best model file format?
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After reading some of the posts here at GameDev, I've found out that the .3DS format is a really old one and isn't good either. So what is a good model file format? And what are the pros and cons of each? Thank you!
Edit: Oh, and I would like to stay away from creating my own custom file format when exporting from a modeling package.
[Edited by - 16bit_port on September 6, 2008 8:32:35 AM]
Quote:Original post by 16bit_portThen don't expect much.
Edit: Oh, and I would like to stay away from creating my own custom file format when exporting.
Obj: Basic static meshes. No Concept of bones. Almost universal support.
3DS: Old, can do animation.
.X: Can do animation. No one app can seem to read an .x file that any other app wrote. It's very hard to move .x files between programs.
But that's a con of all those formats. Importers and exporters tend to be very flaky. Some exporters write bad files, and some importers can't read files that aren't formatted in certain ways, or use features of the file format that the programmer of the importer didn't implement.
There is .fbx and collada as well, but I'm not very knowledgeable about them. You always get more mileage out of creating your own format because you can store exactly what you want in it.
I suppose this should be made sticky.
I generally try to link back a few discussions on that but it seems to come again and again and I've personally lost the track of the last discussion!
I generally try to link back a few discussions on that but it seems to come again and again and I've personally lost the track of the last discussion!
In our engine we are using Assimp http://sourceforge.net/projects/assimp/ for model loading and then we just convert them into our own binary format.
What is it you're trying to do? 3ds isn't too hard to use if you just want to import straight into a vertex buffer. I've only tested it with one model and not a full scene graph though so I could only tell you how to do it up to that point.
It depends on what modeling program your using. 3D Studios has .ase which is text based and easy to handle. Then there is COLLADA which is an option also.
I personally use ".3ds" for static meshes, and cal3d for animated meshes.
3ds is old yeah, but for a static model its quick and easy for me to use.
3ds is old yeah, but for a static model its quick and easy for me to use.
what about using collada? Its easy to use as intermediate format to convert to a custom model format.
I always read threads about people writing plugins, although life is so easy.
I always read threads about people writing plugins, although life is so easy.
After playing with hundreds of formats, the only ones that made sense to me were .X and .MD5 (Doom3 model format, not the hash function ;))
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