Re: [Enigma-devel] Maemo Port for Nokia Internet Tablets - Performance

[Ronald Lamprecht]

Hi,

Andreas Lochmann schrieb:
> > While I look forward to seeing you complete implementation, I was 
> > referring to animation of the laser stones themselves 
> > (st-laser-{n,e,s,w})... not the beams or calculations of any objects 
> > in their path.   The st-laser stone on which the beam 'begins' has its 
> > own (sprite?) animation which updates whenever the laser is on.  This 
> > level (Magic Triangle) has around 23 st-laser stones being animated on 
> > every (paint/refresh).  Completely disabling this 'pulsing' animation 
> > (as a test) would have no impact on the simulation other than for 
> > artistic purposes.  Perhaps i will just try looking a little further 
> > into the source to find this animation and test this theory.  If 
> > anyone knows where this is in the code, i'd appreciate a short-cut :)

It is laser.cc lines 435ff
> void LaserStone::init_model()
> {
>     string mname = is_on() ? "st-laseron" : "st-laser";
>     mname += to_suffix(get_dir());
>     set_model(mname);
> }

Just stick to the unanimated model "st-laser". But I do not expect any 
substantial win. Just 23 grids that are redrawn about 5 times a second. 
Additionally stones a simple to draw - just one image. For an item we 
have to redraw the floor, the transparent item, maybe some actors and 
additional stone shadows and even a transparent stone. We have about 100 
laser beam items (grids) to redraw ...

BTW do not fiddle around wiht animations besides some temporary 
experiments. Unfortunatly the animation timing is tightly coupled to the 
gaming logic. The decoupling will be a major issue for the future.

> How does "Laser Paradise" play? It uses lots of lasers
> and laser beams as well, but no light passenger.
>
> I also thought about shadow handling. Particularly
> of the laser items - how is it done? Are the (empty)
> shadow images overlaid as if they were real?
> Should we replace the alpha-based calculations by
> the simpler algorithm Daniel used for the first
> versions of Enigma?

Item do not have a shadow layer, just stone do have shadows. Empty 
shadows are not overlaid.

Before knowing that Daniel had used it, I did suggest the same algorithm 
to him that he had used in the first versions. My reason was the fact 
that alpha blending is not really correct. Look at stone shadows over 
abyss - alpha generates a grey shadow over abyss :-( Daniel did reject 
this proposal as he liked the alpha shadows. I do think that support of 
harware acceleration would be a more useful subject for the display part.

Greets,

Ronald