i have a book, Focus on 3D models that does a pretty good job on explaining how to read OBJ files but doesnt cover how read from a group, surfaces and a few others. it shows you how to read each face, vertex, vertex normals, and texture coordinates etc, but no surfaces and group...does anyone know of a good book that covers everything dealing with file loading and just not pieces and parts? thanks!

i have a quick question for you. what book is it?

to answer your question im not sure how to read the others.

If you get the idea of loading those pieces from a file, then you're set. With a little perseverance you should be able to load more or less any type of file you like, it's just a matter of knowing where the variables are kept and what they are. The main place for finding out that kind of thing is Wotsit's File Format Resource, hosted, if memory serves, by the good people at gamedev. It has documents on just about every type of file you'll want to deal with, but be warned as OBJ can get seriously complex if you want to write a loader that can deal with any valid OBJ file. If you're after something a little more basic, then check out the OBJ file loader in the OpenGL tutorials section at www.gametutorials.com