It’s mid level priority with the tools – we want to get the tools updated soon and not keep everyone waiting, but 64 bit is higher priority.

Okay, thanks. If anyone wanted to know, the columns line up at 8 spaces per tab stop (mono-spaced font, of course).

Tip: if the columsn don’t line up, change your tab stop – they _do_ line up for us when we edit it!!

First: NO_SHADOW is for everything else. ATTR_no_shadow and GLOBAL_no_shadow are for OBJs. So your facade is good. The OBJ file has its own syntax because it differentiates between GLOBAL things that affect the whole obj and ATTRibutes which temporarily affect drawing. I try to keep everything that isn’t an OBJ consistent with each other.

Re: instancing, an object is only a candidate for instancing if (1) you don’t use ATTRibutes and selective LOD and (2) your GPU can use it and (3) you use it more than once!

That point 3 is the key: if you use an object only once, the global attributes really do NOT help you, because there’s nothing to instance (no repeats).

So my suggestion to authors is simple:
– If you use an object MANY times, use GLOBAL_xxx.
– If you use an object once, use ATTR_xxx.

I have a tech note I am working on that explains this in more detail. Generally the 3-d editor should hide this. For example, in my mods to Jonathan’s Blender plugin, you set a property “instance” to 1 if you want instancing.

When this property is on, GLOBAL_xxx is used, the export fails if you use any non-instance-friendly stuff, and your stuff will perform well if you use the OBJ many times.

With the property off, ATTR_xxx is used, and you can use anything, but no instancing.

“ATTR_no_shadow for non-instanced objects, and GLOBAL_no_shadow for instanced objects”

How do I know if my object is being instanced or not? I thought this decision was abstracted from me (the scenery designer) based on the GfxCard’s capabilities and what XP10 has decided is “instanceable” or not. (if thats a word).

For example, I am doing the following in a .FACade (this is indeed a 2D Grass billboard BTW)

I
800
FACADE
TEXTURE ckgrass2.dds
NO_BLEND 0.39
RING 0
TWO_SIDED 1
NO_SHADOW

Likewise, as per this post http:/2012/03/no-shadows-for-you/ I thought the directive is “NO_SHADOW”?

– chris k. (Scenery guy and Dorito-Eater, not to be confused with ‘chris the impatient’)

There are partial 1.2 docs up on the main website.

Same for WED 1.2 docs?

Not really – every bit of docs help, but I am still pretty back-logged. 🙁