(2023-08-05, 16:19)Jonathan N Wrote: The LDraw file format has held up surprisingly well in spite of its age. I’ve outlined a number of limitations when trying to achieve the best performance and results with modern hardware and applications.
I've always seen the library as data only, so no particular rendering target.
That said, I know first hand about the 'pain' some of these issues cause.
Especially the finding identical vertices issue (LDCad still has problems with that in high detail stickers etc).
But I don't see the format changing any time soon.
Especially as most of your issues need single file solutions instead of the highly recursive approach it uses now.
Your own text proves the raw LDraw data can be processed (in bulk) to convert them to something more suitable for modern render hardware.
In other words instead of reworking the entire library, it seems more practical to 'fork' these preprocessed libraries into a new/additional project.
That said I would be open to formalising meta extensions supplying hints to processing software in order to make some of these issues less ambiguous.
my 2cts.