Quote:
Originally Posted by Gauge
Other than using these file formats and the appropriate readers. Is there anyway to make your own plugin, export text files and code a universal reader yourself.
This is our ultimate goal. To create plugins for maya, max and lightwave to export all needed info in our own file format( essentially an organized text file ) and then just have the engine be able to use it. I mean if they can do it we can do it to right?
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I assume so, MilkShape was capable of doing this, even supporting a WIP MB and MA file format reader for maya support.
A universal reader if fully available, but not in.... well a game way, as much as milkshape can handle game related things, you may be better off finding a way to replicate whatever milkshape has done.
An MA format would work especially, as well a more complicated one would be MB format (Maya Binary) Which is in my opinion a much more better format than MA.
One thing you will want to look into is supporting hlsl shaders.
Maya can work directly on hlsl shaders, and if your uniting support for rendering, hlsl shader support is probably one of the best ideas you could go for, although it may be a pain in the rear end to complete.
Universal support would be wonderful, but you would really need to take into account the many variables of what is carried over, in MA and MB fluids, dynamics, IK, shaders, etc that are controlled by hlsl materials would all need to be networked correctly in your engine.
So if you plan on working on a universal network, which is possible, you might want to think about a hyper graph for connecting specific material and managing them for specific content.
If you can somehow get support for lightwave, 3d studio max and Maya on a native grounds, then you would need to take into serious consideration IK and FBIK handles in maya.
How much of these formats work with other 3rd party applications and methods like game physics, as an example newton or agea, the format you support may not be compatible, or work correctly with that game function.
If you focus allot on lower formats for universal readers you might have a wider foundation to then work on more powerful formats such as MAYA and XSI.
EDIT: Unreal has a format actor X used to import animation and mesh data from maya, xsi and 3dsmax.
I reckon it is fully possible to work on a plug in to import maya data, 3ds data light wave data, while these programs would be given a plug in to export to this format you would make.
Its an example of how unreal supports maya, 3ds max and xsi.
Maya and 3ds max, especially maya, is optimized for open gl. HLSL shaders work extremely fast on fireGL, ruby cards from ati. If your looking for a good render supporting hlsl shaders would be a plus for you on a rendering end. GLSL shaders support from programs like maya and max I don't know much about, but if you are able to support each, hlsl and glsl shaders you could export shaders from maya or max to be used in games that you make or your customers make with your engine if you support both a direct x and open gl foundation.