Dynamic Mesh Coding (V-DMC, Video-based Dynamic Mesh Coding, ISO/IEC 23090-29) is an MPEG standard from ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 29/WG 7 (Coding of 3D Graphics and Haptics) for compressing 3D meshes whose geometry, connectivity and attributes change per frame -- for example animated avatars, characters or performance-capture content. Rather than coding a mesh's full geometry directly, V-DMC reduces each frame to a simplified "basemesh" (a connectivity structure that may itself change per frame) plus per-frame displacement offsets that refine the geometry, along with a texture atlas, and then reuses existing video codecs (HEVC, VVC) to compress that data.
This differs from MPEG V3C Immersive Platform, which is point-cloud based; V-DMC targets well-parameterized mesh surfaces where point-cloud methods are less efficient.
The Problem It Solves
A moving 3D mesh — an animated character or a performance capture — has geometry, connectivity and attributes that all change per frame, and coding that directly has no practical hardware path. V-DMC reduces each frame to a simplified basemesh plus per-frame displacement offsets and a texture atlas, then hands that data to existing video codecs (HEVC, VVC) rather than defining a new one. That reuse is what makes dynamic mesh content deliverable at all on mobile-class hardware, for the specific case — well-parameterized mesh surfaces — where the point-cloud approach V3C uses is less efficient.
Open Source, Built Together
Reference Tools for This Project
The real, running software for this technology — 1 repository.
How It Works
V-DMC compresses a deforming 3D mesh by separating a simplified, per-frame basemesh from the displacement detail and texture that refine it, then delegates the heavy compression work to existing video codecs.
Key specification: ISO/IEC 23090-29 (Video-based Dynamic Mesh Coding). Source: mpeg.expert/v-dmc, which records Final Draft International Standard status as of July 2025, progressing to full International Standard in March 2026.
This page is a starting placeholder: deeper clause-level analysis (basemesh signalling, displacement coding, profile/level structure) awaits a full reading of the published standard text, not yet done here.
Related: MPEG V3C Immersive Platform (the point-cloud-based counterpart, for volumetric video content that isn't a parameterized mesh) · Standards: Dynamic Mesh Coding (the standards-tracking view of this topic)
Join the Effort
Help shape what connected media looks like next and scale your projects with the industry.