XNA 4.0 load external 3D objects on Windows

Question

I'm working on a project where my XNA 4.0 powered 3D engine needs to load external fbx models input by the user, in run time rather than in the default compile time way.

I understand XNA is built to bundle/process complex resources compile time to make the runtime smaller, but as I only need to target Windows I wonder if it is possible to load models with textures externally, and if so, how?

Answer 1

I found the solution here:

http://create.msdn.com/en-US/education/catalog/sample/winforms_series_2

Answer 2

Yes, as @Andrew mentioned, using the built in content pipeline would require a developer install so that the content pipeline is available. Of course, you can parse it yourself and pull out the information at runtime to avoid that dependency. There are people out there doing it ... for example, the guys at sandswept studios have an API to do this, and are willing to discuss commercial agreements (just contact them):
http://thunderfist-podium.blogspot.com/2008/09/fbx-and-xna-part-1-fbx-format-and.html