A question on LOD's

[3LSR(16aa) - Tradari 13]

I'm newish to model making in ARMA however a question has arouse that I'm hoping to find the answer to.

 

Does the LOD resolutions still apply? the wiki shows a reduction in the number of faces and polys the further away the item is from the player, however there is no stated ranges at what point these change and ,my "mentor" explains to me that there's no benefit in doing it as player will just complain of popping low res textures at 50ft away.

 

I've found the ARMA wiki showing 

 

Model                        res 1 res 2 res 3 res 4 res 5 res 6

T-100 Varsuk

Points                         27600 18400 11500 5100 2500 800  

Faces                         14100 9100   5500   2300 1200 350  

Sections                         12       12      12    12      11      7
 

are these still current? and where can i find the information on how far away a player is from the model before it switches to res 2 or res 3 etc

 

Best regards

Tradari

[da12thMonkey 1943]

The resolution LODs do not transition at set ranges any more - they haven't done so since OFP.

 

The distance that the LODs start to transition depends on various graphics settings of the client, and current game performance. That's why each res LOD is designed so that it has roughly half the number of faces of the previous LOD.

 

Texture resolution changes completely independent to the model resolution (the process is called mip-mapping). If the game is using a lot of VRAM to store many high-res texture you will occasionally see the game swap textures on certain models to low-res mip-maps or the original texture, while still displaying the highest poly resolution LOD. Unfortunately, mip-mapping even occurs in the view Pilot LOD, which is typically the most detailed model and the closest to the player.

 

Lots of mip-mapping in the scene becomes particularly apparent if you use 4k textures and materials because they use a lot of memory (BIS generally use textures no higher than 2k resolution)

 

Anybody who says making resolution LODs isn't beneficial it is a fucking idiot - don't listen to them. You'll only make the game's performance worse for players if you don't make them, and your model hogging performance will drive other models in the scene to start displaying low-res textures and dropping to their lower LODs so there is no net benefit if players are only seeing your model in high res when everything else looks worse.

[3LSR(16aa) - Tradari 13]

Da12thmonkey,

 

Thanks for your reply makes perfect sense.

 

Is there a limit to the number of resolutions used or should it always be 6, or would 3-4 do the trick?

[x3kj 1247]

More LOD levels reduces noticeability of popping. How many you need for it to look good can only be tested for each object.

Reducing by half until you are below ~ 300-500 faces is common practice.

[da12thMonkey 1943]

For models that are likely to appear several times in the scene (things like weapons and attachments) I personally go far enough down with the halving that the face count of the bottom LOD is as close to 100 faces as I can get it (ideally below). Often I end up with around 6 or 7 res LODs

 

But as x3kj said depending on the starting polycount; 5 or more res LODs going down to around 300-ish faces (mixed quads and tris) seems to be normal for a lot of the assets in the game.

 

I also recommend making your shadowVolume LODs very well optimised - as low-poly as you can go while still following the general outline of your high-poly LOD.

Generally you can afford to get rid of most concave surface details (holes etc.) from the shadow and keep the bits that stick out, since only a silhouette is projected on to other surfaces. Have a look at some of the Arma 2 sample models and see how their shadows look.

[3LSR(16aa) - Tradari 13]

Cheers for the advise guys really appreciated.