ZGameEditor forum

Hi,

Even though I'm aware that animations exported in .3ds files are currently unsupported, it probably won't do much harm shedding some light onto it already.

While diving through the 3ds files correspondent to the "Auto center model" topic with the "Opener" tool, I noticed that there seems to be no support for non-sampled animations in the 3ds format. This will probably become a significant shortcoming for the format in the long run. The COLLADA format for example, while sampling is optional, can store the actual keyframe parameter* values instead. The big pro of non-sampled animations is that you won't have any linear interpolation ugliness when the framerate lies higher then the sampling rate. Just another thing to take in consideration I guess.

More information on: http://www.khronos.org/collada/

*Apart from IK ( Inverse Kinematics ) which is not supported yet as far as I know, those curves will have to get sampled.

Kind Regards,
Kjell

Thanks for the link. I was not aware of that format. It is xml-based which is a very good thing. It is also very generic format so implementing full support of the format requires significant effort. But support of a subset for import is realistic. I assume it is somehow related to the older VRML and X3D formats. I've made a note of this for future research.

Hej VilleK,

Taken from the Wikipedia entry:

Originally created by Sony Computer Entertainment as the official format for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable development, it has since become the property of the Khronos Group, a member-funded industry consortium, which now shares the copyright with Sony. Several graphics companies collaborated with Sony from COLLADA's beginnings to create a tool that would be useful to the widest possible audience, and COLLADA continues to evolve through the efforts of the Khronos contributors. Early collaborators included Alias Systems Corporation, Criterion Software, Autodesk, Inc., and Avid Technology. Dozens of commercial game studios and game engines have adopted the standard.

Regards,
Kjell