How to use in OpenGl program, models built in 3DS MAX , or other 3D modeler.
I want to use some cars that i had built in 3DS, how to use it in openGl?
Thanks
Hi !
Search the archive for this forum, this question has popped up at least a zillion times so there should be plenty of anserws for you.
You could also search on google for it, there are lots of libraries to handle this, even though I don’t have any one at hand at the moment.
Mikael
Arguably the easiest example program to get started with is Display3DS which is suitable for Visual C++/MFC newbies.
I was looking for the same thing for a while. If you don’t want to use MFC, here is a tutorial on how to load and display a 3DS file (with code):
http://www.gametutorials.com/download/OpenGL/3DSLoader_OGL.zip
Loading a model is not a simple thing in openGL. Not only do you have to read the file format, you also have to decide what kind of opengl structure to load the information into. Most model formats are something like a whole bunch of vertices. You have to decide whether to load these vertices into a display list, vertex array, or some other format internally in opengl. Then when you want animations… its even more interesting 
Theres also textures and bones (for animations), all of which can be in that single model file.
This is why there are libraries to do it instead of quick answers on the forum
If all you need is the model (i.e. the list of vertex points) you can simplify your life by exporting to a .ASE file from 3d studio, which is basically a text list of vertices.