Hi folks, first a kind of disclaimer: Addressing different graphic technologies (Quartz 2D, OpenGL ES, Cocoa classes) I was quite uncertain in list I should write this posting: feel free to forward me to anyone you'll find appropriate ... I posted the same question to the Developer Forums, but they seem to be quite deserted.
I decided to re-think some basic drawing concepts of my app during this holiday season, and I'd appreciated your input to cover all bases. Therefore I'm not asking for specific code snippets or such, but for some advice, maybe pointing me to the right direction: In my app I draw several thousand lines on a canvas. These lines should look like three-dimensional objects, although the context lacks any z-coordinate: all lines are just draw above each other. Currently I fake the effect by drawing three NSBezierPaths for each line: A large black one to create the outline, a smaller one with the actual color, and a white one providing a highlight. Here's a link to a screenshot in the Developer Forum's thread, just to give you the idea: <https://devforums.apple.com/thread/81174> With over 10,000 lines, each one resulting in three paths (and color changes), you can image the performance. When I posted a similar question a year ago, I optimized the app to redraw visible lines only and checked the performance using Quartz 2D classes (not significantly faster), and although I hadn't received any user complaints about the performance, I'd like to improve it. Basically I came up this three alternatives: (1.) Use an NSGradient to achieve the 3D effect: as lines are drawn at different angles I'm not sure how to rotate the gradient, maybe perform a rotation transformation of the whole coordinate space? (2.) Use images to "stamp" the lines: each image needs to be repeated depending on the line's length, and rotated according to the line's direction (see above) (3.) Go for OpenGL ES: I never programmed OpenGL before, and I'm kind of afraid what it'll require to make the rest of the app work (hit testing, printing, drag'n'drop, ...) I think the only way to decide for the best way is a test app, performing several thousand drawings in each method, but did I miss any important approach? Do you know one of the mentioned methods not being worth the effort? Any suppestions, ideas, additions? Really appreciate your feedback! Merry Xmas to all of you, Matthias_______________________________________________ Cocoa-dev mailing list (Cocoa-dev@lists.apple.com) Please do not post admin requests or moderator comments to the list. Contact the moderators at cocoa-dev-admins(at)lists.apple.com Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/cocoa-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com This email sent to arch...@mail-archive.com
