Hi, I was wondering if it is a sensible idea to suggest a function that can convert a block into an entity.

This would allow block deformation at runtime, for debugging purposes or to create thrid party editors.

This is probably already achievable using 'ent_getmesh' and then a range of D3D functions, but many people, including myself, probably don't have this knowledge; and this is why I think a simple function would be much easier.

I think this is a realistic idea, but i'm happy to hear why it would suck, eg hard to update lightmaps, etc.

Thanks.

any feedback?

Thanks.

the map compiler does extra stuff with blocks like creating portals for visibility culling ingame. That are the advantages of blocks, everything else can be achieved with models at runtime. Models will even look like the level if you just give them the material for the levelsurfaces.

I see that but I had a specific idea in mind.

I wanted to be able to load a level (containing blocks), convert those blocks to entities, perform some manipulation and finally re-write the .wmb so the block changes are saved.

That's indeed difficult. Blocks are meant to stay at the same position, and the renderer uses this to its advantage.

For your purpose, if you want to move or manipulate blocks, better already place entities in the level instead of blocks.

Yes, I would use entities if I were creating the level myself.

The whole reason for this request was so I would be able to support editing blocks in my level editor.

I wanted to load a level, read the blocks, create entities that represent those blocks (same position, vertices, skins), use simple functions like 'ent_setmesh' to change those entities, and finally write the entities back into a .wmb file as blocks (using simple IO).

Ah, I see. But in that case you could move the block by adding an offset to the vertices of its mesh. This is how the WED editor is doing it.

Thanks, I think i'm pretty comfortable with the .wmb format, and can read/write most parts of it, so editing an existing block / writing a new block into a level file isn't a problem.

I'm more concerned with visually representing blocks in my level. Sure I can just use level_load and blocks come, but cannot be manipulated at runtime because as you said, this is hard.

I wanted to 'fake' this by creating entities, with the exact same properties of the blocks (or most properties), and then they can be manipulated however.

The problem is getting the mesh of the block and then setting that mesh to a new entity.

If I can't support blocks in my editor, I suppose it's not the end of the world, its just nice to complete the set.

ent_buffers(ENTITY* ent, var num, var lod, void** ppVerts, void** ppTris, void** ppAttribs);

"Returns the vertex, index, and attribute buffer of the entity mesh.
The buffers can be used to read or manipulate the entity mesh on a lower level than with ent_setvertex."

Further:

"ent - model, terrain, or wmb entity pointer, or level_ent for level blocks."

http://www.conitec.net/beta/ent_buffers.htm

As a less flexible alternative ent_getmesh can also read level blocks. You could then create a model out of this data on the fly and modify it as you need.

But there you'll have to fiddle around a bit with D3D stuff, though.