keygen extensions

Extensions in this section control a "key" system that was originally developed to be able to apply corrections to certain textures supplied by Sword of Moonlight that are incompatible with Direct3D 9. The key system generates hashes, or serial numbers, for each texture as it is loaded into memory. Corrections and other kinds of tweaks are associated with the hashes via INI files like IMAGES.INI. Keys can be stored in the Windows Registry to improve load times and or work directly with them.

The key dealing with textures is referred to as the "images" key. A "models" key also exists, for 3D models, however historically it is used exclusively for lighting, and can be simply generated at run time as each model is displayed for the first time. Theoretically this can cause one time dips in performance each time a model is first seen, however it is usually not noticeable except when many models appear at once. Of course when a map loads for the first time many models do appear all at once, but that is not an issue because it happens before the map is displayed for the first time. Caching the model key in the registry would improve load times but is not usually done.

The key system is expected to become increasingly obsolete over time. However it will remain a powerful way to organize tweaks to individual resources, and therefore will probably have some exclusive features to offer for some time to come. A "sounds" key is expected to be added before the end of 2013. The term key was consciously chosen to be eponymous with the prominent appearance of keys in King's Field and "dungeon crawler" games in general.