Hill_Brian++at++amelnx.advmar.com
Fri, 01 Dec 95 13:49:11 EST
Considering the fact that database paging is now better supported in Performer
2.0, the need to have an optimised Performer file format will become an issue
to more and more people in the future.
Despite what some people might claim, none of the supported file formats
included with the loaders are truly organised to minimise load time into
Performer memory. Most of them rely on the use of pfuBuilder to create
efficient pfGeoSets and pfGeoStates and need to do some costly conversions.
This is a luxury that cannot be offered when doing quick database paging. That
is why people from various organisations (ex: Coryphaeus, Vega, Hughes, us and
others) have been doing their own 'proprietary' Performer fast format.
Now maybe we should ask ourselves if an 'OPEN' file format optimised for
Performer loading could be a benefit for the Performer community. It could
support everything that is supported by Performer (pfSwitchs, pfSequence, etc..)
and would be organised to match the memory organisation of Performer and
simplify the loader as much as possible. It could also be extended to support
more specific needs as required. A converter from various other formats to this
format can be done by simply creating a performer application that dumps its
memory structure into this performer file format. This would keep people from
having to 'invent' a file format, with its loader and converter, whenever they
get into database paging.
--
___/ | ___/ Nicolas Gauvin e-mail: nicolas++at++cae.ca
/ / | / Software Developper voice: +1 514 341 2000
/ / | __/ CAE Electronics Ltd. extension 2275
/ / | / 8585 Cote De Liesse fax: +1 514 340 5496
/ ____ | / P.O. Box 1800
_____/ _/ _| _____/ Saint-Laurent, Quebec, Canada, H4L-4X4
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