Does CopyEntity create additional geometry?

Blitz3D Forums/Blitz3D Beginners Area/Does CopyEntity create additional geometry?

Dock	(Posted 2004) [#1]

I'm trying to figure out if I'm doing the right thing for my 3D puzzle game at the moment.

I start off by loading all the different objects and using 'Hideentity' on them as soon as they load, so they're not visible. Then I have an array of entities that I use CopyEntity to depending upon the classification of the tile.

For example:

For x = 0 To 10
	For y = 0 To 10
		Select level(x,y)\tileinfo
			Case 0
			mytile(x,y) = CopyEntity(globe)
			Case 1
			mytile(x,y) = CopyEntity(figure)
			Case 2
			mytile(x,y) = CopyEntity(statue)
		End Select
	Next
Next

My question is whether or not my CopyEntity is creating a lot of extra geometry, or is it an instance of the same data? Am I taking the right approach to this?

Stevie G

(Posted 2004) [#2]

I do everything like this also so AFAIK it's the right approach. This method produced instances of the original mesh.

TomToad

(Posted 2004) [#3]

When you create or load new meshes, you get something like this.

mesh         entity
pawn.b3d  <--blackpawn1
pawn.b3d  <--blackpawn2
pawn.b3d  <--blackpawn3
...
pawn.b3d  <--whitepawn7
pawn.b3d  <--whitepawn8

As you can see, the mesh "Pawn.b3d" is stored in memory several times with each entity pointing to a seperate one. This takes up extra memory as well as slow things down. Using CopyEntity, you get this

mesh        entity
pawn.b3d <--blackpawn1
    ^
    |-------blackpawn2
    |-------blackpawn3
    |-------blackpawn4
...

All entities point to the same mesh. You can call Entity commands on each entity just like before, ScaleEntity, RotateEntity, EntityColor, etc... However, anything that happens to the mesh itself occurs to all the entities pointing to it, ScaleMesh, RotateMesh, VetexColor, etc...

Dock	(Posted 2004) [#4]

Ah - excellent explanation, that's great to know what I'm doing is correct.

Okay, another question then! ^_^
Is there any way to make a CopyEntity Entity 'unique' without loading in the B3D file again?

Stevie G

(Posted 2004) [#5]

Copymesh will do this - but as Tom says you'll be using additional memory to hold the new mesh.

Dock	(Posted 2004) [#6]

Ah perfect. Yep, don't worry I'll avoid using copymesh, but it's good to know how I can do that. Thanks!

barryem

(Posted 2004) [#7]

I'd like to check my understanding of the above. As I understand it entities are instances of meshes (or of whatever they're instances of) and don't have to store all the information the original mesh stores. Is that correct?