So this task has become rather mammoth. It started off with just the goal of adding a wee bit more functionality than the other pigg programs out there have. Then as I got into developing, I was provided more information on how parts of the system work and now the goals have changed a bit. One of the most relevant issues at hand being what file format to export to. As it sits right now, I can successfully load up a geo model, View it (sort of), click a button and have all models, texture definitions and related images exported to a folder. For the moment the export is OBJ. Pretty simple and straight forward to convert from the GEO.MODEL format. it seems however that there are some drawbacks. For instance I work primarily in blender, and while I can import the OBJ files fine, I find myself constantly having to run down and load up the texture/image files for the models (using cycles btw). Its rather time consuming and frankly I really want to just be able to export the model out, Load it in blender and its all there... images, textures, bump maps, secular maps, the whole nine yards ready to work with.
So, I am contemplating what is the best file format to use. I am taking a hard look at FBX. I know it can bring all the above info with it and it has the bonus of being able to contain animations. (Yes, I do intend to tackle the animation files).
But with that said are there any other viable formats out there?
Also if there is anything you might be useful to throw into this thing now is the time to speak up. I could also benefit from a few testers as well. The draw back being I am writing this in VB.NET (at present VS2010 but I might jump up to 2017) so its pretty much only going to work with a windows system. (Currently running 10)
