On Sun, Dec 12, 2010 at 10:51 AM, Curtis Olson <curtol...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Sun, Dec 12, 2010 at 9:21 AM, Jacob Burbach <jmburb...@gmail.com> wrote: > Would it be possible to come up with our own optimized model extension that > would be unique and different from anything an artist might produce? I > could see this heading off into a lot of work though. We maybe would want a > global flag that specifies if model optimization should be turned on / off. > Saving an optimized version of every model could significantly increase the > harddrive footprint of our data tree. > Just thinking out loud here ... > Curt.
Also thinking out loud... First thing to do in my opinion would be to put the ac3d format to rest and focus on one single, feature rich, capable, and portable format for fgfs content creators to work with. I think collada is probably an obvious choice for this. Then... a) Load the collada (or whatever) file directly, automatically caching it to native format / global cache somewhere for reuse. The loader would then check the cache first to see if a file is already there and load it from there, if not or if the source file has changed reload it and (re)cache it. This has advantage that content creators could just work with one format and everything else happens automatically behind the scenes without need to think about it. This also has disadvantage that when a user first loads new content (aircraft, scenery, etc) performance will be bad that first time as you have to load unoptimized and large files and then cache them. There is also the problem of content that is removed, still existing in cached form, and the amount of disk space needed growing much larger as you now, in some form or another, have multiple versions of the file in question on your disk. b) Provide a fgfs converter tool that takes the collada (or whatever) file the content creator works with and creates the fgfs native format out of it which can then be used by flightgear. This has the advantage that your always loading the native optimized format, there is no worry about how to handle caching in the background, or large amounts of space used for the cache, or how to hand orphaned items in the cache..etc. Also by having the converter provide various options for the content creator to enable/disable etc.... one puts more power in the content creators hands which is usually a good thing. Couple disadvantages would be that; 1. content creators have to convert the stuff before using it or distributing it, and 2. that end users get a native format they can't modify directly. Number 1 is not really a huge deal at all though, and could be easily automated too. Number 2 is easily addressed by simply having the fgfs converter tool work in both directions. Run the converter on the collada (or whatever) and you get the fgfs native format for distribution, run the converter on the native file and converts back to the collada (or whatever) format for import into your content creation app of choice for editing. I kind of prefer option b, as I think it provides the most flexibility for artists, simplicity for the engine, and no worries about larges amounts of space used by a global cache or secondary files, etc. ---- That said, anything like that sort of thing would obviously take a lot of planning, work, and time to complete. Even if it was decided to go in that direction for the future, I think it would be important to allow for other formats than ac3d to work properly with the material/effects system first, so we have some much needed ability and performance possibilities in the short term. cheers --Jacob ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Oracle to DB2 Conversion Guide: Learn learn about native support for PL/SQL, new data types, scalar functions, improved concurrency, built-in packages, OCI, SQL*Plus, data movement tools, best practices and more. http://p.sf.net/sfu/oracle-sfdev2dev _______________________________________________ Flightgear-devel mailing list Flightgear-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/flightgear-devel
