Actually, this spec was created with OpenGL's texture matrix capabilities firmly in mind. The data all gets loaded into the texture matrix, and then the texture is activated while drawing all the textured triangles. If you look at the sample source code in the posted Word Document, you'll see how that works. And yes, it was done this way to make it easier to author parts, vs. the more traditional method of mapping specific texture coordinates to the three corners of each triangle.
LDView auto-generates MIP maps at load time. Renderers will really want to do this, because otherwise the textures don't look very good. All of the sample textures also have power of two dimensions, although this isn't mentioned in the spec anywhere.
The !: was chosen after a lot of thought, and some back and forth discussion. We acknowledge that it is obfuscated, but once you understand how it works, it actually makes reading the files (by eye, not computer) really easy, and it has the advantage of being concise. Since there could potentially be a lot of texture-specific geometry, being concise was a consideration.
LDView auto-generates MIP maps at load time. Renderers will really want to do this, because otherwise the textures don't look very good. All of the sample textures also have power of two dimensions, although this isn't mentioned in the spec anywhere.
The !: was chosen after a lot of thought, and some back and forth discussion. We acknowledge that it is obfuscated, but once you understand how it works, it actually makes reading the files (by eye, not computer) really easy, and it has the advantage of being concise. Since there could potentially be a lot of texture-specific geometry, being concise was a consideration.