   Engine suggestion given criteria
  I'm not trying to start a whole "which engine is best" thread.  I have a few specific criteria I'd like to have in an engine and I was hoping the more experienced members of this forum would be able to direct me.  Short background: experienced/professional C++ developer.  Been working with 3d interfaces in flash/as3/away3d for almost a year.  Beginner in 3d modeling and animation. Criteria:- Not necessarily a game engine, but it seems once you look into 3d rendering engines with interaction you invariably end up with links to 3d game engines. - C++ based, I'm a developer at heart, not looking for a point and click GUI driven engine.- Free or low price (I'm a hobbyist)- has free exporters to handle models and animations created in 3ds studio max.  The exporters should be able to handle at least one of the formats exported by 3ds studio max.- supporting multiple platforms would be nice but its not a must- good community behind it, not looking for bleeding edge tech that I'm going to burn time on just trying to get it workingOgre seemed like my front runner, but I can't seem to find a non-commercial 3ds model importer that also handles animation.  In any case, what suggestions do you guys have given the above considerations?[Edited by - savagelook on May 18, 2010 7:38:20 AM]
  I've never heard of .3ds animation info ever being used, its almost like the format doesn't support it (which I am not sure it does, if it does, its not skeletal animation), so I need to ask: why do you have .3ds animation as a requirement?;  You'll have to forgive me if I'm making stupid requests, I'm no stranger to programming, but this 3d modeling stuff has me all twisted up.  I am referring to animations created for models in 3ds max studio.  I would like to take the animations (like walk cycles, im still learning terminology) and import them into a 3d engine so that I don't have to code them.  Is there a more appropriate method I should be using for animating models in a 3d engine that were created by 3ds max studio?  Is there a different format I should be exporting the models in to retain the animations so they can be used in a 3d engine?  Again, forgive any ignorance.   ;  Well, it does seem to me that what you would want to use is Ogre, I am not that familiar with Ogre, but a quick Google Search brings up enough links to Ogre Max exporters, which are the plugins you use to get your meshes and animations into Ogre, you won't find any engine that uses raw .max files.   ;  Thanks for your patience so far.  I guess I need a question answered then: what is the preferred method for exporting models with animation from 3ds max studio?  I've seen a few of these format names thrown around and there's a lot of choices for export from the studio.  Ive heard the DAE format (collada) mentioned alot, is that a common export format for 3d engines that includes animation?  Sorry if these are basic questions, I'm just trying to develop a solid pipeline to speed up my learning process as much as possible.I guess once that questioned is answered I can eliminate the need for handling 3ds models/animation and replace it with whatever format is appropriate.   ;  It really depends on the engine, Ogre, for instance, if I recall correctly, uses its own .mesh files for models and .scene for scenes or "levels", COLLADA is more of a collaborative format, not so much intended to be directly used by an engine but as a means to get a model from one tool to another in the content creation pipeline.If you were to code your own engine from scratch, you could adopt a known format, like .x or one of id's (developers of Doom and Quake series) for example, or probably the best option in my opinion, create your own with just the data you need for your engine in it.   ;Quote:Original post by savagelook what is the preferred method for exporting models with animation from 3ds max?Most engines have their own exporters. Some others do use interchange formats, like collada, but these files will be converted to an engine-specific format before they're used.   ;  The .3ds animation data is "skeletal." The file format is a hierarchy of nodes. The animation data would just be a series of absolute transforms for each node. You could compare these transforms to the parent's to figure out the parent relative transform.Not exactly on topic, just some extra info.   ;  C4 is a good programmer engine.  Collada is basically trying to be a uniformed way to get models into one format from any of the legacy formats.  .3ds files can be exported to collada format.  Blender is a good free modelling program.   ;Quote:Original post by KwizatzIf you were to code your own engine from scratch, you could adopt a known format, like .x or one of id's (developers of Doom and Quake series) for example, or probably the best option in my opinion, create your own with just the data you need for your engine in it.This seems to me to be a monster amount of work for something that exists already.  Don't get me wrong, I'm one of those people who loves to build stuff from scratch, but building a 3d engine for a hobbyist?  Is that not overkill?  Wouldn't it be extraordinarily time consuming?That said, do you have any good references I could use for seeing what the key components of a 3d engine are and how they are implemented?  It sounds like an intriguing idea to me, specifically because my interests lie not necessarily in gaming, but I wouldn't even know where to begin.  Do I just start building on top of OpenGL or what?  Once again, sorry if any of these comments sound naive or ignorant.   