Mesh Conversion Tool (ogre2n3d.exe)

A commandline tool that converts Ogre3D XML Mesh files into a N3DCMDSTREAM. I have chosen the indirection over Ogre3D for the following reasons:

• Ogre3D has it's own standardized mesh format, which can be either binary or in XML. An XML file is very easy to read.

• Lots of high quality export plug-ins for 3D modelling applications, such as XSI, Maya or 3DS Max are available for download at the Ogre3D website. Those plug-ins export, amongst other things, mesh files in Ogre3D XML format.

In order not to reinvent the wheel, come up with exporters that can't compete with existing ones from the Ogre3D community, I thought it makes perfect sense to use the Ogre3D XML format as fundament to get meshes into N3D.

The ogre2n3d.exe commandline tool reads an input Ogre3D XML file with TinyXML and converts the data into a N3D command stream (N3DCMDSTREAM). The current implementation is very alpha and does not support packed commands or optimizes the data in any way.

It exports:

• For every face the NORMAL command.
• For every face three VTX16 commands.
• For every face three TEXCOORD commands.

The NDS hardware supports, for example, vertex commands that are relative to the previous vertex command. Those commands procude less data on the bus and make the program execution faster. As you can see, there is quite some room left for optimizations.

For a detailed list about the 3D commands, refer to GBATek chapter "DS 3D Polygon Definitions by Vertices".

The ogre2n3d sourcecode is included in the N3D package, located under: "libn3d/utilities/source/ogre2n3d".

Screenshot:

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