hello,
I'm same guest than the one answering bout way to export in x, md5, milkshape, and md3 format successfully. It can be checked by any admin as used same email to loguin as guest.
By all means, I'd vote for x format. Yup, have its issues, but trust me, any fully featured bones+weights format has em.
havent read through all the thread, have little time now, but strongly agree with those ointing the fact that weights are a need for good organic animation. And I know well as I work as 3d modeller,uvmapper and animator for a living(well also do 2d pixel art, high res 2d, UI, everything in game art ).
So, imho, any modern engine today should care about engines like md5, *.x (largely the most standard with these features (~to what OBJ is for static...Imho ms3d is like 3ds compared to obj for statics...a safe bet, but way less featured))
With x format I successfully export from my XSI foundation, Character FX, and Blender. Besides, have used at job with no problems, two different x exporters for several max versions. There are full bone and weights exporters also for Maya(not all versions, true) , Lightwave , Messiah, GameSpace, Truespace, hash Animation Master, etc.
A pair of advantages of doom3 *.md5 are Gmax support (yet not sure if totally legal, big issue) , no 65,000 tris limit like *.3ds and *.x have (but by code *.x can export more, I think, btw, quite huge for a character) and way more advanced (md5 supports normal maps, cameras and lights transfer, channels for storing per joint animation data, ragdoll stuff...) BUT...imho, at the end, you want most machines be running ur game, you want most packages allowed to export the format(so, 65,000 tris per character , besides you could allways use normal maps, as you are thinking in a distant future,so no needed). Provided ALL packages do export x format by third parties free plugins (the exception of Truespace and Hash, cheap plugins) and that includes the now highly improved Blender (yay, been testing latest cvs versions, and been done every feature I wished for blender like in 2002 or before...)
BTW, sorry, I'm really new to wintermute...does it allow lightmaps? Stencil shadows? Well, could live without them by baking in textures, and usiing the bitmap feathered thing for characters...Just asking. (way more interested in the comercial distribution issue..that will totally stop me )
I use Character Fx, Blender, Max, gmax, Anim8or, Ultimate Unwrap, Wings3d, Sofimage XSI 4.0 Foundation version, mview, Milkshape3d. Not allways, I just have used quite a lot most of them.And specialized in formats stuff, for I wanted and was succesfull in forcing all these to see each other...
I have helped some engine developers in improving or adding *.x support...Also to plugin developers,and software developers. Just an artist-betatester.