I sit in front of my computer, Visual Studio 2008 open waiting for me to tell it what to do. I ponder the choices when it comes to exporting mesh data...obj, x, fbx, and possibly others I don't know about. I google each to 'remember' how to use them. With my memory jogged the best format still seems to be Microsoft's .X format. But there is a problem with this: it seems that Microsoft is 'killing' their own X format. Support for it seems next to nothing in the 2010 SDK (it seems they have a new format - sdkmesh. Looks like the kiddies using XNA game studio needed a new, simpler format that they could understand
).
The obj format is 'weak' in that you can't save tangent or binormal data to the file. Yes one could compute the TBN basis vectors from the UV coordinates and Normal I suppose...I can't find anything with Google relating to saving bone weights and bone indicies in obj files...
It's one thing to export mesh data. It's another to read it back in. I'm looking for a format that will allow me to do both and keep all the mesh data 'in tact'. The .X format is still the clear choice if I can even still use it.
Any input from anyone on this?
