FCollada vs Collada DOM

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Original post by fpsgamer So far I understand that FCollada is simpler, but does that mean its lacking features?

yes, and has the potential for more bugs. The DOM is the recommended API.

Here's a quote from wikipedia's entry on the subject:

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Two open-source utility libraries are available to simplify the import and export of COLLADA documents: the COLLADA DOM and the FCollada library. The COLLADA DOM is generated at compile-time from the COLLADA schema. It provides a low-level interface that eliminates the need for hand-written parsing routines, but is limited to reading and writing only one version of COLLADA, making it difficult to upgrade as new versions are released. In contrast, Feeling Software's FCollada provides a higher-level interface and can import all versions of COLLADA. FCollada is used in ColladaMaya, ColladaMax and several commercial game engines.

As it says FCollada is used in ColladaMaya, ColladaMax and several commercial game engines, so I highly doubt it be buggy or lacking features.

FCollada's interface is a lot more sane than COLLADA DOM, so I'd recommend it.

However, watch out for bugs. I recently discovered that FCollada suffers from the static initialisation order fiasco. I posted a fix here, but I don't know if it's ever going to be officially fixed or not. If you suffer from this problem, you'll probably have to apply the fix yourself.