Christopher James Huff <chr### [at] maccom> wrote:
>> So, when using meshes in unions, how efficiently are they saved?

> A copy of a union containing a mesh will get a copy of the mesh, but 
> that mesh copy will only contain a reference to the original data, just 
> like ordinary mesh copies. (I'm making an assumption here, I haven't 
> tested this...but if it does something different it is probably a bug)

  However, you should note that using a sphere-shaped mesh and copying
this mesh many times will not save any considerable amount of memory
compared to using just regular spheres.

  You will start saving substantial amounts of memory if you make a mesh
with many spherical shapes (eg. tens or hundreds of spheres) and copy this
mesh. Of course it is only possible if there are big groups of spheres which
can be copied as is.
  That is, it's important to make 1 mesh with many spheres in it, and then
copy that mesh (if it's possible in the used model), not making a mesh
with 1 sphere and copying that.
  (Of course I used "sphere" as an example shape. You can, of course, use
any shapes you like.)

-- 
#macro M(A,N,D,L)plane{-z,-9pigment{mandel L*9translate N color_map{[0rgb x]
[1rgb 9]}scale<D,D*3D>*1e3}rotate y*A*8}#end M(-3<1.206434.28623>70,7)M(
-1<.7438.1795>1,20)M(1<.77595.13699>30,20)M(3<.75923.07145>80,99)// - Warp -

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