Add to .drawRange the possibility to store multiple entries

It would be great if the .drawRange function could be an array storing multiple entries ( like the .groups array from .geometry) or even better, to be able to set a visibility value to each positions/vertex of a mesh.

https://threejs.org/docs/#api/core/BufferGeometry.drawRange

As for now, .drawRange work like this :

geometry.drawRange { start: a, count: b }

Instead, we could have this :

geometry.drawRange[0] { start: a1, count: b1 }
geometry.drawRange[1] { start: a2, count: b2 }
geometry.drawRange[2] { start: a3, count: b3 }

etc…

The reason behind this request is because I use a big mesh that I can’t split in different part ( ratio between drawcalls, numbers of triangles and loading time, where loading one big mesh is the best option in that situation), while at the same time, I can’t really use .drawRange because of the multiple intersection that the mesh must provide ( player map ).

Here’s an example :

Reaching the 2nd part (brown one with 30,60), the intersection will lead to either blue ( 90, 30 ) or ( ?, ? ), why " ?, ? " simply because If I set let’s say ( 300, 30 ), then, how could I render ( 30, 60 ) ( 300, 30 ) at the same time (without having to render a huge part like ( 0,330 ) ? this will mean that one part of the map will disappear / pop only when the player is inside.

Of course, there is a lot of alternative, but all of them add more complexity, performance and compatibility issue (knowing that I render all the texture by one shadermaterial + texture atlas).

In the end, I think making .drawRange not linear at it is right now would make it more powerful and versatile.

[WestLangley]

@zaykho Why can’t you use groups in your app, instead of drawRange?

var mesh = new THREE.Mesh( geometry, [ material ] );

[Mugen87]

Closing for now.