poka.sh

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FBX

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Fbx Preview.

At a glance
Original creator Kaydara, later owned by Autodesk
Purpose Stores 3D scene data (meshes, NURBS, cameras, lights, animation) for exchange between 3D applications; it began as a way to hold motion-capture data.
Extensions .fbx
Poka parser poka-fbx
Viewer poka-3d-viewer
Depth tier Parser with a shared viewer (see Depth tiers)
Breadth tier B3 Core (see Breadth tiers)

How much Poka reads

B3 Core. Only the main content type or types are decoded (for example geometry but not materials, layers or annotations, or only one version family). The list of gaps is substantial.

Confidence: low (a judgement from the documentation). Basis: Reviewed 2026-10-16: the poka-fbx header check and its unit tests, the one corpus sample (binary 7400, skinned, untextured) and the vendored Three.js FBXLoader in part. The module only checks the header; the loader draws the scene. The tier covers binary FBX 7.x; ASCII FBX has no sample and is unproven.

What Poka does not read

  • NURBS surfaces (only NURBS curves are built)
  • Shading models other than Lambert and Phong
  • Binary FBX older than version 6400, ASCII FBX older than 7000, and anything newer than 8000
  • Animation clips after the first
  • Morph normals
  • Scene information beyond the picture (no tree, counts, units or creator)

Background

The Library of Congress says Alias bought Kaydara in 2004 and that Autodesk has owned the format since acquiring Alias in 2006. FBX is normally binary but has an ASCII form, and both use the .fbx extension. Poka checks the header and lets the frontend viewer load the geometry; it does not decode the scene itself.

Versions

Version Identifier Poka Note
FBX, binary Kaydara FBX Binary magic with a version number Partly read Header and version are checked (parsers/poka-fbx/src/main.rs). A binary file outside the range the loader supports is not shown: the module accepts 6000 and up, the loader refuses binary below 6400, and 8000 is the upper end of the range. The module returns a recoverable error and no model, and the hosts ignore the recoverable flag, so the user sees an error. Geometry is drawn by the frontend loader.
FBX, ASCII Partly read Accepted when the opening text mentions FBX; geometry is drawn by the frontend loader. No corpus sample exists, so this variant is unproven.

Libraries

Libraries Poka uses or has assessed for this format, with the status, licence and language the registry records.

Sources