Loading DX Textures in an imagelist - which is the fastest?

[Firlefanz]

Hello!

I am using the Omega headers and I am also a member there.
This is a problem of Omega, but everybody with knowledge in DirectX could help, so I post it here, maybe someone has a good Idea.

Omega has his own OmegaImagelists (like in DelphiX) which can store images. My problem is I have 19 mb of huge imagelists and it takes a long time to load them all, too long for me.

A solution would be having all images standalone on the harddisc, but I don't like that solution, 600+ images.

The problem is the Init method takes too long, and I am sure there can be an easier and faster solution.

How it works (in my understanding)

1) Loadfromfile loads the imagelist in a stream.
2) Init calls no 3 for every item
3) Item.Init saves the TPicture to a stream, then creates the texture needed from the new stream.

This one is called first to load the imagelist.

procedure TImageListCollection.LoadFromFile(const Filename: string);
var
  Stream: TMemoryStream;
begin
  Stream := TMemoryStream.Create;
  Stream.LoadFromFile(Filename);
  self.LoadFromStream(Stream);
  Stream.Free;
end;

Then the Init is called.

procedure TOmegaImageList.Init;
var
  i: integer;
begin
  if FOmegaScreen = nil then
    exit;
  FRenderer.OmegaScreen := FOmegaScreen;
  FRenderer.Init;
  if FOmegaScreen.Device = nil then
    exit;
  for i := 0 to ImageList.Count - 1 do
    ImageList.Items[i].Init;
end;

This one is calling the init of each ImagelistItem then.

procedure TImageListItem.Init;
var
  FD3DSurfaceDesc: TD3DSurface_DESC;
  Stream: TMemoryStream;
  sRealFilePath: string;
begin
  //Load picture from filepath if present
  FFilePath := Trim(FFilePath);
  if Length(FFilepath) > 0 then
  begin
    //Make relative paths absolute
    if (Pos(':', FFilepath) = 0) and (Pos('\\', FFilepath) = 0) then
    begin
      ChDir(ExtractFilePath(Application.ExeName));
      sRealFilepath := ExpandFileName(FFilepath);
    end
    else
      sRealFilepath := FFilepath;
    if FileExists(sRealFilePath) then
      FPicture.LoadFromFile(sRealFilepath);
  end;

  if (FPicture.Graphic = nil) then
    exit;

  FDevice :=
    TOmegaImageList(TImageListCollection(Collection).GetOwner).FOmegaScreen.Device;
  FRenderer :=
    TOmegaImageList(TImageListCollection(Collection).GetOwner).FRenderer;
  {
  If (FDevice = nil) then
  begin
   MessageBox(0, pChar('Error: no device assigned!'), 'Error', MB_ICONERROR);
   Application.Terminate;
  end;
  If (FRenderer = nil) then
  begin
   MessageBox(0, pChar('Error: no renderer assigned!'), 'Error', MB_ICONERROR);
   Application.Terminate;
  end;
  }
  Stream := TMemoryStream.Create;
  try
    FPicture.Graphic.SaveToStream(Stream);
    if FTileHeight <= 0 then
      FTileHeight &#58;= FPicture.Graphic.Height;
    if FTileWidth <= 0 then
      FTileWidth &#58;= FPicture.Graphic.Width;
    if not assigned&#40;self.FImage&#41; then
      if Self.Transparent = true then
      begin
        if failed&#40;D3DXCreateTextureFromFileInMemoryEx&#40;
          FDevice, Stream.Memory, Stream.Size,
          0, 0, 0, 0, D3DFMT_UNKNOWN, D3DPOOL_MANAGED,
          D3DX_FILTER_NONE, D3DX_FILTER_NONE,
          $FF000000 or Cardinal&#40;TColor&#40;OmegaColor&#40;self.TransparentColor, 0&#41;&#41;&#41;,
          //Self.TransparentColor,
          nil, nil, Self.FImage&#41;&#41; then
        begin
          MessageBox&#40;0, pChar&#40;'Error creating texture ' + Self.FName&#41;, 'Error',
            MB_ICONERROR&#41;;
          Stream.Free;
          Application.Terminate;
        end;
      end
      else
      begin
        if failed&#40;D3DXCreateTextureFromFileInMemoryEx&#40;
          FDevice, Stream.Memory, Stream.Size,
          0, 0, 0, 0, D3DFMT_UNKNOWN, D3DPOOL_MANAGED,
          D3DX_FILTER_NONE, D3DX_FILTER_NONE,
          0, nil, nil, Self.FImage&#41;&#41; then
        begin
          MessageBox&#40;0, pChar&#40;'Error creating texture ' + Self.FName&#41;, 'Error',
            MB_ICONERROR&#41;;
          Stream.Free;
          Application.Terminate;
        end;
      end;
    Self.FImage.GetLevelDesc&#40;0, FD3DSurfaceDesc&#41;;
    FRealWidth &#58;= FD3DSurfaceDesc.Width;
    FRealHeight &#58;= FD3DSurfaceDesc.Height;
    if FRealWidth < 2 then
      FRealWidth &#58;= 2;
    if FRealHeight < 2 then
      FRealHeight &#58;= 2;
    FHeight &#58;= FPicture.Height;
    if FHeight = 0 then
      FHeight &#58;= 1;
    FWidth &#58;= FPicture.Width;
    if FWidth = 0 then
      FWidth &#58;= 1;
    FNumOfRows &#58;= FHeight div FTileHeight;
    FNumOfColumns &#58;= FWidth div FTileWidth;
  finally
    Stream.Free;
    if Length&#40;FFilePath&#41; > 0 then
    begin
      FPicture.Free;
      FPicture &#58;= TPicture.Create;
    end;
  end;
end;

So isn't it possible to make a new methode called 'LoadandInit' that loads all and makes the textures and works somehow faster, maybe without that TPicture and Savetostream etc?

How can I make it faster?

Thanks,
Firle[/code]