Greg Ewing wrote: > This sounds very interesting, especially the part about > being able to use a variety of existing 3D model formats > as input. Actually it's about being able to handle levels (scenes) modeled with any modeler (at least the most used). Level designers all have their modeler of choice and they don't like to change, it is not a good idea to tell a 3DS pro that he must use Blender instead. That's one of the hard part of the project (but not the hardest I think). There is several solutions to that problem, I haven't done much research on those yet.
The best would be to find a standard file format that all modeler can support and implement only that one, sounds like a dream... Unfortunately I'm not sure such a format exist yet. Their is the Collada format that have been made to be a standard but it seems that it is not well handled yet by modelers. Blender have a plugin for it but it seems very incomplete. For 3DS it look like you have to pay to get a collada plugin. I have been told that SketchUp is the only modeler that support collada natively and properly (don't know if that is true). Since you like SketchUp, can you tell me if it is possible to model a whole level with it ? Including the possibility to model terrains, put light sources, place locations and name them, label some parts of the geometry with specific names ? Other possibilities are either to handle several of the most used 3D files format, or to write exporters for the most used modelers. I don't feel comfortable about using non standard file format since they might change with new software version and not necessarily be reverse compatible. Also it look like a basic exporter does not require much line of code. It might be easier to code and maintain severals exporters for the most used modelers than trying to support their file format. Any informations on this would be appreciate. Souvarine. _______________________________________________ Soya-user mailing list Soya-user@gna.org https://mail.gna.org/listinfo/soya-user
