web change as hyperlinked 3D graphics become more easily shareable, viewable, and accessible to anyone?

This special issue will showcase over 30 years of continuing innovation and publication in the field of Web3D. We invite researchers, practitioners, and industry experts to contribute to this special topic on Web3D technologies, including the advancements, innovations, and real-world implementations of standards in various domains. 

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Advancements in Web3D technology – new extensions, file encodings, programming-language frameworks, and rendering techniques
• Web-based 3D visualization – interactive and immersive experiences leveraging data-driven Web3D for information exploration and discovering insights in
  • virtual and augmented reality applications of all sorts
  • exposing and connecting GIS, CAD, BIM, medical, ergonomics, and humanoid animation
  • cross-platform, cross-domain human-computer interaction (HCI), unrestricted accessibility, and user experience
  • modeling, simulation, computational-science experimentation, and training systems
  • digital twins and smart environments
  • cultural heritage, digital museums, artifact preservation, and curated archival content
• Building large-scale model libraries to expose high-quality 3D models as a practical first-class media type, customizable for any end-user purpose on the Web
• Interoperability and standardization: interconnecting 3D Web across numerous arbitrary technologies and platforms, including emerging Metaverse applications
• Importance of metadata vocabularies, query ontologies, and 3D shape search
• Historical surveys of the numerous 3D technologies that have come and gone over three decades, common barriers and gaps, and lessons learned

Submission Guidelines:

For author information and guidelines on submission criteria, visit the Author’s Information Page. Please submit papers through the IEEE Author Portal and be sure to select the special issue or special section name. Manuscripts should not be published or currently submitted for publication elsewhere. Please submit only full papers intended for review, not abstracts.

This special issue on 3D Web Technologies will also publish interactive 3D models on the IEEE DataPort as an archival collection showcasing the described work in the papers. Wherever appropriate, and especially for applications, each submission is expected to provide live URLs to validated, open-source, publishable X3D models that demonstrate the capabilities described. Similar inclusion of original non-X3D models (used for conversion into corresponding publishable X3D models) is also welcome.

Questions?

Contact the guest editors at: cga1-2026@computer.org.

• Nicholas F. Polys, Virginia Tech, USA
• Don Brutzman, Naval Postgraduate School (NPS), USA
• Felix G. Hamza-Lup, Georgia Southern University, USA