3DS, C4D, LWO, DOC, DAZ, etc. etc. etc. ...are all just binary files that contain information pertinant (sp) to the parent application. I don't see any real reason to look for something intrinsic in the fact that they are binary to get excited about ;). As for whether application X on OS Y could or couldn't read binary format Z, it depends on whether the app has code in it to read that particular file format. In general, PC (Intel) and Unix binary is 'incompatible' by nature. The order of the bits/bytes must be re-arranged for the data to make sense between these systems. So there has to be code in place to do the swapping. Renderman won't be able to read DS files on ANY platform - unless the Renderman developers add code to read the DS file format(s). And, at the same time, Renderman CAN read the DS file formats on ANY platform, IF they add the proper code (on each platform) to read them. Then again, Window's Solitaire program could read the DS files if it had the code in it to read them... so I guess I'm not quite sure what the question really is, but I hope that helps answer it.

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