I need to write a program that moves a complicated object. Is it possible to create this given object in a 3D modeling sw and load the output by my program?
This is very possible, and beats the hell out of modeling with graph paper and pencils… (I can honestly say I’ve done that… praise the lord for student edition pricing for max!)
Check out Milkshape (i think it’s that… or maybe milkshape3D) for a good modeling program.
Set up a data structure to hold your primitives (points, triangles, polygons, etc) then read in that data from the file.
Easy as! (well, maybe not, but that’s the theory!)
Good luck
Speaking of student pricing for MAX… Just how much is the student version? Isn’t it still rather expensive?
You can also try the new AC3D modeler.
In order to load the model into an opengl application, try this address for some good converters:
http://www.fatech.com/tech/opengl/tools.shtml?subtipo=converters
Antonio