Is There A Standard Model Format?

[Capn_Fish]

Is there a standard format used for storing models/animations for games (or standard formats?)? I don't want to go about doing things "the wrong way," and am quite new to the field (of 3D graphics).

Thanks.

 

[darkblu]

no such thing as a universal standard, but some of them formats are fairly popular. it depends what you expect from the format - if you're looking for something that can serve both an educational and a practical purpose, i'd say go with simpler formats initially, even if they did not have all features you envision as needed. if you want to dive right into the deeper end of the pool - go for collada (v1.4) meshes - that standard has everything and the kitchen sink when it comes to 3d assets exchange, and it is an open standard too.

 

[warmi]

Is there a standard format used for storing models/animations for games (or standard formats?)? I don't want to go about doing things "the wrong way," and am quite new to the field (of 3D graphics).

Thanks.

ImaginationTechnologies SDK contains code for loading/exporting meshes in their own format (POD)
Theirs is a fairly low level format but pretty complete , including animations and scene graph stuff - and it is pretty efficient too ( at least in terms of memory usage)

PS.

They also have stand alone applications/plugins for converting Collada meshes into POD files ( as well as I think 3dMax and perhaps Maya plugins)

 

[hessiess]

obj is pretty much standard for static meshes.

 

[toonist]

With the exception that game devs don't usually use it since it is a text based format and takes much more time loading than a binary format... Collada is probably the "hip" format at the moment. FBX is making its way too. But I suggest that you just use the formats you are most comfortable with. For example, I'm not too fond of any 3d model formats so I usually write my own.

 

[Capn_Fish]

I'm basically just looking for some way to store models/textures/simple animations fairly easily and with little overhead. I don't need anything fancy.

Is there a list/chart somewhere that sums some of the available/OSS ones up?

Thanks.

 

[TheGoodDoktor]

I'd use the ImgTech POD format if you're just doing stuff for Pandora.
They already have a load of tools & examples you can use.

 

[Capn_Fish]

OK, a couple more things:

-It's open-source, right?
-Could I have a link? A quick search (on Google) turned up nothing.

 

[White Flame]

Yeah, I'd at least focus a bit on Collada as well. It's been a while since I've messed with it, but it's a reasonable intermediate format that has a lot of converters to/from it, and tries to support every feature available by anybody else. Most of the open source 3d engines should be able to import or convert them, iirc.

 

[Game_over]

http://www.imgtec.com