Unused terrain-graphics features

[SkeletonCrew]

While doing some tests for "solidifying the Void" I ran into some unused terrain features. Since I'm not aware of the background of several of these features I'd like to know whether they should be kept or not. Since I'm adding another caching structure to speed up things so I'd like to know which invalidation points are required.

1. Terrain variants for different ToD's this feature seems unused and it does cause slowdowns when the ToD changes. Should this feature be kept or not?
I'd vote for removal.

2. Foreground terrains, once upon a time Wesnoth rendered parts of the terrain (eg Keeps) in front of the unit. I don't know why it was removed and whether we want to keep the code to restore the previous behaviour one day.
I'd vote for removal, unless we really want to restore it, but I'd like to know why the behaviour changed in the first place.

3. Animated terrain, unused but I guess we still want to use it one day.
I'd vote to keep this feature.

[Eleazar]

While doing some tests for "solidifying the Void" I ran into some unused terrain features. Since I'm not aware of the background of several of these features I'd like to know whether they should be kept or not. Since I'm adding another caching structure to speed up things so I'd like to know which invalidation points are required.

1. Terrain variants for different ToD's this feature seems unused and it does cause slowdowns when the ToD changes.

This used to be used to give villages different appearances at different times. i.e. smokeing chimneys at evening, and lighted windows at night.
I have no objection to dropping this feature.

2. Foreground terrains, once upon a time Wesnoth rendered parts of the terrain (eg Keeps) in front of the unit. I don't know why it was removed and whether we want to keep the code to restore the previous behaviour one day.

I wasn't active when this change was made, but part of the reason must have been the way that tall terrains to the South could obscure the ellipses. I am divided in my opinion of this change aesthetically, however, i assume it is faster to process without putting terrain in front of units, and so, i haven't reopened the subject.

3. Animated terrain, unused but I guess we still want to use it one day.

I'm not eager to use the feature, but it's true we may want it later.

[Noyga]

IMHO 1 & 3 aren't currently necessary (rather unused) but we might want them later.
1. could be nice if used for villages, especially at night (with some lights)

[Jetrel]

I agree with Noyga, and with Eleazar; I'd like to put #1 to use, but I'm currently swamped with stuff for the units graphics, and it's going to be some months before I'd have time to really get use out of that. Nor am I especially sure if it would work well with the current color changes made for "nighttime". So; heck with it.


As for units not being obscured by terrain, like eleazar, I am divided in my opinion of this change aesthetically, however, I assume it is faster to process without putting terrain in front of units, and so, I haven't reopened the subject. I'm also aware that it opens a serious can of worms to try and deal with that complexity in the graphics engine. For a slight aesthetic penalty, it vastly simplifies the unit drawing code.


I'm very eager to use animated terrain, and/or to see it put to use, but as yet I haven't had a chance to play with it myself.

[SkeletonCrew]

If 1 & 3 are wanted in the future I'll keep them. It's just I'm reworking some code and if the features are unwanted now would be good time to get rid of them I didn't even know 1 was possible until I looked at the code.

As for units not being obscured by terrain, like eleazar, I am divided in my opinion of this change aesthetically, however, I assume it is faster to process without putting terrain in front of units, and so, I haven't reopened the subject. I'm also aware that it opens a serious can of worms to try and deal with that complexity in the graphics engine. For a slight aesthetic penalty, it vastly simplifies the unit drawing code.

Well the terrain-graphics code still has the split between in front and behind the unit rendering, but the display code renders both behind the unit. If wanted I can keep the code split so it might be easier to revive one day.

I'm very eager to use animated terrain, and/or to see it put to use, but as yet I haven't had a chance to play with it myself.

I hope you find time

I just want to avoid that I rewrite some code and make sure it works with some currently unused features and once I'm finished somebody proposes to ditch those features