[Info] LODs, how important?

[smee]

looking at a couple of PR models how important are the LOD 1,2,3.

Also to create them do i just clone the object and reduce poly's. Of course attaching in the hierarchy

[Rhino]

it really depends on the type of object but for the most part, its VERY IMPORTANT.

Good lods on a object can make the difference between a map lagging to hell and not.

If its a high poly object of any sorts, it needs lods, espically large objects such as buildings.

hummm let me see if I can find the lod pics I took the other day for this other guy of my new Sangar.

login stupid msn......

right here it is. Now here is my lod0 of my Sangar, a pretty high 6056 polys, high for a object like this but that's because I've done many things in 3D that would normally only be done in 2D, but this really dosen't matter too much because of the lods which you will see, cut down heviliy on the polys.
also note: lod0 is only seen by high gfx users up close, low gfx users never see this model.


Now here is lod1, 4406 polys, quite a bit taken off of lod0, removing small details etc thou it looks more or less the same. This object was just a clone of lod0 thou then had the details taken off by both hand edits and multirezing etc. Its mainly things like the hesco are sligthly more optermized, the 3D corrugated iron dont have ends to it etc.
note: this is what low gfx users see up close and what high gfx users see from a bit away, how much depends on the object's settings defined by the exporter/coder.


Here's my lod2, 172 polys, a huge reduction from before and is what both high gfx and low gfx users see from around 75m to 100m away. I basically made a new object for this LOD, thou used some bits and edited them from the old one.


Here's my lod3, 42 polys, this is what players see from like 300m +, remember this object draws upto around 1km so you need a object as simple as this to render at distance. from a distance, it basically looks like the same thing just because simply the silhouette of it is more or less the same, apart from there is no windows / shooting holes though it thou at a distance, these would be so small you can barly make them out.



It is also a good idea to look at other object's lods in the editor to get ideas on how to make your own lods, espically looking at objects similar to yours.

To do this all you need to do is load the object in the object editor, then select the lod you want to see:




Hope that helps.

[smee]

wow nice. thanks Rhino

If a model doesn't have say a LOD03 does it try to render out the LOD1 or LOD2 ? I thought that LOD0 was only rendered at close range.

[Rhino]

yep, I dunno what the max amount of lods really is but I've never reached it, you can also stop your object drawing before the draw distance which is good for small objects such as props, such as a hammer, a vars or w/e that only need to be seen up close.

and yes, lod0 is only rendered at close range BUT only by high gfx users, low gfx users will only see lod1 up close, so make sure you dont do anything like delete inside walls of a building on lod1 otherwise lod1 users wont see ****

[smee]

lol Ghost maps

[motherdear]

any chance we could add this to the tutorial tips so that we can always have this lod information at hand, might be usefull. and good job explaining rhino

[Rhino]

bookmark it

this only scratches the surface tbh, there is loads more info on how to make lods, how to make them as good as possible etc.

[smee]

Does Lod 1 have to have Col's or will the Lod 0's work?

[Z-trooper]

Rhino, we should make a decent static tutorial/info library.
We keep answering the same questions over and over again. If we channeled all that work into 1 piece of work we could just point people to that

But oh boy that would be a lot of work :/ work we could spend on making more stuff.
In the long run it might save us some time though.

[Rhino]

smee, the one on the left looks about right but ehhh, what version of max is that? looks like 2009 or something, they are VERY buggy to export with.... you should be using Max9 or Max8...

Also this topic here has a lot of info that can help, just showing my progress of making the Container Crane for Muttrah

https://www.realitymod.com/forum/f316-2 ... crane.html

Rhino, we should make a decent static tutorial/info library.
We keep answering the same questions over and over again. If we channeled all that work into 1 piece of work we could just point people to that

But oh boy that would be a lot of work :/ work we could spend on making more stuff.
In the long run it might save us some time though.

lol oh god, it would take a solid month if not more of hard work to put together a entire tut on everything about statics, from start to finish

But I agree, needs to be done...

Maybe if some one pays me to do it I might be more willing?

BTW I take Cash, check, hookers and booze

[smee]

Nope using Max 7 as with your prevous advice to do. I try to listen

[Rhino]

ehhhh, I only ever suggest Max8 or Max9, best to use Max9 like everyone else thou if you can...

Should be ok with Max7 thou but never used that but pretty sure the tools support it.

[smee]

will have a look around for MAX 9

[e-Gor]

Max 7 works fine. The only reason to upgrade is if you're working with other people with a newer version, since they change the formats each time so they're not backwards compatible - i.e. you can't open a max 9 file in max 7. For BF2 modding none of the new features are even remotely relevant, so there's really no other reason to upgrade.

8 and 9 do seem to be slightly more stable than 7, but I'm not entirely sure about that.

[Rhino]

8 and 9 do seem to be slightly more stable than 7, but I'm not entirely sure about that.

I'm not sure about stability but max9 out performs max8 by loads, main reason why I switched from 8 to 9.

[{ZW}C-LOKE]

Just out of curiosity and for reference, what are the PR LOD distance limits, for LOD's 0,1,2,3?

[Rhino]

lod switching distances depend on the object and the lod. There are no set rules.

EDIT: your best off looking at similar objects to see how they are done, then matching them more or less but also probably an idea to ask for some advice from someone who knows about this stuff.

Also this tut should help some what, its for handheld weapons and about making/baking 3p models/textures etc which you don't need to do for vehicles etc (in most cases) but Step 8, Step 13: LOD Distances and Step 13: Cull Distances are worth reading, mainly the last two.
https://www.realitymod.com/forum/f189-m ... apons.html