[Bf-funboard] Un-build effect

[Robert Wenzlaff]

At 10:26 PM 11/23/04, you wrote:
>Hi,
>
>Since there is already a 'build' effect, there should also be an 
>'un-build' one. This might be useful for showing a snowman melting??
>
>However, is it possible to have the build effect fill-in random faces as 
>an alternative to revealing them in a sort of spiral?

As said by others, a time IPO can turn the build into an un-build.

As to randomness, build just goes in the order the faces are in the data 
structure.  HASH solves the similar problem for particles by 
re[dis]organizing the data. Unfortunately, this doesn't touch the face data.

As to why there isn't a lot of configurability in the build effect:  the 
build effect is one of those "coded for a specific animation from the 
NeoGeo days" leftovers. It served its purpose, and was promptly forgotten...

The real question is whether we take time to extend this feature, or port 
it to a python script and remove it from the C codebase.  Setting the alpha 
on a face is not particularly processor intensive, even for large meshes, 
and since it's a relatively obscure effect, it seems down grading it to the 
status of "plug-in" seems logical.

Along those same lines, could the effects system be set up for real 
plug-ins?  (Since if we ever do remove "build", the effects menu will be 
pretty bare. Wave and Particle will get lonely...).

Robert Wenzlaff