Hi Orin,
The request you have made isnt an easy one, i can't write a tutorial on it right now, but i can give you some information on where to start.
You can download the source code for an AC3D file loader/viewer at:
http://ac3d.org/ac3d/download/AC3Dloader1.1.zip
This is a great good place to start, although i have writtin my own AC3D file Loader that i think is less compilcated(but it is also not
complete) than the source you can download, if you want i might be able to send you a modify copy of it.
Im a currently starting an game project(very early stage) similer to a Star Fox game, and i use my AC3D loader to load all the ship models i make in AC3D into the game.
acculy i did not learn AC3D file loading form looking at the downloadble source, i learned it from looking at AC3D files them selves(although this is not such a good idea for begginners, because ac3d files arent always constant, depending on Object Location, Texture, ect...) you can open an .ac file like a text document, this might help if you realy want to know what the
format of a .ac file is.
this might also help:
http://ac3d.org/ac3d/man/ac3dfileformat.html
its a discription of the
format of an .ac file type.
As far as Animating your models, well from what i hear AC3D is going to support Animations soon, but not yet. therfor to do animation you will probly have to export your models as a common file type(.3ds or .obj for example) and then import them into another 3D modeling program that does suport animation, then save the animations as a seperate
Bones file. then load that file into your game, along with your model file, and use that as your animation.
an alternative way to do this is to write your own animation tool, where it would load a .ac file an then you could set up some of your own
Bones for animation, and then save as your own bones file type. which you could impliment into your game. although that would require a good understanding of matrix's and 3d space.
well, sorry i couldnt be of more use. i hope that i helped you a little.
again, if you need a little more detailed info, or would like to ask me a quesiton you think i could help you with, just e-mail, or reply to this post.
email:
witte2008@hotmail.com
AIM SN: PJW2008
id realy enjoy talking to a person who shares the same interest in game programing.
Philip
Some Useful Links:
http://www.cyberloonies.com/animation.htm(at the bottom of the site there is some openGL Animation tutorials + demos)
http://www.insanesoftware.de/(great charater animation program)
www.gametutorials.com(great openGL site, look under tutorials>openGL>page 4 & 5 for some animation tuts)
http://www.3dlinks.com/links.cfm?cat...ubcategoryid=2