With Patch 4, the DarkBASIC developers introduced their own 3D model format internally, one which was more powerful than existing formats and could store details such as ghosting and so on. This format is known as DBO (DarkBASIC Object).
DBO files are smaller than most other 3D model formats (about half the size of X), they also load faster because they are a native format and don't require conversion.
If you use the DBO format, you can also remove the huge conversion DLLs and various other unnecessary DLLs in order to reduce the average exe size for a 3D app down from 5.5MB to 2.97MB (1.30MB compressed)
Until now there has been no way to actually create objects in DBO format.
The X/3DS to DBO converter takes standard X & 3DS models and exports them to the DBO format, keeping animation data intact.
X/3DS converter v1.0: http://www.robertknight.me.uk/files/darkbasic/convdbo.zip
The created DBO files are stored in the same directory as the original model with a .dbo extension.
You load DBO files using the standard LOAD OBJECT() command.
Once you have converted your models to DBO, you can delete the conversion files and a few others to reduce the size of your DBPro exes:
1. Open up your Compilerplugins folder (Usually located in C:\Program Files\Dark Basic Software\Dark Basic Professional\Compiler\plugins)
2. Back up the plugins folder before you continue!
3. Delete the following files from the plugins folder:
ConvX.DLL
Conv3DS.DLL
ConvMDL.DLL
ConvMD2.DLL
ConvMD3.DLL
DBProXObjectDebug.DLL
DBPro3DSObjectDebug.DLL
DBProMDLObjectDebug.DLL
DBProMD2ObjectDebug.DLL
DBProMD3ObjectDebug.DLL
