.X files ???

[BitBlt]

how do you animate and skin them?? i mean i've animated my models in 3dsmax, but as soon as i convert them, they lose thier animations. this happens when i use the converter that comes w/ DXLib files and also the 3dsmax plugin.

any suggestions ?

[Zaei]

Using D3D8 Skinned Meshes is a real pain in the rear. There is no "magic function" to load and draw them. I have tried to re-create the DX SkinnedMesh sample, and ended up typing for about 11 hours straight, and it still didnt work right. I reccommend designing your own method of working with animations. You just have to understand the underlying concept.

Each "Bone" is just a rotation matrix applied to a number of vertices in the mesh. They should be applied recursivly (each Bone inherits it's parent's rotations, and applies its own on top of that). Each Frame is a series of Bone matrices. It should be a fairly easy task to write a simple Skeleton editor in VB. I assume you know how to load non-animated files, so, if you create the model so that each body part is in a separate Subset (so you can draw each individually), you can apply a matrix, draw a part, and apply the next matrix. I hope this helps.

Z.