Caching of model skins

[Enjay]

Is caching of model skins meant to happen or not?

I have "Precahce GL Textures" enabled but when I enter a room that has a lot of models there is a momentary pause as the models come in to view. Thereafter it is fine and I can leave and re-enter the room as many times as I like without the pause happening again. This implies to me that, until I saw them for the first time, the model skins (being the largest parts of the models data-size-wise) were not in memory but were after that.

I know that model skins and GL textures are not the same thing but I was wondering if skins are supposed to be cached or not and, if they aren't, is there any chance that could be added at some point?

[ibm5155]

Here is my crazy idea

1) don´t let the player move/fire
2)put a black screen on player
3) put a string [loading]
4) do all the textures in map show in the direction of you are looking (do a change texture)
5)summon all the mosnters then remove it
6)take the black screen, remove the loading and let the player move

With this i think it could solve your problem (with a hard work of course)

[Enjay]

Well, it's model skins that are the problem but, yes, that can work and I've resorted to temporarily putting models in the player's FOV at map load before but it's an ugly work around that isn't always easy to implement (or even possible - think about a gameplay mod with no levels). An actual engine feature would be much better if it was not too much work.