OBJ vs 3DS - Whats the best format for Android 3D Development

Question

whats your prefered file format for 3d models? OBJ or 3DS format? I would use this on Android. Therefore the file size of the models should be small and fast to parse. Thank you

Answer 1

OBJ is much better from my experience. 3DS files have some shortcomings that make it less usable.

1) The number of vertices and polygons per mesh is limited to 65536.
2) Accurate vertex normals cannot be stored in the .3ds file.

OBJ is very easy to parse, as it is almost already in the correct format for rendering. Just fill a vertex array, a normal array and render. Another option is you can reformat the data into your own data format on a PC so that the device reads the file in faster. To see a more detailed answer, see my post here: Fastest way to load arrays of vertices and face indices into OpenGL-ES?