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Hi all,

First the bonus question which will lead me nicely to the actual Q... When loading objects (both 3ds and .x) my demo seems to take about 45 seconds before showing (I guess something is getting stuck in the background - BTW, I'm running Vista and VC++2008). I've search this forum and have seen other posts about this but no resolutions.... anyone have any points on this loading delay?

Anyway... the above leads onto the actual Q.... I can get around this delay (it seems) if I compile the project as 'Release' and run the .exe.... problem is, when i'm compiling my demo as a Release project i get the following linker errors (the GDK samples compile in release fine):

1>------ Build started: Project: Game 1, Configuration: Release Win32 ------
1>Compiling...
1>Player_Setup.cpp
1>Linking...
1> Creating library Release\Game 1.lib and object Release\Game 1.exp
1>Main.obj : error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol "void __cdecl dbPhyUpdate(void)" (?dbPhyUpdate@@YAXXZ) referenced in function "void __cdecl DarkGDK(void)" (?DarkGDK@@YAXXZ)
1>Main.obj : error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol "void __cdecl dbPhySetRigidBodyAngularVelocity(int,float,float,float)" (?dbPhySetRigidBodyAngularVelocity@@YAXHMMM@Z) referenced in function "void __cdecl DarkGDK(void)" (?DarkGDK@@YAXXZ)
1>Main.obj : error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol "void __cdecl dbPhyAddRigidBodyLocalForce(int,float,float,float,int)" (?dbPhyAddRigidBodyLocalForce@@YAXHMMMH@Z) referenced in function "void __cdecl DarkGDK(void)" (?DarkGDK@@YAXXZ)
1>Main.obj : error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol "float __cdecl dbPhyGetRigidBodyLinearMomentumY(int)" (?dbPhyGetRigidBodyLinearMomentumY@@YAMH@Z) referenced in function "void __cdecl DarkGDK(void)" (?DarkGDK@@YAXXZ)
1>Main.obj : error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol "float __cdecl dbPhyGetRigidBodyLinearMomentumX(int)" (?dbPhyGetRigidBodyLinearMomentumX@@YAMH@Z) referenced in function "void __cdecl DarkGDK(void)" (?DarkGDK@@YAXXZ)
1>Main.obj : error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol "float __cdecl dbPhyGetRigidBodyLinearMomentumZ(int)" (?dbPhyGetRigidBodyLinearMomentumZ@@YAMH@Z) referenced in function "void __cdecl DarkGDK(void)" (?DarkGDK@@YAXXZ)
1>Main.obj : error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol "void __cdecl dbPhyStart(void)" (?dbPhyStart@@YAXXZ) referenced in function "void __cdecl DarkGDK(void)" (?DarkGDK@@YAXXZ)
1>Player_Setup.obj : error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol "void __cdecl dbPhyMakeRigidBodyDynamicBox(int)" (?dbPhyMakeRigidBodyDynamicBox@@YAXH@Z) referenced in function "void __cdecl playerSetup(void)" (?playerSetup@@YAXXZ)
1>Terrain_Setup.obj : error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol "void __cdecl dbPhyMakeRigidBodyStaticTerrain(int)" (?dbPhyMakeRigidBodyStaticTerrain@@YAXH@Z) referenced in function "void __cdecl setupTerrain(void)" (?setupTerrain@@YAXXZ)
1>Release\Game 1.exe : fatal error LNK1120: 9 unresolved externals
1>Build log was saved at "file://i:\DBPro_C++\Game_1\Release\BuildLog.htm"
1>Game 1 - 10 error(s), 0 warning(s)
========== Build: 0 succeeded, 1 failed, 0 up-to-date, 0 skipped ==

I may have it sorted.... I'll let you know.... think i had the same problem with debug and DarkPhysics.

I was wrong about 'Release' fixing the loading delay.... I got my demo compiling okay as release but still am waiting minutes for the objects to load?!.... hmmmm

what is the poly count on your models? I know I made a model with 10023485 polycount and it took like an hour to load.

HOLY CRAP! Thats a LOT Of poly!

LOL

Yeah - fallingb, what are you trying to load? Have you tried different models... like "Baby" levels... one room.. to see if they are still slow etc?

There are tools that can lower poly count, but you really would probably be better off modelling to suit your game, and maybe breaking up HUGE models, if possible, into chunks... and MAYBE loading on demand... I don't knwo what you're doing... so I can't be to specific...

Um... another thing to consider... is making a program... utility in nature... that loads your objects, and then saves them as DBO files.. the native file format for DarkGDK and DBPRo loads MUCH MUCH faster than Direct.x and I'm sure 3ds etc.

Good Luck Man!

BTW - Release does run a bit faster.. and definately ends the programs faster... and I think you are just having a linker issue somewhere in there when you compile to release mode.... If I were you I'd stick to debug mode and fight that battle another day... as you get closer to releasing something!

'HOLY CRAP! Thats a LOT Of poly!'

yeah, I was on blender and I didn't realize it but I subdivided my object like 20 times in order to make it look nice. Now, when I went back to tht model, blender can't even open it..... lol!

COULDN'T HAVE SOMEONE TOLD ME THAT EARLIER ?!?! Oh well, at least I know now, Ima gonna try it and see if I can get anything out of that conversion...

It's definitely not due to excessive poly count or a non .x file format. It's the directx model from the GDK tutorial, 3D Objects - Colonel-X.x

Has anyone else come across this long loading times... maybe it's GDK and Vista?

Well.. I don't know what you mean by long.. but colonel isn't exactly tiny... he has a ton of animations that little bugger does!

Sitting and watching 3d models load can almost be painful sometimes... Especially when you are trying to fix a bug and have to rebuild and run the game every minute... But it's something we have to live with... ... Unless of course you have some way of keeping the model in memory and not needing to reload it...

The long loading times are also greatly affected by what you have running on your machine at the time and how powerful your machine is... Of course we have Vista here which takes up freakin' half the resources on your comp. just to have the OS running... Those things may be factors in your loading delays...

Hey, vista is pretty good, I have not had any trouble with it ever. I don't know why everyone hates it.......

Because its so bloated you need to double the hardware just to run it.... it uses tons of memory and CPU to "run the mouse".... It breaks tons of legacy software, the UAC drives people crazy, there are four versions of the same OS...

Sometimes, you just know driving your car will kill the ozone... but you drive it anyways.... I see a parallel LOL

I personally don't hate Vista... but I'm also not about to double my system specs $$$$ and buy Vista $$$$ to get the same thing I have now performance wise... Nope.. Not me... I'll put that off....

Microsoft should really put more resources towards fixing bugs in Vista... They already talking about releasing Windows 7 next year... They need to make Vista solid, so far it isn't ... And it doesn't help either that half of all existing Windows software STILL doesn't work with it... I don't hate Vista, it's just of its "bloatiness" as Jason said... The computers I have at home aren't exactly beasts and Vista wasn't really helping them...

At least until I get a better computer, I'm sticking with XP... and even then I still like XP...

What really bugs me more is that I like Microsoft but if you have seen those Apple ads they are all about bashing Microsoft and mostly Vista these days and I get really annoyed by the fact that what is suggested is not far off from the truth...