Mesh formats

s0rcer0r · Post by **s0rcer0r** » Wed Nov 03, 2004 11:15 pm

Hi to all !
This is my first post and I apologize if anyone did already ask the following questions before.

I'm working on a project using Irrlicht. The idea is to build an editor in which
the user is able to create(place) some basic objects (right now there is support for the basic objects from OpenGL : sphere, cone, torus; a cube defined by it's faces), imported objects (right now there is support only for ms3d), curved surfaces (I use Bezier) and other simple meshes.

After the scene is built (the scene being made from all the objects) I want to load it with Irrlicht and here comes my question. Which format should I use for my local objects/meshes ?

Right now I see two solutions:

1. To use a standard format (like .x, .ms3d, etc) and then there will be no problem loading them into Irrlicht
2. To define my format (after all there they are not very complex objects... the complex objects will be the imported ones). If I should stick with my format then I will need to write a meshloader for Irrlicht and I would like some sugestions how to do that !

I look forward to all the advices you can give me !

Electron · Post by **Electron** » Fri Nov 05, 2004 12:29 am

why not use a standard format? The world already has too many proprietary mesh formats. .obj is probably one of the easiest to write an exporter for, but unfortunately irrlicht's obj mesh loader currently does not load materials (or groups) from .obj files.

vermeer · Post by **vermeer** » Fri Nov 05, 2004 8:24 am

...then seems best way for statics, levels, now is *.x ?

Or milkshape, no?

somewhat x can be output from many free package, while ms3d is comercial tool...

There's an export plugin project at elysiun for blender to export ms3d files, but he has not solved animation .He'll post once solved that. Funnily probably you'd have enough with the plugin as is, but it's not released.

http://www.elysiun.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=30004

Sooner or later it'll get out

s0rcer0r · Post by **s0rcer0r** » Fri Nov 05, 2004 12:43 pm

Thanks for the answers !
It's a good thing that x can be output from many free packages and in my project I will load(import) the x models into the editor but I'm trying to decide a format for some simple objects/meshes that the user will be able to create himself.
I'm considering very seriously to use the .x format for my meshes although I'm still thinking about a simple local format.

How good is the x mesh loader in Irrlicht ?
What would be the advantages/disadvantages of using x instead of simple local format ?

bal · Post by **bal** » Fri Nov 05, 2004 12:52 pm

I personally don't like the fact that the Irrlicht .x mesh loader does not support 2 UV layers (for lightmaps etc.)

.

s0rcer0r · Post by **s0rcer0r** » Fri Nov 05, 2004 1:15 pm

Hmm...that's not I wanted to hear

Is ms3d then better ?
I'm trying to explore all the options I have !