Lagless preloading

Scripting Issues
1

I can’t seem to figure this one out… I’m using the panda threading ability to over come some IO problems for my preloading, but for some reason I still get the huge lag that comes from loading my main big model… Is there any other way to maybe some how lower its pressure on my game? I tried using the threadPriority variable, but I’m a little lost on the whole “TP_low, TP_normal, TP_high, or TP_urgent” passing… it wants a int number so not really sure to pass a high 4 or a low 0, either way it didn’t seem to help when I did it… but then again I didn’t test the time just the human feel.

  ############################PreLoad Data#########################################
  def PreLoad(self):
    taskMgr.setupTaskChain('PreLoadThread', numThreads = 1)
    taskMgr.add(self.PreLoadData, "PreLoading", taskChain = 'PreLoadThread')
  
  def PreLoadData(self, task):
    print "Starting preload"
    if self2.LastLocation:
      LoadEnvironment().PreLoad(self2.LastLocation)
      Thread.considerYield()

    #SP effects
    for Item in ['Misc/Misc/Smoke/Smoke2/Smoke2.bam']:# 'Misc/Misc/Explosion/Explosion1/Explosion1.bam', 'Misc/Misc/Smoke/Smoke1/Smoke1.bam', ]:
      try:
        Smoke = loader.loadModel(''.join(map(str, ("MainMenu/Game/BlockWar/", Item))))
        Smoke.prepareScene(base.win.getGsg())
        Smoke.removeNode()
      except:
        print traceback.format_exception(*sys.exc_info())
      Thread.considerYield()

    #Sounds
    for Item in ['Knife/gunfire/Knife_HitConc1.ogg', 'Pistol/gunfire/pistol_fire.ogg', 'Mrifle/gunfire/rifle_fire_1.ogg', 'hunting_rifle/gunfire/hunting_rifle_fire_1.ogg',
                 'PulseRifle/gunfire/shockrifle_shoot.ogg', 'RocketLauncher/gunfire/rocket_launcher.ogg', 'MiniGun/gunfire/minigun_fire.ogg']:
      try:
        Sound = loader.loadSfx(''.join(map(str, ("MainMenu/Game/BlockWar/Music/Sounds/", Item))))
      except:
        print traceback.format_exception(*sys.exc_info())
      Thread.considerYield()

    #Models
    for Item in ["Scrolls/Scroll.bam"]:
      try:
        Model = loader.loadModel(''.join(map(str, ("MainMenu/Game/BlockWar/Misc/Items/", Item))))
        Model.prepareScene(base.win.getGsg())
        Model.removeNode()
      except:
        print traceback.format_exception(*sys.exc_info())
      Thread.considerYield()
    
    for Item in ["Knife/Knife.bam", "Mrifle/Mrifle.bam", "Pistol/Pistol.bam", "Sniper/Sniper.bam", "bullit.bam"]: # "MiniWeapon/MiniWeapon.bam", "BFG/BFG.bam", "PulseRifle/PulseRifle.bam", "RocketLauncher/RocketLauncher.bam", "ShotWeapon/ShotWeapon.bam"
      try:
        Weapon = loader.loadModel(''.join(map(str, ("MainMenu/Game/BlockWar/Misc/Items/Weapons/", Item))))
        Weapon.prepareScene(base.win.getGsg())
        Weapon.removeNode()
      except:
        print traceback.format_exception(*sys.exc_info())
      Thread.considerYield()


    print "Done preloading"
2

Take a look at this Manual page:
panda3d.org/manual/index.php/Threading

It explains how to load Models asynchronously (means in background).

3

Nice… Yea I saw, but I’m a little lost on what it means by the text. Why I made my own task chain I guess. I get this:

loader.loadModel(filename, callback = myFunc)

but what do I pass to the callback? Also, I don’t see any priority flags… where can I check theses flags out? I think I’m missing them in the Python Reference.

I’m guessing it puts it into some sorta background task chain that loads it up in blocks so to keep shuttering down.

4

The callback will be passed one argument which is a list of the loaded model nodes (may also contain None if okMissing=True)

Yes that Python Reference doesn’t seem to have the full information or I can’t find it. Higher numbers are loaded first. See here: panda3d.org/apiref.php?page=Loader#loadModel

Also note that you can pass a list for the modelPath argument, so you don’t have to do the “for Item in …” loops.