" 3dmax was first, then giles,"
Giles was supported since a while with th eOBJ+obj by mimtools.Mohaps made a loader too, and I even think Murphy made one. Though Obj+obj for me its better as being only-artist, don't like my full name put in the files I export, thing done when you save/export anything with giles...I can easily remove from objs, at least, they'r ascii. besides, being an univrsal format like OBJ, I still can edit a lot the giles output of the two channels, materials etc. With a gls file, I can do nothing else than just load directly.If u think that's enough...that's not in 3d. There's allways a situation when u need the flexibility. Have been my profession, I know this sadly too well...
Reason why I keep liking specially the Blender in oct tools, and obj in mim's aproach that Murphy made. besides that he also made fsrad free radiosity lightmapper work in linux, and load directly its format in irrlicht.
" it would be interesting if someone could write a python exporter for blender, or ac3d or any other 3d app that allows you to place lights. "
the loading of lights and stuff that u say (btw, 3ds does not support shared uVs, neithe rcounts higher of 65,000, or longer than 8 letters material names(old dos limit )) is since long supported by OCT Blender python plugin also made by murphy.
ac3d is comercial. I'd se it more sensible use Blender or Anim8or for building the scene.
I *know* linux users have ben pretty able to handle well Anim8or in linux Wine.
So , wether My3d or MIM or both, for ease of setting up an scene, maybe Anim8or has the best quicker learning curve.
As a difference with blender, it at least supports a real autosmoothng normals shading value.
The UI is very similar to what non-blender users are used to handle. And newbies get the hang of it in no time. Is easier than radiant or any of those.
Just no deal of export animation for it. No OS, no enough specs for it, I was told by someone quite expert in the matter...
Anim8or would be a free and easy as it can be to deal scene builder, with th eadvantage of being already familiar to some, and having the main aproach of...being easy to handle.
Blender anyways, keep having the advantage of being fully multi platform, but if Linux people report to be ok with wine...
or support both. Just i see it much more closed Anim8or...though the an8 files are ascii and supposedly easy to parse...(the only-one coder works in nvidia)
I personally see quicker to learn than Blender.
But for animation I keep recomending blender, for the fact of it export to x, md2, md3, md5, and has joint pinning, not in Anim8or yet.
But we speak bout scenery building, so forget this last paragraph.
is not a bad idea to use Anim8or for level basic first arranging. My only fear is...linux users may have probs there. And with Blender, I have a feeling too many users don't even care to open it, fearing the UI and learning curve.
Mainly, both are good ideas. You loose a bit excluding one, but both are free to use coemrcially or not, so , good to go, each.
Just that...well, that's exactly what already Murphy did with octools(blender plugin, oct viewer, oct loader, fsrad modification, oct2obj (for obj freaks like me)) long ago...
and the mim tools are already supporting max, giles, maya, lightwave, xsi, blender, allways levels with texture, smoothing normals, etc, lightmaps.And pretty anyother application: tgas, render to texture, and obj are that universal. And this has been done since long ago in Murphy's development... times when my3d was Max centric only.
As an artist, I already had my experiences on editing and reading the xml file that is *.mim, and it's really convenient that the artist can change stuff at will even after exported.
Dunno...
Imho there's no harm in including both in engine.As other loaders.