Hiya.
One word more about " redundancy "
I made a simple tesr
I have a MilkShape animated file , its size is : 900 kb
I converted it into FBX format
Apart from the fact that it does not work any longer in my engine but its size is 3.7 MB
The same file with the same animation is about 4 time bigger
Is it the same for you ?
I'm going to guess that is isn't working any more because when the program does the converting, it's expecting information to be laid out in some particular way...and Milkshape has 'simplified' this info for it's own use (in order to cut down on file size).
Here's a totally fictitious example:
Your test model might have something listed like this:
Milkshape:
Polygon[]
abc (134,205,399);
Now you try and convert it, and the FBX might be expecting to read it as this:
FBX:
Polygon []
a (134)
b (205)
c (399);
HOWEVER, the problem comes when FBX is expecting to see three separate lines, and doesn't get them. So it tries to make a "guess"...and ends up with something like this:
FBX:
Polygon []
a (134205399)
b (NULL)
c (NULL);
So, basically, the problem would be in combination of Milkshape's format being "compact", with locations abc being all in one line, while FBX is expecting 3 separate lines, one each for a, b and c. When the conversion happens, all the info is still there, but not in the correct location; ergo, it doesn't work and the FBX file size is much larger.
That's my basic understanding of it all. It's like asking someone to say all the numbers from 1 to 10...but not telling them which order to do it. Most people would say 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10...but there is nothing stopping them from saying 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1, or even 1,3,5,7,9,2,4,6,8,10.
I think the best solution is for a game engine to develop it's own import/export plugins for a few of the most popular formats, and list the version of those formats supported. This is own the C4 engine handles it. It uses the Collada format, and Eric (creator of C4) keeps it up to date from within the engine. If something changes, he mentions what particular version of Collada is needed. Conitec needs to do this. As long as whatever program you are using to export from is using the correct version, there should be very little problems (if any). It's when the company gets vague on the import/export and simply lists "Imports/Exports PIE"...ok, are we talking any pie? Like apple, cherry, blueberry? What about pumpking? How about shepphards pie? Or bannana-cream? Maybe the 'pie' the game is expecting isn't actually any type of pie...only fruit pies...so the last three times wouldn't import properly. Now all the people who spend all day making the best damn bananna-cream pie get all frustrated when they can't actually import their pie because the game eninge doesn't recognize banana-cream as an actual 'pie'.
...mmmm....banana-cream pie....
...ok, gotta run to the store now! C'ya!
