   3D Animation in programming
  Hello.I am having touble finding a good engine/mesh file format to work with. It seems that a lot of engines support 3D file formats that do not include animations (.x, .3ds, .obj, etc).I was wondering if someone could recommend an engine/3D format combination, or at least a popular 3D format that actually retains animations.Please don't recommend Ogre3D/.mesh files. I have had a LOT of trouble trying to get the darn mesh files out of an editor, the way I want them.Cheers,Mitch.   
  .x files have support for animations. You can see that because the SDK samples using them have animations. Look at the old SkinnedMesh sample. It's using Tiny.x which has the bone hierarchy and keyframe data at the end.Processing animations and meshes is a part of the cost of using external tools. The editors are usually written with editing in mind (one would hope), but you want the data to be used for a different purpose. When there's a difference in the usage pattern I would expect that the most convenient data format is different as well. If the mesh or animation data is in a format you don't want, you can convert it into a format that is better suited.   ;  You can invent your own format, thats what I do... when im going in and out of other programs I usually use .obj, if I want animation I usually tack it on myself.   ;Quote:Original post by rouncEDYou can invent your own format, thats what I do... when im going in and out of other programs I usually use .obj, if I want animation I usually tack it on myself.I don't see how this would be a good idea for someone who just admitted having "a LOT of trouble" exporting OGRE mesh files from an editor. Are you suggesting he should spend hours writing animation exporters to a custom file format for whatever editor he is using? Or are you perhaps suggesting he should spend even longer hours implementing an animation editor from scratch? Anyway, as Morten pointed out, .x files fully support animation, check-out the samples that come with the SDK.   ;  .X's animation is doable... with a bit of fiddling can be exported reasonably successfully from blender.Patience is a virtue though... took me about 9 goes to get a standard cube to export, skinned and boned.   ;  COLLADA supports skeletal animation.   ;  milkshape 3d and the md2/md3/md5 suite   ;  Thanks for that.Funny; for some reason, the pages that I referenced for .x files said that they didn't support animations.   