R0J0hound Thank's for the long detailed reply.
Yes currently it's well above my skill level when it comes to creating plugins. So my first step was to edit this example for c3 (with brute force, vaseline, trial and error) to create a proof of concept and then hire a developer with the knowhow to create and maintain an actual plugin for me.
Only two shader options. Surface shader and lambert. Surface shader would have the look of the coin below. No lights are taken in to account.
The specs for such a plugin is quite simple:
1. Ability to choose model and texture file.
2. Option to choose between Orthographic and perspective projection.
3. Ability to set the rotation of the object in all angles.
4. Any collissions are not necessary as a dummy sprite could do that job if needed.
5. Object is just using surface shader.
6. Bonus (not required) 1 directional light source. If off using surface shader, if on using labert)
Edittime requirement: Just show a visual representation of the models default rotation setting.
No specularity bump or anything else like that.
The main purpose of this plugin is to use simple 3d objects for various elements that would have the look and feel of a 2D sprite object (hence the primary surface shading model) but can be rotated in any angle.
Anyway that's my goal by fiddling around with this old example. I dont' think C2 or C3 should ever become a 3D engine, but simple 3D objects (rendered as sprites) can be very useful, for UI, pickups, card flips, etc etc.