@RaGR - thx :) im trying anyways... i definately know the general areas of the tool (which was one of my main goals), now i just need to know how to apply it :) someday i might actually get to doing some actual game stuff :) for your Qs:
>Why did you chose irrLicht and not Ogre for instance?
when i started out i was looking for something free, understandable, cross platform, and compatible with DX. something that i could learn from and at the same time provide a benefit to the BMAX community. i downloaded and examined lots of 3d engines. for my understanding level i felt that Irrlicht had a nice design and it met my criteria. unfortunately i didnt see CrystalSpace3D until i almost was done with the wrap of Irrlicht. it has a similar OO design, uses DX, and has an existing Mac port. if i had i found it at the same time i probably would have gone with it but my time has been fully invested in Irrlicht and it will be released.
>Does irrLicht has LOD meshes like Blitz3D Terrain?
though im not very knowledgable on the intricacies of LOD meshes, i believe it does support them.
ITerrainSceneNode
speaking of goals, another of my goals was to make the BMAX types as similar to the Irrlicht classes as possible. given this, the sample conversions are amazingly easy. aside from the minor differences in design (ie. no method overloading in BMAX, no parameterized constructors) the conversion from C++ to BMAX is pretty much line for line. this makes me pretty dang happy.
sample 03.CustomSceneNode will be neat to convert as well since it will show off the BMX to C++ class binding. the meat of the code is a subclassed version of ISceneNode which in the irrlicht sample is C++ but will be BMAX in the converted version. sample 12 will be first, then i will do 03. last will be the shaders example.
>Why did you chose irrLicht and not Ogre for instance?
when i started out i was looking for something free, understandable, cross platform, and compatible with DX. something that i could learn from and at the same time provide a benefit to the BMAX community. i downloaded and examined lots of 3d engines. for my understanding level i felt that Irrlicht had a nice design and it met my criteria. unfortunately i didnt see CrystalSpace3D until i almost was done with the wrap of Irrlicht. it has a similar OO design, uses DX, and has an existing Mac port. if i had i found it at the same time i probably would have gone with it but my time has been fully invested in Irrlicht and it will be released.
>Does irrLicht has LOD meshes like Blitz3D Terrain?
though im not very knowledgable on the intricacies of LOD meshes, i believe it does support them.
ITerrainSceneNode
speaking of goals, another of my goals was to make the BMAX types as similar to the Irrlicht classes as possible. given this, the sample conversions are amazingly easy. aside from the minor differences in design (ie. no method overloading in BMAX, no parameterized constructors) the conversion from C++ to BMAX is pretty much line for line. this makes me pretty dang happy.
sample 03.CustomSceneNode will be neat to convert as well since it will show off the BMX to C++ class binding. the meat of the code is a subclassed version of ISceneNode which in the irrlicht sample is C++ but will be BMAX in the converted version. sample 12 will be first, then i will do 03. last will be the shaders example.