#1284 Switching to outside view for first time, cause pause in simulation

[Anonymous]

Originally created by: emptyYet...@gmail.com

*What steps will reproduce the problem?*
1. Start a aircraft, that does not have a workaround for this issue
2. Press 'v' to switch to outside view

*What is the expected output? What do you see instead?*
Expect instant switching.
See that the simulation is paused (sometimes up to 10 seconds)

*Any output in the console (black window)?*
No.

*What FlightGear version are you using (when using GIT version, please
mention date)?*
2.12.0

*What operating system and graphics card?*
Windows 7, Nvidia Geforce 550 Ti

*Please provide any additional information below or as attachment (Avoid
expiring external links, such as to imageshack/pastebin/...).*
TU154B has a workaround for this. To switch to outside view and back to cockpit, during splash screen.
Note that this is not caused by plane textures, as starting in wireframe mode with no textures, have same issue.

[Anonymous]

Originally posted by: ray.stma...@gmail.com

Isn't this just the outside view of the model loading? This is something I've always had happen on the first switch to helicopter view from pilot view in every version of FG I've used so far. I do the view fairly soon after loading before taxi so that I can get the view-hang early and not later in flight.

[Anonymous]

Originally posted by: emptyYet...@gmail.com

No I do not think it is.

For example the plane I am working on shows the entire model when sitting in cockpit, so it should already be loaded. Also is only loaded from 1 xml inclusion, so it is already loaded.

And as I noted, the issue is not related to aircraft textures at all, so I tend to suspect its not aircraft related.

[Anonymous]

Originally posted by: emili...@gmail.com

A couple of notes:
1. wireframe mode uses textures. it simply doesn't fill the faces, but the textures are loaded and processed even for wireframe mode
(to properly check if you get the same delay without textures, make sure your model has no textures assigned, and also no effect requiring/using additional textures assigned)
2. How big are your textures? Textures will be loaded as needed, and part of the process of loading them requires mipmap generation "on the fly", and for big/many textures this takes a while.
3. even if your model is shown when sitting in cokpit, as long as you have animated parts that aren't visible from the cokpit they are culled away, and switching to outside view causes them to become visible, requiring any texture attached to them to go through the above process.

[Anonymous]

Originally posted by: ray.stma...@gmail.com

answering comment #2

Indeed the xml is loaded on sim load of your plane. What's not loaded is the graphics buffer until you view the model in an exterior view, until you do an exterior view, and this is the lag i perceive we are enjoying, the loading of the graphics buffer of the model for the first time. You might even notice lags in all the other views but they will not be as heavy as that first exterior view, and all the lags will not repeat themselves after the first time.