Loading Game Resources

["Lamarche, Denis" <dlamarche@...>]

Hi, Im trying to make a game using Lua.  I have different sectors in my game
that I call rooms.  Each room has a script for it.  In each of these
scripts, I load/unload game resources(bmp) and do some room AI.  Right now I
am loading the resources like this:
A1_door = Load_Animation("c:/animations/anim1.dat")
--Load_Animation is a 'C' function that loads the animation data file
"c:/animations/anim1.dat" and returns an index to the array the animation
structure was assigned to (in C).  

Now what is happening is that I start in room 1, and load an animation.
Then I move to room2 (and do whatever), and then move to room 1 again.  And
of course the animation is reloaded and assigned to a new index in the
array.  now there is two of the same animation in the array and the A1_door
var has the index of the second.  How can I make it so that when I go back
into room1 the second time, I dont reload the animation??  I want to keep
the animation loaded.  I've tried a hash table (in 'C') with the filename,
but what do I do when I want to create a new animation using the same
animation file as another anomation in the array.  I hope this makes sence.
How do you guys do it?

Note: when I use the term 'array' Im talking about doing it in 'C' language.

Denis Lamarche