The exporters on the opengex.org website are official. As for the criticism, please realize that not everyone who posts an opinion on the internet has the same qualifications. Some people are educated and experienced, and they probably know what they're talking about. Other people have never actually been a professional software developer, and yet they like to bash everything as if they were some kind of expert. There is a lot of praise for OpenGEX out there in addition to the few negative opinions you might have read. It's up to you to decide whether somebody's opinion actually holds water based on their qualifications. And if you can't find out what their qualifications are, then they probably don't have any.

The exporters on opengex.org aren't official, in the sense they weren't made by the tool they are for. Blender and AutoDesk seem to not really care about the format that much. I completely agree with your point about criticism, but I don't know of anyone who uses it and is content about it. People in this topic seem to recommend it without having ever used it themselves. This makes me a bit skeptical about the format.

The exporters on the opengex.org website are official. As for the criticism, please realize that not everyone who posts an opinion on the internet has the same qualifications. Some people are educated and experienced, and they probably know what they're talking about. Other people have never actually been a professional software developer, and yet they like to bash everything as if they were some kind of expert. There is a lot of praise for OpenGEX out there in addition to the few negative opinions you might have read. It's up to you to decide whether somebody's opinion actually holds water based on their qualifications. And if you can't find out what their qualifications are, then they probably don't have any.

The exporters on opengex.org aren't official, in the sense they weren't made by the tool they are for. Blender and AutoDesk seem to not really care about the format that much. I completely agree with your point about criticism, but I don't know of anyone who uses it and is content about it. People in this topic seem to recommend it without having ever used it themselves. This makes me a bit skeptical about the format.

Didn't Eric create the OpenGEX format and actively uses it in the C4 engine? lol

I went through exactly this so let me tell you what I do. I export my models, including animations, to FBX files. I then use the FBX SDK to import them directly to my engine:

3ds max -> export as fbx file -> load fbx file in engine (using fbx sdk)

I plan on doing the following now that the hard part is done:

3ds max -> export as fbx file -> convert fbx file to custom format (using fbx sdk) -> load cutom format in engine

I agree with L. Spiro.

Export FBX from your art tool and convert that to your own internal format using the FBX SDK in a separate tool. There are some things that do not convert well from FBX, but those are rare. You also will not have to create your own exporter this way, just a conversion tool.

The issue with using FBX files directly is that the FBX format is not well suited to real time rendering. It needs some processing that can be done offline. Creating your own conversion tool frees you from having to use the FBX runtime in your app.