I don't believe you can have a b3d file with 'individual pieces of mesh' without having 'individual' (ie. 'multiple') surfaces if you don't want to use bones in that character. These individual pieces are normally defined by the weight-maps. Not by seperate pieces of geometry.
Normally you'd model a character using 1 single surface and thus 1 single texture map. The character's body parts are controlled by the model's weight-maps which in turn are driven by individual bones in the skeleton. I don't believe it's possible to link/parent bones from one mesh to another mesh's weightmaps. You can only control that WITHIN the b3d file.
This does not require per-vertex animation. And since it's 1 single surface (per character) you don't have the 'very high surface count'. Besides the obvious poly-count, the less bones/weightmaps you have, the faster a character deforms to the animated bones.
If you want to apply the animation of a single skeleton onto another character, then you can either apply the bone position & rotation from the animated skeleton to the skinned character (meaning you can apply different sections of animated skeleton to different characters) -OR- parent the bones of the skinned character to the animated skeleton, so that the skeleton drives the character (but this way you can use your skeleton on only ONE other character - unless all characters must move exactly the same at all times, which I'll doubt).
Not sure if I'm actually answering your question here but .... that's my 2 cents :)
d.
Normally you'd model a character using 1 single surface and thus 1 single texture map. The character's body parts are controlled by the model's weight-maps which in turn are driven by individual bones in the skeleton. I don't believe it's possible to link/parent bones from one mesh to another mesh's weightmaps. You can only control that WITHIN the b3d file.
This does not require per-vertex animation. And since it's 1 single surface (per character) you don't have the 'very high surface count'. Besides the obvious poly-count, the less bones/weightmaps you have, the faster a character deforms to the animated bones.
If you want to apply the animation of a single skeleton onto another character, then you can either apply the bone position & rotation from the animated skeleton to the skinned character (meaning you can apply different sections of animated skeleton to different characters) -OR- parent the bones of the skinned character to the animated skeleton, so that the skeleton drives the character (but this way you can use your skeleton on only ONE other character - unless all characters must move exactly the same at all times, which I'll doubt).
Not sure if I'm actually answering your question here but .... that's my 2 cents :)
d.