LOD Levels

[Springheel]

I've been working on some entities that use LOD. However, in order to decide what distances to have the swapping take place, I need to know what setting people generally use. The default is "Normal", but there are SIX different settings. I'd like to choose distances that look decent at the most common settings but still provide some benefits at the highest settings, but it's hard to do that without knowing what the most common setting IS.

[grayman]

Normal.

 

I've never played on any other setting.

[RJFerret]

Awesome, it'd be great to have more LOD models.

 

Better.

 

I found the changes were perceptible at normal, "better" they weren't apparent.

 

Edit: Now I see a poll, voted as such.

[nbohr1more]

I play at normal mostly but I have set it to lower on some maps.

[Springheel]

The difference between the various settings is quite large. If I set a model to swap in a low poly version at 500 units, the actual distance where that happens could be anywhere from 250 to 1500 units depending on what the player has selected.

[Mr M]

Sorry, what is LOD? Level of detection?

[Springheel]

Level of Detail.

[SteveL]

I use the Very High setting, because I always set game video quality to max before I even launch a game for the first time, then adjust it down if need be.

 

I'm not sure my settings have had a test in TDM though, just to complicate things for you further. Does that setting affect anything but LOD entities? And if not, how many maps use LOD extensively? In other words, my Very High might be identical to the default for all maps that I happen to have played, and so people might not find out what setting is right for their system until they try more maps that use LOD a lot.

 

Maybe you could set the levels to what looks acceptable to you on a slightly larger-than-average monitor, with a slightly above-average resolution. That makes sure most players will not be disturbed by LOD transitions. Then leave it to the player to tweak their LOD setting if they notice transitions or get slowdown. Not that it's ever occurred to me to try a different LOD setting on the few occasions I've got less than 60fps in a map.. it hasn't.

 

The only thing that would entice me to pause playing and fiddle with performance settings in a slow spot would be if there were a single "video quality" slide bar that ratcheted all relevant settings down or up slightly.

[RJFerret]

From my understanding/readings, only LOD objects are affected, and that may include SEED entities. In other words, that setting will have no affect on the vast majority of maps.

 

In addition, the distances are so great, it's only maps that feature said objects with long enough sight lines that performance impacts would be noticed. Jesps has a map that might apply (big open grassy area around a balloon) and I know my InnBiz is affected as I tested different levels for the grass and bushes in the cemetery (diagonal sight line from one corner of the map to another) in efforts to maximize performance. Other maps that I know of SEED usage I do not know if LOD objects were the SEED entities, and they have smaller visleafs I believe.

[Springheel]

I'm not sure my settings have had a test in TDM though, just to complicate things for you further. Does that setting affect anything but LOD entities?

 

Not to my knowledge. And very few maps use LOD entities (there simply aren't very many yet).

[RJFerret]

And those that we do have are hidden away from the rest of the models, only accessible through a different dialog, if you even know to look for them.

[Springheel]

That's one of the reasons I want to apply it to lights and doors; things that will already be entities.

[chakkman]

I chose better, because some maps lagged in some places. Not sure though if it had a big impact on performance, i also set the AA settings and the anisotropy a bit lower at the same time.

[Xarg]

Very high, though this thread did remind me to go turn aa/af off in TDM, and force the max values from the CCC suite.