Deprecated IFL

#1 Tom Spilman wrote the reasons somewhere in another thread, cant recall the specifics. But it was somethign about it's impact on rendering as I recall.

*Edit
Heres the link...
www.garagegames.com/community/forums/viewthread/120147

#2 if you can port it back in, sell the changes for $5 or $10. You'd have 100+ sales easily over a month.

#3 hmm reading those posts I get the impression it was yanked in version 1.1 of the engine. I was thinking it had gotten yanked much earlier than that. After all I basically am jumping an entire engine's worth of development here features have come and gone after all.

Merging it back in should be rather simple if it exists in version 1.01.

After a quick search through of that source yeah it still has IFL support and looks remarkably unchanged from TGE's version. Kinda shows how much attention it has gotten over the years useful or otherwise. Not that I have much room to say anything I used it for my own nefarious purposes as a hook for other code.

I think it would be alot of trouble to sell the changes. I am thinking of just putting up a resource.

Of course this would just be a stop gap till an actual replacement could be made.

#4 Ok finally got it work AFAIK took me way longer than it probably should have but I spent alot of time just poking around T3D's source just trying to familiarize myself with the differences from TGE. Must say while it is vastly different it is pretty comfortingly similar enough to work out sorta.

Anyhow on to post a resource there is one thing that has been bugging me about that. It would be simplest for me to post the code files I modified in a stock version of T3D 1.1 but is that allowed? Is there a way to make these resources only viewable by those who own the engine in which it concerns. Also where do you all typically host these files in the first place?

#5 It's quite nice of you to do this for the community. Good Job.

Here's what I can do for you..
Send me the changed files, I'll make a patch file(unless you know how) ..and then I'll send you the patch file to use in your resource.

- My way of helping you for saving me the bother of doing this work on my own.

eb7898 (AT) hotmail com

#6 Cheers; ++ for the community

#7 Here is what I don't understand. The developers took it out. Why? Was it harmful leaving it in? If it wasn't harmful to leave it in, why didn't they just comment it out? Is there some reason they didn't want people to use this? Will putting it back conflict with anything new? My point being...am I opening myself up to unintended consequences if I install Wesley's resource?

#8 Tom said something like it was a speed improvement decision.

#9 The way I understand it (don't go buying stocks based on this) is that with the single image strip the entire image loads to texture memory at once rather than having to be batched like an ifl - and you'd probably have to manually batch those images to ensure you don't send them in two (or more if your luck runs like mine) separate batches.

I'm just thinking out loud - I have no empirical data or other information source to back that up.

#10 @demo sent you the source files still need to work out hosting.

I understand an improved system for texture animations is supposedly in the works as well. However long that takes is anyone's guess. As for me I happen to need the specific functionality IFL's provide. As above I am going to port my sprite Resource from TGE. As far as i am aware so far the IFL systems provide the best basis to build that from.

So I figure everyone else who is interested in using my resource would have there own reasons. It is just nice to have options and have something to reference from time to time.

#11 No argument here - I was just guessing at possible reasons for changing the system. I really liked the IFL system, myself. It's familiar to me thanks to working with 3DS Max.

#12 I'm under a heavy & rushed deadline this weekend, I'll get to this on Monday. Thanks Wesley.

#13 Any luck with that patch file? Otherwise I can just put something else up myself.

Oh should also mention decided to actually go with extending the existing material animation system for use for my sprites instead of IFL. Should have looked more closely at the material sequence stuff ahead of time. No big deal anyhow Guess it just made this whole thing a exercise in familiarizing myself with the differences between TGE and T3D.

Actually already have a rough test model working already. I just need to work out how to hook up communication between the object and the shader code there are a few pretty good tutorials on that looking around already.

So basically I think I may be putting up two resources some time soon. The extensions I have planned and somewhat worked out so far for the material animations are:
Multiple Sequences and variable frame durations. Can pick and choose frames to play in a sequence rather than just being left to right. Set-able animation triggers for each frame. All will be fully controllable through script. Extension from strip layout to sheet layout files. I also plan to be able call these material animations through the playThread and setActionThread methods as soon as I work it out.

#14 oh crap! ..I've been so busy I forgot!!

Sorry Wesley. I had the best intentions on this for ya.

#15 I like the IFLs, so looking forward to seeing a resource. BTW, this seems like an easy job for a shader; how difficult would that be to implement in T3D?