# Castle Model Viewer (formerly view3dscene) 5.0.0 release -- ton of improvements coming from latest Castle Game Engine, support to validate models, MD3 animations, saving to STL, more X3D 4.0 features

**URL:** https://forum.castle-engine.io/t/castle-model-viewer-formerly-view3dscene-5-0-0-release-ton-of-improvements-coming-from-latest-castle-game-engine-support-to-validate-models-md3-animations-saving-to-stl-more-x3d-4-0-features/1210
**Category:** News
**Created:** [May 24, 2024, 4:03pm UTC](https://forum.castle-engine.io/t/castle-model-viewer-formerly-view3dscene-5-0-0-release-ton-of-improvements-coming-from-latest-castle-game-engine-support-to-validate-models-md3-animations-saving-to-stl-more-x3d-4-0-features/1210 "2024-05-24T16:03:29Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![michalis](https://forum.castle-engine.io/user_avatar/forum.castle-engine.io/michalis/32/3_2.png) [@michalis](https://forum.castle-engine.io/u/michalis)
#### Post date: [May 24, 2024, 4:03pm UTC](https://forum.castle-engine.io/t/castle-model-viewer-formerly-view3dscene-5-0-0-release-ton-of-improvements-coming-from-latest-castle-game-engine-support-to-validate-models-md3-animations-saving-to-stl-more-x3d-4-0-features/1210/1 "2024-05-24T16:03:29Z")

</div>

| [![Artstation Challenge - Untamed - Cat Duelist - from Sketchfab https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/artstation-challenge-untamed-cat-duelist-5bec11c3160048f7a8ce482523ac2deb by Marc_A_D](https://forum.castle-engine.io/uploads/default/original/2X/e/e243bc809dd7b0d2de14f5b41062dc6e7623234a.png)](https://castle-engine.io/wp/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Zrzut-ekranu-z-2024-05-24-02-38-36.png "Artstation Challenge - Untamed - Cat Duelist - from Sketchfab https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/artstation-challenge-untamed-cat-duelist-5bec11c3160048f7a8ce482523ac2deb by Marc\_A\_D") |
| [![Artstation Challenge - Untamed - Cat Duelist - from Sketchfab https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/artstation-challenge-untamed-cat-duelist-5bec11c3160048f7a8ce482523ac2deb by Marc_A_D](https://forum.castle-engine.io/uploads/default/original/2X/3/3f15d4a6c2961d431943681090a0e634f48cd5c7.png)](https://castle-engine.io/wp/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Zrzut-ekranu-z-2024-05-24-02-39-38.png "Artstation Challenge - Untamed - Cat Duelist - from Sketchfab https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/artstation-challenge-untamed-cat-duelist-5bec11c3160048f7a8ce482523ac2deb by Marc\_A\_D") |
| [![Flying Cthulhu from Sketchfab https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/flying-cthulhu-4737a3b84e00415b9d8bb42ae44285b2 by TooManyDemons](https://forum.castle-engine.io/uploads/default/original/2X/0/0ad3be5a44c023275919d5ac539176094c335e25.png)](https://castle-engine.io/wp/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Zrzut-ekranu-z-2024-05-24-02-41-12.png "Flying Cthulhu from Sketchfab https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/flying-cthulhu-4737a3b84e00415b9d8bb42ae44285b2 by TooManyDemons") |
| [![House Cat from Sketchfab https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/house-cat-ebcf4173da6b459f99b750a8a6972b46 by Alexa Kruckenberg](https://forum.castle-engine.io/uploads/default/original/2X/1/1f341638afb7890e1e538376c47330fb714ffd36.png)](https://castle-engine.io/wp/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Zrzut-ekranu-z-2024-05-24-02-40-07.png "House Cat from Sketchfab https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/house-cat-ebcf4173da6b459f99b750a8a6972b46 by Alexa Kruckenberg") |
| [![MD3 Tyrant model from Tremulous](https://forum.castle-engine.io/uploads/default/original/2X/b/bc2940a63570b4b8ac9cf9a8e7b8af33ddc50df4.png)](https://castle-engine.io/wp/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Zrzut-ekranu-z-2024-05-24-02-23-32.png "MD3 Tyrant model from Tremulous") |

We’re proud to announce a new version _5.0.0_ of [Castle Model Viewer](https://castle-engine.io/castle-model-viewer), previously known as _“view3dscene”_. This is our tool to view [3D and 2D models in many formats (glTF, X3D, VRML, Spine JSON, MD3, …)](https://castle-engine.io/creating_data_model_formats.php), and it is powered by the [Castle Game Engine](https://castle-engine.io/).

Along with the viewer, we also release new version of [Castle Model Converter (formerly tovrmlx3d)](https://castle-engine.io/castle-model-converter), a command-line tool to convert models between various formats.

Underneath, all the released tools use the latest [Castle Game Engine version](https://github.com/castle-engine/castle-engine/) which will soon be released too as _7.0-alpha.3_.

New _Castle Model Viewer_ features:

1. A ton of fixes and optimizations coming from using [new Castle Game Engine 7.0-alpha.3](https://castle-engine.io/new_features_in_castle_game_engine_7.0). Some highlights (engine features that improve the viewer):

  1. Default fonts include a lot of [common Unicode characters](https://github.com/castle-engine/castle-engine/blob/master/src/fonts/common_unicode_chars.txt), so rendering text in local language in most cases will now just work “out of the box”.

Almost all common glyphs are included, except the languages that have a lot of specific characters or require specific fonts: Chinese, Japanese, Arabic or similar. If you find your language characters missing, [let us know](https://castle-engine.io/talk.php), and we will likely _“just add a few more characters”_ to the default font. Unless your language has really a lot of specific glyphs. If in doubt, really let us know, we will talk and see 🙂

  2. [MD3 support](https://castle-engine.io/md3) improvements: multiple animations supported (we load `animation.cfg`). Choosing skins. Support for tags. Optimized loading.

  3. X3D 4.0 support improvements, e.g. proper metadata `containerField` handling for both X3D 4 and 3, and added new X3D 4.0 fields to various nodes.

  4. We changed how we deal with duplicate names in the input (like non-unique names in glTF content). We now rename non-unique node names on input (like glTF) to be unique on output (to guarantee to make valid X3D from valid input glTF).

  5. Faster on modern systems, due to using only modern rendering features.

  6. Reliable on older systems, due to better tested “fallback mode” for old OpenGL workings.

  7. Fixes for shaders on older ATI GPUs. 

2. Prettier panel icons and buttons.

3. 

4. New conversion options of [Castle Model Converter](https://castle-engine.io/castle-model-converter):

5. The viewer is packaged with a few example models, find them in the `example_models` subdirectory of the package. This is a small representative subset of our [demo models](https://github.com/castle-engine/demo-models). 

## New names – what, why?

As you see, we also renamed our tools. Summary:

- “view3dscene” is now [Castle Model Viewer](https://castle-engine.io/castle-model-viewer).

- “tovrmlx3d” is now [Castle Model Converter](https://castle-engine.io/castle-model-converter). It’s still distributed along with [Castle Model Viewer](https://castle-engine.io/castle-model-viewer), it also still has an [online version](https://castle-engine.io/convert.php).

- “castle-view-image” is now [Castle Image Viewer](https://castle-engine.io/castle-image-viewer).

The new names should better reflect the features (current and planned) of our tools. In particular:

- Rename of “tovrmlx3d” to [Castle Model Converter](https://castle-engine.io/castle-model-converter) allows us to naturally add more output formats. We added STL, we plan to add glTF output soon. This means that [Castle Model Converter](https://castle-engine.io/castle-model-converter) will be useful to convert both ways, glTF -\> X3D (right now) but also X3D -\> glTF (soon!).

- New names make the association with our engine obvious. They communicate _“we support all formats supported by Castle Game Engine”_ which is the point of the tools, they are the “core” CGE tools and will always support everything that CGE supports.

- New names avoid strict “3D” association. While we support many formats that are usually used for 3D, but the viewer (just like the engine) stays universal and supports also 2D formats. For example, 2D [spite sheets](https://castle-engine.io/sprite_sheets), [Spine JSON](https://castle-engine.io/spine), [Tiled maps](https://castle-engine.io/tiled_maps) and even simple images. You can also design and view 2D models in traditional “3D formats” like glTF or X3D.

**Please [support us on Patreon](https://www.patreon.com/castleengine) if you find our tools useful. Thank you!**

If you find any issues with our tools, please report them using [GitHub issues](https://github.com/castle-engine/castle-model-viewer), or just talk to us on [forum](https://forum.castle-engine.io/), [Discord or other places](https://castle-engine.io/talk.php).