I’m making file loaders for a gaming engine, and I want to prioritize and make the loaders first that artist want the most. When artist convert formats 5 times trying to get to the format their game uses, sometimes something gets lost in the middle. So, what file formats would artist like the most? What is a comparison of the diffrent formats as far as advantages? And what formats can most 3dart tools use correctly?
Typically one of the 3DSMax or Maya output formats.
However, before you go off and reinvent the wheel, you should evaluate all the available loaders at the j3d.org Loader archive at http://www.j3d.org/utilities/loaders.html
On a side note, artists should not have a file preference for 3D export. That decision should not fall under their influence, nor would their preference matter because they will be saving all their work to native tool file formats and only exporting for the game engine when needed.
This is not to say the artists can’t tell you what SHOULD be in that export, or even how it should be organized in memory. Good RT artists get pretty technical, but the important point is that the export data is something the artist and programmer have to agree upon based on the game design and requirements. The actual file format should be transparent/irrelavent to the artist.
3ds is popular and widespread.
gmax could be nice for the modeller is free. But I have no idea how to handle that format.
I use 3DS just for the fact that every model I could get hold of is in that format and bc. Starfires 3DS-loader fulfills my needs. Additionally it is quite compact. Not unimportant for online-distributed games.
So check:
- availability of the artwork
- availability of a loader
- expressivnes of the format (animations?)
- compactness, speed, …
the format u tell um to use. its simpler that way. 
x3d ?
I’d like to see support for -
3ds
Maya
Lightwave
My 2 cents.
Aaron R>