3DS Format

I don''t have sample code or anything specific to Direct3D, but I''ve loaded 3DS files into my OpenGL apps. Look in 3d Graphics Files at www.wotsit.org. I believe the file called 3DS is a decent reference.

The information in 3DS files is there, but you might have a hard time making sense of it for your particular needs. Also, since the documentation on the format is unofficial, there are a few quirks.

It is actually a nice format, in my opinion. It''s organized into chunks so that you can skip what you don''t want and only grab what you need.

I am not sure if this is what you want or not, but I have the file format for .3DS files. Would you like that?

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~Khaos~
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Have you checked on programmersheaven.com? They have great tools

Last time, I downloaded a tool to convert my .3DS files to .ASC
Now I read these .ASC files with simple printf''s, and convert them to whatever I need...maybe your thing?

Maybe they have even beter tools now?...

I didn''t even think of checking programmersheaven, I guess I should have since I answer more posts there than I do here .

Thanks for the links, I think that will be enough information to get me started with the format. If I need anything else I make another post .

Null and Void

I don''t know much about file io. But I recently built an 3d Studio ASCII Loader, For some reason the extension is *.ASE It was pretty easy and it worked out good enough for me.

Do a search for 3DSFileToolkit...it''s from Autodesk and is a sweet API for loading .3ds files. Includes loading of meshes, smoothing groups, materials, lights, cameras, etc.

I agree with Alan; the 3dsftk (file toolkit) is the way to go if you''re serious about loading .3ds files.

It includes routines for reading all the data available (including all the keyframing stuff), and it includes some pretty good examples (called dump3ds or something) which show how to use it ..

Cheers,

Magnus