Manifest file improvement

[Vousk-prod.]

Hello everyone!

I'd like to discuss a little bit about the manifest that goes with the .babylon files.

For now, it contains an "arbitrary" version number (integer), and the loader checks if this number is greater than previous one to determine if 3D data an textures should be loaded from indexedDB or network.

Wouldn't it be more usefull if this version number could be a string instead of integer (with simple comparison between new string and previous one)? So we could, for instance, put the hash of the .babylon associated, allowing a more standard way to check if file need to be taken from cache or not.

If people can put the string they want, any kind of uid could be used to version the 3D and/or the textures associated. That would be really usefull.

Oh, and now I'm talking about manifest, I'm not totally sure for that but I think I've noticed several times that if we once have the .babylon cached in indexedDB and then set "enableSceneOffline" : false the .babylon file is still taken from cache on not loaded from server. Could it possibly be a bug?

[GameMonetize]

Ping @davrous who did this

I like the idea btw

[davrous]

Hello,

I need to do some testing as it used to work for the bool enableSceneOffline. Can you check using F12 that the .manifest file downloaded by the browser really has the bool set to false? It could be a cache issue. 

For your idea, I'm not sure to have understood the hash approach. Currently I'm using indeed an integer and if the version is different, I'm download the complete scene file (.babylon) & texture associated (based on the 2 boolean values).

For your hash idea, the hash would be on the complete file itself or on the URL?

David

[Vousk-prod.]

@davrous Forget the hash part. User will fill the value with anything he wants (hash or other data, no matter). 

The idea is just to allow the version value to be a string instead of an integer. So users will be able to manage those manifest with better efficiency (for instance by using some hash of 3D and textures files, or anything else, even in an automated way in continuous integration context or whatever).

Just check the string value, if new one is different from previous one, simply continue with your previous behavior (download .babylon & texture associated based on the 2 boolean values).

 

[Gil]

If i can add something, sometimes the actual manifest file isn't enough to force reload.

I have to be in private mode or add a string to all loaded meshes like this :

var version = '?0.3.1.0';
assetsManager.addMeshTask("MyMesh", "", "path/", "mymesh.babylon" + version);

To force a new url to load

[davrous]

Ah you're right. I've added a GUID after the .manifest URL to avoid that but didn't think about the .babylon file itself. 

[Vousk-prod.]

Oh and this explains why sometimes the .babylon is still the old one even when enableSceneOffline is set to false aftewards.

And you see, with string as version, if the cache process is correctly managed by BJS, a CI machine will be able to automaticaly set the manifest (with the hash of the .babylon file for instance) and no need then to bother manually with the manifest file! That would be awesome.