glTF 2.0 buffer: does it need a type?

[xelatihy]

The buffer schema for glTF 1.1 in glTF/specification/1.1/schema/buffer.schema.json has an enum with only one possible value for the parameter value. Since only one value is possible, is this useful?

[javagl]

Some history behind this: #629

Roughly: It once was allowed to also have the type "text", but this is no longer supported. The property itself might only be kept for backward compatibility (to cope with "additionalProperties" : false), but maybe there will still be other buffer types in the future.

[lexaknyazev]

That field is meant to be linked with XHR's responseType (more info on WHATWG and MDN):

var oReq = new XMLHttpRequest();
oReq.open("GET", "buffer.bin", true);
oReq.responseType = "arraybuffer"; // <-- buffer.type

oReq.onload = function (oEvent) {
  var arrayBuffer = oReq.response;
    // ...
};

oReq.send(null);

"text" value existed for possible ASCII-based encoding of buffer data (with browser-provided gzip compression), however we don't have one in the core spec yet.

@pjcozzi what do you think of removing buffer.type completely?

[pjcozzi]

@xelatihy good eye, thanks.

@lexaknyazev +1 from me.

[pjcozzi]

@lexaknyazev I am in support of this? Is this spec updated so we can label this resolved?

[lexaknyazev]

Spec and README.md updated.

[pjcozzi]

Great, thanks!

[pjcozzi]

Updated in #826