Encouraged model file format

Newbie & Debugging Questions
#1

I’m really confused on which file format to use for importing models into my game. Currently I’m using .obj as the loader didn’t take long to write and the format is “fully” supported. But that won’t be sophisticated enough as I’d like to read up on and implement skinning.
Using Blender atm, but wouldn’t want to limit myself. Some of the points I’m able to think of:

  • There’s COLLADA the standard from Khronos. Not binary but ASCII based, so slower to load.
  • FBX; a closed project, making writing the loader painful. Blender’s default FBX exporter doesn’t seem to support the binary format so that’d make it slow as well.
  • 3ds is binary and looks great at first sight, but is outdated and replaced.
  • Or maybe just skip animations, keep working with OBJ and make a car racing game. :stuck_out_tongue:

Thanks in advance.