As new PBR extensions are released, they continue to expand PBR capabilities within the glTF framework, allowing a wider range of scenes and objects to be realistically rendered as 3D assets. PBR extensions model the physical properties of real-world objects, allowing developers to create realistic 3D assets that correspond to the actual materials in the object. In February 2020, the Smithsonian Institution launched their Open Access Initiative, releasing approximately 2.8 million 2D images and 3D models into the public domain, delivering the 3D models in glTF. The format has been noted as an important standard for augmented reality, integrating with modeling software such as Autodesk Maya, Autodesk 3ds Max, and Poly.

As of 2019, the glTF and GLB formats are used on and supported by companies including UX3D, Sketchfab, Facebook, Microsoft, Oculus, Google, Adobe, Box, TurboSquid, and Unreal Engine. Sketchfab also announced support for glTF 2.0. On March 3, 2017, Microsoft announced that they will be using glTF 2.0 as the 3D asset format across their product line, including Paint 3D, 3D Viewer, Remix 3D, Babylon.js, and Microsoft Office. There is ongoing work towards import and export in Unity and an integrated multi-engine viewer / validator. Other upgrades include sparse accessors and morph targets for techniques such as facial animation, and schema tweaks and breaking changes for corner cases or performance such as replacing top-level glTF object properties with arrays for faster index-based access. Physically Based Rendering (PBR) was added, replacing WebGL shaders used in glTF 1.0.

The second version, glTF 2.0, was released in June 2017, and is a complete overhaul of the file format from version 1.0, with most tools adopting the 2.0 version.

In October 2016, Microsoft joined the 3D Formats working group at Khronos to collaborate on glTF. Īt SIGGRAPH 2016, Oculus announced their adoption of glTF citing the similarities to their ovrscene format. On October 19, 2015, the glTF 1.0 specification was released.

At SIGGRAPH 2012, Khronos presented a demo of glTF, which was then called WebGL Transmissions Format (WebGL TF). The file format was conceived in 2012 by members of the COLLADA working group.

Animating sketchfab models