   Same Problems Different Year
  I first started looking into building an engine well over a year.  My plans were interrupted and it now seems I may get to work on it again.  Except I''m now forced to deal with the same problems I was unsure of.Mostly in the way of graphics.  I''ll start with my fundamental problem.  Is there any good place to start in the way of meshes.  I mean I have code to load a .x file in directx, but is the easy way out really the best way?  Especially considering I don''t know how to animate aforementioned file yet.  Yet, I''m not really sure where to begin in creating my own mesh format.  I seem to remember writing a small exporter for 3d max at some point, but that was well over a year ago and I don''t count on the validity of my memory.I''m assuming basically my mesh file will be a list of vertices exported from the program.  I''ll then load those into directx and render them.... how?  By putting them in triangle lists?  As for the animations.  I assume if I figure out how to write a mesh exporter then I should be able to get the animation files out too.  But that gets more complicated doesn''t it?  Especially if I want to give the bones weights and what not, then the vertices would have to be programmed with the weights from the bones right?  ARGGGHHHH I''m going to pull my hair out already.Of course I could just use OGRE, but I don''t feel like learning the API to someone else''s engine (although it does look like a darn fine engine).  Thanks to anyone willing to help this poor mangled mesh of a programmer (no pun intended). 
  Im currently developing my first game engine, and i'm using my own file formatfirst of all i wrote a simple exporter for 3dstudio max: i get the vertex data from the scene, do some conversions (max uses a different coord system etc) and then i stuff the data into the file. basically i have a file header telling how many vertices and indices there are in the model, and then all the vertices and all the indicesthen i use my CModel class to load everything - i put the vertices in a vertex buffer and the indices in an index buffer. to render the subsets i just call DrawIndexedPrimitive() with the right values (i store them into the file). for example in an human model the right arm could use vertices 230->400, so i pass those values to the function.now im trying to upgrade my model system in order to support skeletal animation with vertex blending. what i gotta do is retrieving the vertex weights from the "skin" modifier, and export the subset data in an hierarchical way. some pseudo code:export_node(Node currentnode){ currentnode.write(); for(currentnode.numberofchildren())  export_node(currentnode.child);}to export i just callexport_node(RootNode);and all the children will be exported as well.same stuff to read the exported data.i still have a lot of work to do in order to get it all working, but i'm really learning A LOT of stuff using my own model format.   [edited by - Arcibald Wearlot on February 12, 2004 10:12:24 AM];  Wow thanks for the detailed reply!  So do you store which range of vertices are applied to which part of the model in your actual export file?  I''m also not sure exactly what''s meant by weights in the "skin" modifier, but I do have a direction to start.  That''s for sure.  Thanks.  