[WF-Protocols] Discussion on Open Model Format

[Jorrit Tyberghein]

Aglanor wrote:

>
>Now, after the welcome message, a couple of initial issues:
>
>	* Which format should be preferred? Jorrit, fluoro (and me) prefer XML
>for readability and flexibility, while in the discussion on the IRC
>channel it seemed that zzorn and thebolt were looking for a chunked
>binary format for efficiency. I wonder if we could have the best of both
>worlds, having both an XML format and binary chunks separated by headers
>conforming both to the same data (but that's twice the work on tools to
>load and write them, of course).
>
As long as you keep to DOM it is easy to switch how that structure is 
actually
represented on disk (i.e. binary or ascii XML). In case of Crystal Space 
we already support
both ascii and binary XML so for us there is no problem at all.

>
>
>	* How is this standard going to be published? I was thinking about
>writing a document, seems the usual way is assigning the copyright to
>"All the participants" or simply to "The Open Model Format Working
>Group". The license could be GNU FDL. Is this OK for everybody or are
>there disagreements?  
>
No problem for me.

>
>
>	* Will we have a format for the whole "model", or shall we define a
>format for the mesh, another for the skeleton, and then let people mix
>meshes and skeletons?
>
Having the ability to mix meshes and skeletons sounds useful when you 
want to reuse
the same skeleton for different meshes. So it is something to consider.

>
>
>	* There is an issue with more than one mesh for the same model. (I sent
>a mail about this yesterday from work, seems it has not arrived, might
>be a problem with our server so it might arrive anytime today).
>
Well I think we need to make sure we make a distinction between the 
actual model
definition (what is called 'factory' in Crystal Space terminology) and 
instances of that
model as used in a world (called 'objects' in CS). I'm not proposing any 
terminology
here. Just explaining the technique. In pseudo-xml you could have 
something like this:

<world>
    <factory name="wizard">
        ... model definition (vertices, triangles, materials, ...)
    </factory>
    <factory name="dwarf">
        ... model definition
    </factory>

    ...

    <sector name="main_room">
        <object name="Gimli">
            <factory>dwarf</factory>
            <move x="3" y="1" z="1" />
        </object>
        <object name="Gloin">
            <factory>dwarf</factory>
            <move x="1" y="1" z="10" />
        </object>
        <object name="Gandalf">
            <factory>wizard</factory>
            <move x="10" y="1" z="-3" />
        </object>
    </sector>

This is just an example. In the first section we describe how a dwarf 
and wizard
look like and in the second section (inside a sector but that is CS 
specific) we
define several objects using those model definitions and we place them 
at some
position.

Greetings,


-- 
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Jorrit.Tyberghein at uz.kuleuven.ac.be, University Hospitals KU Leuven BELGIUM

3) I don't sign parts of the body, even if they're still attached.
        -- From Terry's Rules of Book Signing
           (Terry Pratchett, alt.fan.pratchett)
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