[WF-Protocols] Wallaba's initial proposal

[Alan Kemp]

> >
> >Shall we go on with the
> >discussion on requirements for meshes / submeshes so we can see more or
> >less which data structures are we going to serialize?
> >
> As an initial proposal: (very rough) how 'bout:
>

I agree with you generally, but dont really see the value of seperate
StandardModel/SkeletalModel types.  If a mesh is not boned, then simply
don't include the bone id/bone weight chunks in the file.  So your submesh
block becomes:

      Submesh
      - Texture/Material (per texture-unit)
      - Vertex data
      - Face data
      - Texcoord data (per texture-unit)
      - Bone ID's (optional)
      - Bone Weights (optional)
      - spring systems (optional)

See also: Ogres file format, it specifies the vertex data, then has a
seperate section for bone assignments.

Just to throw in some more ideas I would really like to see:

-Precomputed mesh lod's.  I prefer my lod done offline by an artist, rather
than in realtime for both speed and apperance.
-Swapable body parts.  This is a feature of Cal3d that really appeals to me,
I have not really looked into the cal3d file formats so dont know how this
is implemented.  Are all the body parts stored in a single file?  Or are
all, say, legs in one file, all bodies in another and stiched at load time?

And some questions:

-Quaternions or axis/angle pairs?
-Left handed or right handed?
-Should it be possible/legal to store several completly seperate models in a
single file?

Alan