Lib3ds is a free alternative to Autodesk's 3DS File Toolkit for handling 3DS files. It's main goal is to simplify the creation of 3DS import and export filters. Supported build platforms include UNIX, Windows with Cygwin, and MS Visual C++ 6.0. It features support for little and big endian CPUs, modules for vector, quaternion, and matrix mathematics, simple data structures which are easy to manipulate, evaluation of all animation data, seamless integration with OpenGL, and the ability to load most 3DS chunks found in the material, camera, light, mesh, and keyframer sections.
