Cloning life cycle adjustments

[JCPalmer]

As of BJS 2.0, cloning was moved up into the constructor.  This enabled cloning of Mesh sub-classes.  I found still another issue trying implement a MeshFactory though:

    If the first instance, used as a reference for cloning, is disposed of, then _geometry = null;

 

This instance can no-longer be used for cloning, even though there could be other instances still using the geometry.  I would like to add a reference var, _geoRefForCloning, assigned the same value as _geometry.  This would be the variable used for cloning, and not set to null in dispose.

 

I have a work around for Tower of Babel, which I mocked up below, that puts _geoRefForCloning in the sub-class, but thought it seemed a bit forced.

// File generated with Tower of Babel version: 2.0.0 on 03/12/15module CheckBoxFont{    var meshLib = new Array<BABYLON.Mesh>(4);    var cloneCount = 1;    export class MeshFactory implements TOWER_OF_BABEL.FactoryModule {        constructor(private _scene : BABYLON.Scene, materialsRootDir: string = "./") {            CheckBoxFont.defineMaterials(_scene, materialsRootDir); //embedded version check        }        public getModuleName() : string { return "CheckBoxFont";}        public instance(meshName : string, cloneSkeleton? : boolean) : BABYLON.Mesh {            var ret:BABYLON.Mesh = null;            var src:BABYLON.Mesh;            switch (meshName){                case "unchecked2D":                    src = meshLib[0];                    if (!src || src === null){                        ret = new unchecked2D("unchecked2D", this._scene);                        meshLib[0] = ret;                    }else ret = new unchecked2D("unchecked2D" + "_" + cloneCount++, this._scene, null, <unchecked2D> src);                    break;                    ...            }            if (ret !== null){                if (cloneSkeleton && src && src.skeleton){                    var skelName = src.skeleton.name + cloneCount;                    ret.skeleton = src.skeleton.clone(skelName, skelName);                }            }            else BABYLON.Tools.Error("Mesh not found: " + meshName);            return ret;        }    }    export class unchecked2D extends DIALOG.Letter {        public _geoRefForCloning : any;                constructor(name: string, scene: BABYLON.Scene, materialsRootDir: string = "./", source? : unchecked2D) {            super(name, scene, null, source, true);            CheckBoxFont.defineMaterials(scene, materialsRootDir); //embedded version check                        var cloning = source && source !== null;            if (cloning){                if (!this.geometry){                    source._geoRefForCloning.applyToMesh(this);                }            } else {                this._geoRefForCloning = this.geometry;            }            ...        }        public dispose(doNotRecurse?: boolean): void {            super.dispose(doNotRecurse);            if (this._geoRefForCloning.isDisposed() ) meshLib[0] = null;        }    }    ...}

[JCPalmer]

Well, have found a better solution, but still without modifying BJS.  Output can still work with BJS 2.0.  FYI:

 

Changed module internal array of references to clone to an array of arrays.  Object references are cheap, but now can draw on any still living mesh for geometry:

var meshLib = new Array<Array<BABYLON.Mesh>>(number_of_clonable_meshes);

Added 2 module internal functions to get a mesh for cloning & cleaning up:

function getViable(libIdx : number) : BABYLON.Mesh {    var meshes = meshLib[libIdx];    if (!meshes  || meshes === null){        if (!meshes) meshLib[libIdx] = new Array<BABYLON.Mesh>();        return null;    }            for (var i = meshes.length - 1; i >= 0; i--){        if (meshes[i].geometry) return meshes[i];    }    return null;}function clean(libIdx : number) : void {    var meshes = meshLib[libIdx];    if (!meshes  || meshes === null) return;           var stillViable = false;    for (var i = meshes.length - 1; i >= 0; i--){        if (!meshes[i].geometry) meshes[i] = null;        else stillViable = true;    }    if (!stillViable) meshLib[libIdx] = null;}

The case for getting an instance of each class was changed slightly to:

case "unchecked2D":    src = getViable(0);    if (src === null){        ret = new unchecked2D("unchecked2D", this._scene);        meshLib[0].push(ret);    }else ret = new unchecked2D("unchecked2D" + "_" + cloneCount++, this._scene, null, <unchecked2D> src);    break;

Finally, overridden dispose() in each class now:

public dispose(doNotRecurse?: boolean): void {    super.dispose(doNotRecurse);    clean(0);}

These changes were done manually to a previously generated source file.  Think Tower of Babel 2.0 will finally be done once this is implemented in python.

[GameMonetize]

Oh smart:)