Making LOD models

[Tels]

Making LOD models is more fun than I thought, esp. if the original models are of a very high quality. Than you can really save tris, and the player can still enjoy all the high details:

 

 

Although in the end I settled for 64 tris in a bowl-shaped patch, this still makes it 64 tris in one surface, compared to 1044 tris in two surfaces for the original

 

The more bright surface corrects for a correct in-game look, and you can see in the distance it looks like it floats, but if placed on a dark background similiar to the rocks, it will blend in ok.

 

[Tels]

Revisiting this I tried to make a low-poly aphrodite statue, because the lowest we got has about 1500 polies.

 

After many failed attempts I made something passable. The UV is totally wrecked, but it passes esp. from the distance this is going to be used. 430 polies vs. 1500 will save a bit rendering, too:

 

 

From a distance it doesn't look so bad:

 

 

 

I have now set the distance where the verylow model is used at 2000 units. This will work, except maybe if the player uses the spyglass. (There is an open bug that the LOD distances should get higher if you use the spyglass. Apart from a few problems implementing this this also means you would get a stutter if you open/close the glass, and I don't think this will be good). Anyway, higher settings in the menu will make the LOD distance bigger, so it will look better.

 

 

 

Now while this statue is probably not so important (how many would there be in a given scene?), it shows how it can work for other things. For instance our gargoyle statues have >5000 polies, too. And if a few of these were f.i. used high-up on a tower or roof-corner, LOD models could really save some rendering time.

 

But that's for another day.