I use the 3dsftk lib to load 3ds file, but as the samples are a bit too simple, they don’t show how to get the normals (vertices or faces). so I can load the meshes but not the normals.
If someone knows how to do that, or have a sample the do it please help me.
Looking at the header, I don’t believe it’s possible to load the normals because they’re not stored with the mesh.
I compute them myself.
You’re right, so I calculate them myself, but tere still a problem, that is I can’t determine the right orientation of the formal !
Check the demo on my web page http://perso.libertysurf.fr/amsellem
I’ve been using the 3dsftk myself and, believe me, computing the correct normals at each vertex is a real pain. First you’ve got to compute the normals for each face by computing the cross product of edge1 and edge2 (for example). Then at each vertex of each face you’ve got to average all the normals of the faces who are in the same smooth group as the face the vertex you’re computing the normal is. Woof !
If possible I would like to know where I could find 3dsfdk…
Thank you.
[This message has been edited by Gabriel (edited 10-04-2000).]
Yep, me too !
I had it a long time ago, but I can’t put my hands on it any more 
and the lib seems to remain burried somewhere on the net…
Well, I found a nibble of info… I found a post on a message board that made refference to 3dsftk.h. And it also had a path to that file:
/usr/share/Performer/src/lib/libpfdb/libpf3ds/3dsftk
However, I have no idea what the root of that path is.(i.e. ftp.whatever.com/…). If anybody has any idea if this is even a valid path to what we’re looking for, let me know, and if you do know, post the root that goes with this.
At flipcode, some days ago, there was some news about a library named Little3D…
Search in flipcode for this Little3D…, at this page there is a link to download the 3ds toolkit…
If you guys can’t find it, let me know, and i will post the link., i have it somewhere in my favorites 
Bruno
For ease of reference, here’s the link to the actual page with the D/L link for 3dsftk: http://little3d.free.fr/english/i_english.htm
Yes Olive, you’re right, that’s how I compute them too. Finally, I found this sdk very powerfull and easy to use.
I stil have a litle question about materials, because I have a 3ds file with materials info, but when I import that file into 3DStudio, I see the object well rendered, with correct materials, but I can’t see those materials info in the materials editor !?
And when I load the file in my app, the materials are well loaded, but the objects are not as well rendered.