Hey dude..

I have been working on a model format now. Its part of my engine for opengl. I have been using flexporter with 3dstudios. I would love some help with this. I have a fair amount done already. Email me at zander@echotech.ca

Later, ben

Oh, almost forgot.

May i remind everybody about learning GL is a lot like learning c++. At first you are scared of it then after a few months you start to get a good grip, you have the syntex down and know a few things. At that point you start to wonder what seperates you from the game programers and have no idea how to get there. Its not until you have been doing it for the next few months and you are wondering why your copy of pong is not running as fast as quake as you start to realize that you don''t know anything and now is the time to really learn.
I am getting the feeling he is at the last stage. Hes got the syntex and starting to feel confortable and wants to know what the next step is.

Later, ben

Well the first thing I did when I reached this stage was start making a project. I personally made a 3D solar system thingy, but you might prefer to make a game or something. Just choose something like remaking pacman or tetris or the like. You''ll find each project has it''s own set of challenges. With pacman for instance you might choose to look into some simple AI approaches to get your ghosts to navigate the maze. When you start making a full blown project, I can guarantee you''ll run into difficulties you wouldn''t have considered when running small test apps.

Once you''ve done a bit of playing around and made a few small projects (don''t underestimate how important it is to do this) I''d suggest learning about vector/matrix math, and all the cool stuff that flows on from that, like culling, ray tracing, and collision detection. Once you''re down with most of this, make your own set of classes to do this math, and build yourself a simple raytracer and/or collision system.