Fast loading (Load Mode and Cook)

A large scene takes time to open because the engine converts every object before the first frame. Anastacio has two tools for that:

• Load Mode: chooses which objects are loaded with the scene and which wait until later.
• Cook: stores in a .cooked file what the conversion computes (physics, meshes, shaders), so it is not computed again.

Load Mode

Select an object and open Properties > Object, panel Load Object with Scene. There are three modes:

Mode	What happens
With Scene	Default. The object is created with the scene.
On Demand	Left out at load. Created when a script asks for it or when an Add Object uses it for the first time.
Editor Only	Never goes into the game. Good for reference objects, work cameras, blockout.

The mode applies to the selected objects and their children.

Creating an On Demand object from a script

(cena = scene, chefe = boss, tiro = shot, arma = weapon: the code is the one tested on the Portuguese page.)

import Range

cena = Range.logic.getCurrentScene()
chefe = cena.convertObject("Chefe")

If Chefe is on an active layer, it appears in the scene. If it is on an inactive layer, it goes to objectsInactive and is ready for addObject:

cena.convertObject("Tiro")
tiro = cena.addObject("Tiro", cena.objects["Arma"], 120)

cena.unconvertedObjects lists the names that can still be created this way.

With Logic Bricks

The Add Object actuator already understands On Demand: the object is created the first time the actuator fires, and later times only make copies. No script needed.

Cook

The Cook button is in the Render panel and next to Play in the header. It runs the scene once and writes, next to the .blend, a .cooked file with:

• collision shapes (Convex Hull and Triangle Mesh) already computed;
• mesh buffers, normals and tangents;
• shaders compiled for your graphics card.

On the next load, the engine reads the file instead of computing. In tests, loading a scene dropped from about 2.4 s to under 0.5 s.

• The .blend must be saved (without a saved file the button is greyed out).
• Clear Cooked deletes the cache. If you change a mesh you don’t need to clear it: the changed part is recomputed.
• In the exported game, the .cooked goes along. Shaders are stored on the player’s computer on first launch, which shows a preparation screen.

Measuring

Range.logic.getLoadLog() shows how long each loading stage took. Use it before and after Cook to see the gain.

import Range

for etapa in Range.logic.getLoadLog():
    print(etapa)