Hi, I''ve checked past postings and the FAQ and can see no reference to this so I''ll go ahead and post. I want to include 3D models in my programs ( .3ds etc ). I don''t have the knowledge of how the file formats work ( I tried opening a 3ds file in notepad and got garbage), and definatly havn''t got the skills or knowledge to write some code to import them in. Does anyone know a website where I can get some code to do this? Thanx --Ched-- chris@ched45.com

md2 model here kong
http://members.xoom.com/myBollux/home.html
not mine though but theres a link to the guy that wrote it

hey... I''ve been wondering about this too... but I came across a different problem... What you wanna do is easy ( pretty much if you familliar with C ) ok all you gotta do is find a 3D prog. ( like 3d studio etc. doesn''t matter which one really) then check the save/export option and see what format you can save your model... 3d studio has an .asc export ( its an ascii file ) and if you look at it you''ll be able to notice all information you need ( including mapping camera light etc... ) also you can find a converter ( 3dexplorer i think ... find some prev. posts, someone gave URLs) to convert from 3ds,mdl,obj and so on to a X-file , ascii or whatever you want... and than write your own funtions to operate on that kind of file or just store it in your own data structure... got it ... hmmm if not...well ask me again ...

the other problem is how to store the animation... either store each frame in a display list ( of for ex. walking man ) or store one frame and operate on it in your loop...
when you do ''a car'' or ''a plane'' its obvious - display list
but ''a man'' - what is more important - memory or speed ???



take care... Pet

oh ... yea one more thing...
if you have dxsdk ( direct x ) there''s an utility to convert 3ds t X-file ( if i remember ) and x-file is a kind of ascii file ...
check micro$oft page


Pet

yeah like Pet says, the 3ds ascii format is quite good - but it is irritating that there is no simple binary 3d model format.

i suggest using 3dto3d from http://www.stmuc.com/thbaier/homepage.htm - this is a nice little command line program which can convert from anything to anything (pretty much) and it also deletes any vertices or faces which aren''t being used, which is useful.