Game Development Community

Distance based LOD

by Mitja Mlakar · in Torque Game Engine · 01/03/2004 (6:41 am) · 3 replies

Is there a way to make LOD based on object's distance instead on pixel size.
I think it will be better because of different screen size - on higher resolutions LOD changes on higher distances.
I am artist not programmer so I have no idea how to do this.
Mitja Mlakar's profile picture
Torque Owner Mitja Mlakar

About the author

Recent Threads

  • View Poly Count
    • NextNext Thread
    PrevPrevious Thread
    More from Torque Game Engine


    Torque Owner Mark Harmon
    #1
    01/03/2004 (10:24 am)
    Sure, you could rewrite the selectCurrentDetail methods in tsShapeInstance.

    Associate Ben Garney
    #2
    01/03/2004 (12:55 pm)
    That is actually why Torque does pixel size rather than distance. If you're running at 320x240, it's unnoticeable if everything goes to very low LOD quickly. But if you're at 1600x1200, it's very noticeable until things are quite a far ways away.

    By figuring the object's pixel size, you know exactly how much impact a LOD switch would have.

    Torque Owner Alex Swanson
    #3
    01/05/2004 (11:52 am)
    Yes, it also helps with performance issues because it means that someone who is running at low res (probably on a low-end graphics card) will get lower detail levels generally than someone running at very high res.

    It makes the artists job easier, because by using pixel height you guarantee that the user will see the exact same LOD switch at any resolution - so the artist can tune the LOD to be unnoticable. If you based it on distance, people with low res would be wasting performance rendering detail that they couldn't see, and people with high res would be able to see obvious LOD changes in distant objects.