Is the path, the way to go
But yet I think is pending textures...Some compatibility with some viewers (like Ultimate Unwrap, I know as I have been testing)
But today...YAY! ...I was able to load in mesh view, as well as Skinned mesh, both are the viewing tools of the MS SDK, for dx v8.x and v9.x , respectively...
This opens a wide field to Blender+games. Not only irrlitch.
As...Gamestudio, Dark Basic Pro, Urgh3d, Truevision3d engine, Quest3d, all these great engines/environments do open animated and boned x files...
So...great for Blender. And all thanks to ben Omari.
yet though, it has certain issues yet (is a WIP, he is ironing one by one the issues...and trust me, this is a VERY complex format...) ...and some specific things that...maybe make it usable more for very experienced Blender Heads, a newbie in Blender can end up hating it all, as if not done as the plugin requires, it will give errors, in the viewers or not show at all.
So... The more advanced people, please start testing it.. JEDIVE, I'll put u an email, not yet, as I prefer to send you a well setup example I have to make now, though simplistic, for you to try and load in Irrlitch engine.
Once again, if Irrlicth can't open directly the file, all points to the same solution: loading in meshview, and saving there again as x file...
I will remove the md3 file posted for r2d2 (hey, I hope u already downloaded) and put meshview for download for those interested not having to download whole MS SDK. Sorry, is a windows only tool...I hope u can use too in some windows emulator if u don't have a multiOS, multiboot system (like I used to have)
U can grab the script (I think u have to later convert the txt into *.py file, but not sure, as I recieved the test versions by email...)
the skeleton must have certain conditions, and be centered the mesh and skeleton to 0,0,0...I hope he adds in the future some flexibility there, but in the info page he explains how to do this in Blender.
Very important to read that info.
Ben Omari's Site :
http://xoomer.virgilio.it/glabro1/index.html
and remember, is a wip, has several problems yet (no texture I think is the biggest, but there are others) and please grab it if you are an experienced Blender user. I'm gonna try and make a good sample with it to see if Jedive can do a test of the x file in Irrlitch... (if he has time and is so kind..
)