For generic model formats, has a more advanced format been considered? MD5 and Collada both have interesting issues. Since java does not have something like assimp, have you considered something like the OGEX format ( http://opengex.org/ )? It seems to be fairly well made and has a java importer ( https://github.com/Simsilica/jogex - Made by the jMonkeyEngine group and used in the jME base so it is well tested), in addition to it is gaining a great deal of traction (incoming support into assimp, being used by a growing amount of engines). It handles basic models, animations in a variety of ways, scenes, etc... A comparison page of it to Collada is: http://opengex.org/comparison.html