Variables and Entities

[Clackdor]

So, I'm playing around with player animation and I have what I think is a style question, but could possibly be more. When accessing bones in a model, would it be better to create a variable to store the bone and then access the variable:

 

Load {
TEntity headbone = FindChild (mesh,"Bip01 Head");
}

Run {
Animate (frame,headbone,0,0):
}

 

OR Just use the FindChild function all the time.

 

Run {
Animate(frame, FindChild(mesh,"Bip01 Head"),0,0);
}

 

OR is it simply a style question and my graphics rendering will dominate resource cost?

[Canardia]

Speed is always a problem in games, and you can never make a game how you would want, but must reduce assets complexity and code. So I would go always with the simple rule that make things optimal when you can.

[Clackdor]

That's my question. Which of the above code is more optimal? I guess using "better" is kinda unclear.

[Pixel Perfect]

Access to a simple variable ( a pointer in this case) is always going to involve less overhead than running a Leadwerks function. It wouldn't matter either way if it was a single call, but if its repeated then I'd go with the variable every time.

[Naughty Alien]

..create container for bones, store their data during loading time only and later simply just use stored bone instances to do whatever you want without any use of any hierarchy search functions such as FindChild..

[Clackdor]

Thanks!