A quick surface question

Blitz3D Forums/Blitz3D Programming/A quick surface question

NTense (Posted 2003) [#1]

For all of you single surface gurus out there: When I use copy mesh does that create a new surface, or attach it to the originating surface? If it creates a new surface then: I'm assigning "Weapons" to animated player meshes, of which there may be up to 32 at a time on the screen. As you can imagine, I need to cut my surfaces down as much as possible. Is there a relatively painless way to assign these weapons to like surfaces even though they'll be "attached"/parented to animated meshes?

Bouncer (Posted 2003) [#2]

It creates a new surface. Use copyentity whenever you can.

NTense (Posted 2003) [#3]

Thanks Bouncer.. But with CopyEntity, if I manipulate the entity, it effects all of the copies, is that correct?

Bouncer (Posted 2003) [#4]

Yes, but only if you manipulate vertex positions or other mesh geometry. If you resize, change texture, rotate, move etc. with entity commands, it doesn't.

NTense (Posted 2003) [#5]

I just Changed over to the CopyEntity command and it's working great. In fact, I added Hundreds of trees to my seen as well with very little impact on my frame rate! Thanks for the advice Bouncer.