Does anybody have a reference to information on the ASC file format that 3DS can export files as? It was not listed on wotsit''s site and googling was obfuscated since it can also stand for just general ASCII files. I am particularly curious about a few fields in the file:

Ambient light color: Red=0.0000 Green=0.0000 Blue=0.0000

Named object: "Box"
Tri-mesh, Vertices: 8     Faces: 12
Vertex list:
Vertex 0:  X:-32.8859     Y:-28.8591     Z:0.0000
Vertex 1:  X:31.5436     Y:-28.8591     Z:0.0000
Vertex 2:  X:-32.8859     Y:20.8054     Z:0.0000
Vertex 3:  X:31.5436     Y:20.8054     Z:0.0000
Vertex 4:  X:-32.8859     Y:-28.8591     Z:32.2148
Vertex 5:  X:31.5436     Y:-28.8591     Z:32.2148
Vertex 6:  X:-32.8859     Y:20.8054     Z:32.2148
Vertex 7:  X:31.5436     Y:20.8054     Z:32.2148
Face list:
Face 0:    A:0 B:2 C:3 AB:1 BC:1 CA:0
Smoothing: 2 
Face 1:    A:3 B:1 C:0 AB:1 BC:1 CA:0
Smoothing: 2 
Face 2:    A:4 B:5 C:7 AB:1 BC:1 CA:0
Smoothing: 3 
Face 3:    A:7 B:6 C:4 AB:1 BC:1 CA:0
Smoothing: 3 
Face 4:    A:0 B:1 C:5 AB:1 BC:1 CA:0
Smoothing: 4 
Face 5:    A:5 B:4 C:0 AB:1 BC:1 CA:0
Smoothing: 4 
Face 6:    A:1 B:3 C:7 AB:1 BC:1 CA:0
Smoothing: 5 
Face 7:    A:7 B:5 C:1 AB:1 BC:1 CA:0
Smoothing: 5 
Face 8:    A:3 B:2 C:6 AB:1 BC:1 CA:0
Smoothing: 6 
Face 9:    A:6 B:7 C:3 AB:1 BC:1 CA:0
Smoothing: 6 
Face 10:    A:2 B:0 C:4 AB:1 BC:1 CA:0
Smoothing: 7 
Face 11:    A:4 B:6 C:2 AB:1 BC:1 CA:0
Smoothing: 7 

Tri-mesh, can objects be anything besides tri-mesh? And the AB, BC, CA fields in the faces. I am not sure what the 1/0''s are referencing. And lastly I am unclear on what the numbers for smoothing reference. Any input would be much appreciated. Thanks!

Hi Haro,

google for "3D Studio ASC Loader" and try variants.

- Objects are just tri-mesh like in .3ds format
- AB, BC, CA are the edges for a given triangle
- 1, 0 indicates the edge visibility
3ds split quads... when converting to .ASC in tri-mesh.
suppose a quad is made of 2 triangles, the shared edge will
be "hidden" -> visibility 0.
Useful, for example, when you want post-convert your tri-mesh in quads for rendering. (but useless today , who said GBA ?)

- smoothing groups :
follow this link,
http://www.perror.de/rv/rvtmod-doc/ase2rv/Introsmooth.html

bonne chance,
David

Great. Thanks for all the info David.