Re: Why no display lists in Quesa?

[Frank C. <dev...@ch...>]

On 19-Jun-05, at 2:09 AM, James W. Walker wrote:

> On Jun 18, 2005, at 9:41 PM, Frank Condello wrote:
>
>> Another problem is that retained or not, no mesh is guaranteed to  
>> be static. Even if you track data locks/replacements there's no  
>> "safe" time to build and use a display list (even without software  
>> backface culling).
>
> When you say "mesh" here, are you speaking specifically of the Mesh  
> geometry, or do you use the word mesh in a more general sense?

Trimesh is what I meant (not sure its worth optimizing other types).

>   I usually use TriMesh geometries.  I would think that one could  
> invalidate a cached display list on Q3TriMesh_UnlockData and  
> Q3TriMest_SetData, and rebuild it just in time.

Yes, but if someone is updating a trimesh every frame (which isn't an  
unreasonable expectation) you'll be compiling a new display list  
every frame, which will certainly be slower than using the current  
vertex array path. To use display lists to their potential you need a  
geometry type that's guaranteed never to change, or some sort of flag  
for existing geometries that allows you to declare them as "static"  
once their data is set.

Frank.