Append for CDynamicMeshBuffer not working(?)

[fanaticguy]

After executing code which is listed below i got following output in console:
"24
0".
mesh_buffers is std::vector<CDynamicMeshBuffer*> and buffer_side is CDynamicMeshBuffer*. Am I doing something wrong or this append method does not work? Of course this is not the only reason that i thought that it is not working. This is just an example which for me should work.

Code: Select all

std::cout << buffer_side->getIndexCount()<<std::endl;
mesh_buffers[block_num]->append(buffer_side);
std::cout <<mesh_buffers[block_num]->getIndexCount()<< std::endl;

[CuteAlien]

Yeah, appends are not working. For CMeshBuffer it was disabled in revision 1515 without comment. And for CDynamicMeshBuffer it never got implemented.
It was discussed somewhat in bug #310 and http://irrlicht.sourceforge.net/forum// ... hp?t=36226, but this was all before my time and the involved programmers are no longer active. I've put it on my todo when I noticed this last year, but it's just on my nice-to-have list for Irrlicht 1.9, so I haven't spend time on it so far to learn what this is all about.

[Mel]

If i recall correctly, you still can use append with vertices and indices directly, and works as expected. The problem is the format of the vertices and the indices, which can't be checked really during the appending time. So, technically you can append vertices of a format on a buffer of a smaller format (S3DTangentVertices on S3DVertices buffers for instance) giving potentially place to exceed the allocated memory, as the tangent vertices are larger in that example

I would remove that append method from the interfaces (IMeshBuffer, CMeshBuffer...) , as would only complicate things, and leave them only for the specific implementations (SMesh, STangentMesh...) The mesh manipulator is able to convert from a vertex format into another if it is needed

[CuteAlien]

Hm, I think we know the format of vertices and indeces but not the format of the meshbuffer. And the latter is a problem in other todo's I'm having as well (caused some troubles when I tried switching to 32-bit meshloaders), so probably those need a getType function.

[fanaticguy]

If i recall correctly, you still can use append with vertices and indices directly, and works as expected.

Yeah, I tried this. It works, but in that case there is no option to set Material for separate "buffers". Btw i'm searching for a way to concatenate a lot of meshbuffers with only few used materials and I really need to store more than 16 bit of indices that's why I have chosen DynamicMeshBuffer. Downside of using separate meshbuffers in my case is that there is significant performance fall.