   to X file or not to X file
  I spent most of my long weekend coding my own file loader and then I realized perhaps I should just use the X file. MilkShape will export x files.Is there a reason I shouldn't use them?   
  The .X format is perfectly suitable for hobbiest use, especially since you can load them with D3DX. For commercial level they dont really cut it.   ;  Will using the x file allow me to easily do bone animation? Like animate a character running around on the screen?   ;  Yes it will. You can export bone hierarchies in it, you might think twice about storing animation sequences in them though because the file size starts to bloat. for simple things it should be fine, if you find you have issues you might want to look at exporting animations in FBX format.   ;  What is so bad about it for professional use?  I've seen this comment before but I don't think I've seen any reason why though.   ;  I think the main reason you wouldn't use it commercially is because you need more control over your polygons for culling purposes of the game environment.   ;  I also think it is because the X file format is designed to be very general and to work for a variety of information.  This makes it not perform as well.  It is also designed to be easy to work with and read which can often times hurt performance.   ;Quote:Original post by howie_007I think the main reason you wouldn't use it commercially is because you need more control over your polygons for culling purposes of the game environment.Well you can always just load it with D3DX and lock the vertex and index buffers to customly use the geometry data as you wish , so you can do culling or whatever you want.Basically in most commercial games , the developers use custom formats that fit their needs. In theory you could use .X files to store what you need (could be a lot of stuff) and than write a converter that takes only data that you need and applies it to your custom format. Of - course you could do it with a bundle of other formats , but that's the basic point.   ;  An example is if you want to pack lots and lots of animations into it. I've not seen any benchmarks, but i was told that the D3DX loader starts using lots of memory for large amounts of animations, obvious i know.   ;Quote:Original post by XsyWell you can always just load it with D3DX and lock the vertex and index buffers to customly use the geometry data as you wish , so you can do culling or whatever you want.Basically in most commercial games , the developers use custom formats that fit their needs. In theory you could use .X files to store what you need (could be a lot of stuff) and than write a converter that takes only data that you need and applies it to your custom format. Of - course you could do it with a bundle of other formats , but that's the basic point.Thats what I always wondered.  You have access to the VB and IB as well as the attribute table for what texture is on what.  With D3DX there are built in functions to optimize, create normals, create tangents, etc.  Seems like you would be saving time using .X.  Granted animation is a right pain to get to work and can increase file sizes quite fast.  But if you compress and save as binary a several hundred K file is brought down to just a few.