A parser that handles the raw structural information of the file and returns objects that correspond to the structure. No attempt is made to change the raw values as reported by the file except for colours. All colour values are normalised to a 3-component float value. 3DS likes to dump invalid colour values with ranges outside the normal [0,1] range, but we leave anything like that as is.

Implementation notes

Colour values are all normalised into the normal floating-point format. If the original values were presented as byte for (24 bit colour) they are normalised to the normal [0,1] range for floats. Values that were sourced as floats keep the exact value. Since 3DS (and MAX) are both known to export colours outside of this range, expect that some values will be encountered this way and prepare to range cap as appropriate.

Percentage values are always presented as a fractional value between 0 and 1 regardless of whether the original value was written as an integer or floating point value.

If you need something that reads to a form that is renderable by a rendering engine, you will need to visit the various renderer-specific packages under org.j3d.renderer.renderer_name.loaders.

External References

• The 3DS Specification
• Details of every field
• Tutorial on reading the file format