Irrlicht need it'S own binary format, I mean not only a loader and but saver that support all or most of current Irrlicht features. So we could use LOADERS to import stuff, not use them directly as everybody use them now.
The only thing that is getting near this is the .irr scene and model format, but there a 2 problems:
- Slow because it's text based. Good for importing, bad for real use.
- Doesnt support animation/skinning at all. (Never saw a saver that could save animations, someone have seen one?)
Supporting most of the features is important and it's something we currently not have with the Irrlicht loader/savers.
At least if we could have a saver that would save models with their animations with Irrlicht material attributes/textures informations... We could then use the collada format, the inter quake model or any supported formats, load the animated model and save it with it adjusted materials.
If we could save animations, someone could create addons like an animation merger (load multiple animation and append/edit it a single one), add control bones (attachment references), etc.
There would be other things (options) that could be added to the format as:
- embedding of media
- streaming
- encryption
I'm sorry to talk that much when I can`t do it myself. But your post about adding a new loader to Irrlicht triggered that in me(again). It would be really nice to have, and I just hope that someone would have the skills and the time to implement better asset support to Irrlicht so all the community would benefit from it.
