Editing ThreeDimensionalConfigurations/MeetsCOLLADAandOculusRiftS (section)

===Khronos Group's COLLADA2GLTF Converter===

Among this group of potentially useful tools, we have had &#8212; by far &#8212; the most success/luck using the <font color="red">Khronos Group's COLLADA2GLTF</font> converter.  We downloaded and installed version 2 of this Khronos Group conversion tool on our Mac Pro. The executable, named <b>COLLADA2GLTF-bin</b>, was installed on our Mac at the end of a directory tree named &hellip;/Dropbox/Lenovo/COLLADA_to_gltf/COLLADA2GLTF-v2/.  In order to translate a specific COLLADA-formatted (''filename.dae) file:
<ul>
<li>From inside the Mac's "Terminal" application, we changed directories until we were sitting in the above-specified Mac (Dropbox) directory</li>
<li>We moved (or copied) the chosen COLLADA-formatted file (<b>''filename''.dae</b>) into the same directory
<li>At the terminal prompt, we typed the line command:  &nbsp; <b>./COLLADA2GLTF-bin -i ''filename''.dae -b</b></li>
<li>The .glb-formatted output file was stored as <b>&hellip;/Dropbox/Lenovo/COLLADA_to_gltf/COLLADA2GLTF-v2/output/''filename''.glb</b></li>
</ul>


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  <td align="center">Example Mac-Pro Line Commands + Responses</td>
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<pre>
command:   pwd
response:  ../Dropbox/Lenovo/COLLADA_to_gltf/COLLADA2GLTF-v2
command:   ls *.dae
response:  Inertial17.dae
command:   ./COLLADA2GLTF-bin -i Inertial17.dae -b
response:  Converting Inertial17.dae -> output/Inertial17.glb
           Time: 48.166 ms
</pre>
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<font color="red">CAUTION!</font>  While we found this COLLADA2GLTF converter to be a very useful tool, we also discovered that porting a model from one visualization environment to another can be a challenging and frustrating endeavor.  It is difficult enough to build a (error-free) COLLADA-formatted model that will properly display a desired animated scene in the Mac's Preview app.  But it is naive to expect that that same COLLADA code will survive a translation to glTF and seamlessly construct the identical animated scene within the Oculus Rift S environment.  In a pair of accompanying chapters &#8212; [[Appendix/Ramblings/OculusRiftS|this one]], followed by [[Appendix/Ramblings/RiemannMeetsOculus#Rebuild_Riemann_S-Type_Ellipsoid_Inside_Oculus_Rift_S_Environment|another one]] &#8212; we have chronicled the steps that we have taken to generate our first few (error-free) COLLADA-based models that display properly in both environments.  Experience has taught us that &hellip; (1) When interpreting COLLADA's <xml>-formatted instructions, the Mac's Preview app is considerably more forgiving than is the Oculus system; (2) almost any code that display's properly in the Mac's Preview app will survive the translation to glTF, in the sense that the COLLADA2GLTF converter seldom complains; but, (3) nevertheless, frequently the Oculus system won't display the model because it detects an error(s), but it almost never suggests what the error(s) might be.  When embarking on the development of a new interactive and animated 3D visual scene, the best strategy is a time-consuming one:  Start with a COLLADA code that works in both environments &#8212; we provide two such codes herein; make only incremental changes and ensure that the model displays properly in the Mac's Preview app; convert the COLLADA-based code to glTF (.glb); don the Oculus Rift S headset & hand controllers, and attempt to import this new model into your "Oculus Home".