For several month, I have fondly been looking on the progress on COLLADA. It shows serious potential to oust 3ds. files as the most used file format for game usage. Even though it has been around for a while, COLLADA has developed into a solid format that includes physics and shader interpreters. It was developed to make game development easier for both programmers and designers alike (originally developed interestingly by Sony). But I dont know how people have recieved it as it is an interesting new technology and I dont have as much knowledge or experience in using it. I admit ive been using either 3DS or x files for years and they are weak in comparison when I read what COLLADA is capable of. What do you the 3D modelling and programming community think of COLLADA?

Real games use proprietary formats for skinned meshes and animations. Regardless, I haven't heard anything about it.

You seem to be confused about the usage of 3ds files. 3D Studio Max is possibly the most widely used modelling program, but .3ds files are lousy and rarely used at all. Like Prof420 said, most companies will have their own custom exporters in order to make their own proprietary format.

You also sound like a guerilla marketer.

i also never heard of this file format. but if the games will use it it will be(should be...) easy to mod. and yeah...3DS format sucks

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Original post by WillPash What do you the 3D modelling and programming community think of COLLADA?

I like it with ice.

COLLADA is an intermediate format and not for real-time production use. It is to be able to export a common format from any of the supporting DCC packages to be usable in your toolchain.

That way you can write a COLLADA -> (insert your format here) tool and you will have support for all major DCC packages right away.

Also you are a little off regarding .3ds files as the most used file format in games.. as I really can't think of a single game that used that format.

I've been using it. It works well for me. Sony is backing it.

It is easy to use, and that is usually most of the battle, so I see that it will become a fairly standard format.

I plan to switch to a binary format when I ship the game, but it will more than likely just be based on the xml format.

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Original post by BradSnobarI plan to switch to a binary format when I ship the game, but it will more than likely just be based on the xml format.

I know of one studio working on a commercial product that is doing exactly that.

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Original post by Saruman Quote: Original post by BradSnobarI plan to switch to a binary format when I ship the game, but it will more than likely just be based on the xml format. I know of one studio working on a commercial product that is doing exactly that.

According to official literature and common sense, this is exactly how Collada is supposed to be used. A verbose XML format is good for general processing and to ease the task of tool writers; exporting one's custom data files from the art "sources" is encouraged and made easier.
Games still need optimized file formats that load fast, don't waste space, take loading delays and cache coherence into account, are difficult to reverse engineer, can live in resource archives and update bundles, and many other important requirements.
Collada is a general purpose file format that is meant to be useful for "AAA" games, for consoles (PS3), and for all kinds of applications; they don't expect to provide a solution for everyone's conflicting needs.

Lorenzo Gatti

Right.. that is exactly what I said in my first post.