Guys, I was wondering, for the mission based version on Topdown3D, maybe we should work on a scene file format?

The scene file format would store everything, models (m15's), thinPose animation and rigging (I don't know if this is already part of m15 or something new you guys will come up with), lighting, camera movements, well everything that goes into making and viewing a scene either as one frame, or as an animation. Maybe even at some point or even now plan on non linear editing, which in the this case would be making a movie dynamically on the fly and not from a movie file.

I decided since you guys are busy and a tool we really need also that I think I can handle would be a full blown model viewer, this brought to mind about the future and being able to open scenes or animations?

So I would like some toughts about the scene format from you guys.

For now I will do support for m15, but to allow the user to add as many m15 models as they want.

Here is my list of features I will have:

Open as many m15 files as you want.

Full controls of scale, position, rotation of each model. If animation available, to play that animation at varying speeds, or loop certain cycles (maybe the animation format can have named sequences with where a cycle starts and stops as in directX xformat). Control if lighting effects the model or not.

Adjust and move all lights, this is change the type, and colors of the lights.

Allow more than one camera that the user can switch too and view from.

Hopefully to control the fade value of a model, like ghost mode in directX. To control the transparency of a model. This will be neat for canopies, windows or anything where that will be needed, maybe a cloaked ship for instance.

I will try to write everything in thinBasic, maybe use dll's for certain future features like support for other formats.

This viewer can be the basis of a scene making program in the future as it will have many of the components necessary for such a thing.

If all goes well i will like to make camera paths to create flybys etc. and maybe the non linear editing of neat scenes. This also leads to adding sounds and music.

So actually I guess I will be working on a model viewer on its way to becoming a scene manager and editor.

So please fill me on any thoughts you might have had about this sort of thing as I am sure it has crossed your minds too.