Question regarding XSI

[Imperil]

I am in the process of designing an XSI export tool (basically the Ogre XSI exporter but with the added ability to export additional things that we want), but I have a question.

What is used in XSI for defining user data? This may seem like an odd question, but say I wanted to have actual 'tag' points on a mesh and export them I'm wondering what you would use in XSI for something like that. I ask because I want this functionality for static meshes that do not have a skeletal hierarchy, and so using bones is not an option at all.

Ideally I just want artists to add small tags which will be used as 'attach' points so you can basically have a bunch of meshes that can bolt together properly like lego. This approach is used in the Seige Engine (Dungeon Siege 1&2) but I am not 100% sure how it is used as I am not a content creator.

I am guessing there is something like a user defined point or something that an artist can place and than I can build into the exporter? Or would I just get them to add a submesh shape with a specific name (ie. prefix with tag_)

Thanks!

[SunSailor]

You're aware of the fact, that the XSI exporter is the reference exporter for ogre, arn't you? It does a very good job and is on the head of development (as it is maintained by sinbad himself). Maybe you want to have a look at it first, I think it's more efficient to contribute to the existing one.

[Imperil]

You're aware of the fact, that the XSI exporter is the reference exporter for ogre, arn't you? It does a very good job and is on the head of development (as it is maintained by sinbad himself). Maybe you want to have a look at it first, I think it's more efficient to contribute to the existing one.

Umm that is what I said. That I am trying to add to the XSI exporter but I have no idea how content creators 'tag point' meshes without using bones. Once I figure out the best way to do it in content I will be adding the functionality we need to the exporter along with a few other things we needed.

See my quote:

(basically the Ogre XSI exporter but with the added ability to export additional things that we want)

[SunSailor]

Ok, got you wrong then - thought you wanted to start something similar from scratch

[sinbad]

You can add custom properties (and inspectors on those properties) to absolutely any object in XSI. You know how the XSI exporter saves all your export settings with the scene? Well, it can do that because it adds a custom data structure to the scene object, which gets automatically saved with the rest of the data.

Take a look at the XSI::CustomProperty and XSI::Parameter classes, and how the OGRE exporter uses them in OgreXSIExport.cpp. These are 'data' classes, and you have XSI::PPGLayout and XSI::PPGItem for creating an interface to them. You can also do this with script if you don't want to write a compiled plugin - personally I prototype everything in script and then convert it to C++ for the final version.

[Imperil]

Thank you very much for the tips! It is the exact information I was looking for.