Blank Top View

[Ian Wells]

When I reach the planting stage on a new course that I am building, I view the each hole in Links after planting, and then adjust accordingly. As I am progressing with Victoria National I noticed an (obvious) increase in the time the game was taking to open. After completing the ninth hole it seemed that it was taking a long time, therefore I decided to change the top views of the bushes (approx.15 objects so far). I copied an existing top view tga file and deleted the bush and than saved it as blank.tga. I then revised the top view of the 15 bushes to blank.tga. When I was completed I V&S, and loaded it into Links and was amazed at the length of time it took to open.

Here are the times to open in LINKS:
Before changing the top view 1 minute 8 seconds (The time to re-open the course is 8 seconds - on my relatively new lap top)
After changing top view 4 minutes 8 seconds. (I didn't check the re-open time.)
(I was surprised that the original opening time was only 1min:08sec as it seemed longer and I don't believe that this is a long time for the initial start up.)

Of course I am continuing with the file before the blank.tga change, but I am interested to know if anybody can explain why the time would increase?

Ian

[sagevanni]

It sounds like it's loading into cache and then the next time it's opening from the cache memory. Something like that. I've noticed that myself.

Sage....

[Ian Wells]

It sounds like it's loading into cache and then the next time it's opening from the cache memory.

That's far too technical for me, I cannot argue so I will accept it - unless/until something else comes forward.
Ian

[braden1308]

That should not happen, if anything it should decrease the loading time as well as rendering time in game. Ian, how large are the blank tga's you made? Yo can make them as small as 512x512

[Ian Wells]

Glen,

The size is 128x128 which gives as size of 65KB the same as the other bush top views. If you say the lowest is 512x512 then that may be the cause. I will try making it 512x512 tomorrow and post the result
Thanks for the information.
Ian

[braden1308]

I didn't think you could make them that small but if they are at x2 then that should be okay, not sure what it could be

[Danny D]

When I reach the planting stage on a new course that I am building, I view the each hole in Links after planting, and then adjust accordingly. As I am progressing with Victoria National I noticed an (obvious) increase in the time the game was taking to open. After completing the ninth hole it seemed that it was taking a long time, therefore I decided to change the top views of the bushes (approx.15 objects so far). I copied an existing top view tga file and deleted the bush and than saved it as blank.tga. I then revised the top view of the 15 bushes to blank.tga. When I was completed I V&S, and loaded it into Links and was amazed at the length of time it took to open.

Here are the times to open in LINKS:
Before changing the top view 1 minute 8 seconds (The time to re-open the course is 8 seconds - on my relatively new lap top)
After changing top view 4 minutes 8 seconds. (I didn't check the re-open time.)
(I was surprised that the original opening time was only 1min:08sec as it seemed longer and I don't believe that this is a long time for the initial start up.)

Of course I am continuing with the file before the blank.tga change, but I am interested to know if anybody can explain why the time would increase?

Ian

Hi Ian. What exactly is your end goal? Are you wanting to eliminate the top views of the bushes so you can't see them in Links at all?

Dan

[Ian Wells]

Hi dan,

My only intension was to reduce the start-up time. I had thought, wrongly I now believe, that the startup time was too long.
As the need to reduce the start-up time is not an issue I will continue using the bushes with top view.
The reason for the post was that the increase in start-up time after removing the top view confused me, and I hoped that somebody could explain why it happened.

Ian

[Ian Wells]

Gentlemen,
It looks like I have wasted your time - again.
This morning I have just made a modification and performed a V&S and opened it in LINKS. It took 4min:8sec. The same as when I removed the top views.
I am surprised as the time as the previous V&S had a startup time of 1min:8sec. Previously the difference in start-up time increased consistently with each hole planting, except for the last change. I will go back and see if I can make sense of it and, if so, I will let you now. (The restart time is only 8 seconds.)

My apologies for wasting your time.
Ian

[sagevanni]

Knowledge is never a waste of time.................

Sage.....