Which 3D File Format?

I use 3D Studio, and I wrote a conversion script that saves the models into a simple file format designed for my game. This seems to be a reasonably efficient system that I suggest you try.

I use the .obj format. it is text based so you can look at the file and see what''s happening if something is not working. it is more universal than the .3ds format. it is simpler than the .3ds format. also any of the 3d studio file formats will store a transformation matrix separate from the object that was used to transform it to it proper scale, rotation, translation while modelling it in the 3d software. to read a model with the correct transformation you will have to apply the transformation matrix to all the vertices yourself as you read it. also 3dstudio uses a weird coordinate system with the z axis being the vertical axis and the y axis extending toward the screen. (in most cases it is the other way around). The only problem i''ve encountered with the .obj format is that it can be stored in a couple of different formats.

if you need a plugin to export .obj formats from max, i use one from www.habware.at/duck2.htm. (it''s free)

Thanks for your reply, i will take a look to the max plugin. And about the Lightwave format, what do you think?

I have not converted lightwave format by myself, but it seems OK to use it for solid models. Many plug-ins are very handy.

But when I need morph (vertex shift), I decided to avoid lightwave format. Even if I move a vertex without deleting/adding vertex in the modeler, triangle order (and probably vertex order too) will change often, so hard to figure out which vertex is moved to which position.

James

Edited by - jamesH on 3/3/00 11:35:51 PM

I''m using both Direct3D and OpenGL, i will probably avoid .x format even if it''s quite simple. I think i will import .lwo and .obj file formats.
Anyone has any experience with maya MEL?

Yeah, why? Do you have Maya? If you do, it would be pretty easy to write a fileTranslator plugin to export the geometry of your scene into some format that you could design specifically for your application. You don''t need to use MEL for that.