COLLADA is a very powerful, extensible industry-standard format for 3D data exchange.
Why is COLLADA different from other 3D formats?
For the first time in history, not only all the major 3D content-creation companies (Alias, Discreet, Softimage etc.) and many others in the industry are supporting such a format, but we are developing it together!

• Scene with transform hierarchies

• Geometries (polygon mesh at the moment)

• Light sources (point and area light)

• Instancing of objects (geometries and lights) and multiple objects per transform

• Keyframe animation with linear and bezier interpolation

• Skin-animation

• Textures, materials and programmable shaders