Hi All

Have any of you tried to implement a terrain LoD? As in, a secondary lower poly/graphics terrain underneath the normal terrain, so that a player can max out the distance viewable, and see a lower quality version of the terrain in the distance?

I beleive both Oblivion & Fallout 3 use a terrain LoD to great effect.

Many thanks

it's builtin

So its doing it already automatically? How can I modify its settings? Specifically I'd like the engine to be loading secondary (and much smaller) textures at a distance, and a higher res texture closer to the camera.

I can see the terrain poly LoDing automatically with wireframe on, didn't fully appreciate that it was doing that before - but on larger worlds i'd like it to be using even fewer polys at a distance - is this possible?

you should increase area size so there will be fewer draw calls for bigger worlds, for lods - most optimal tris setups are already chosen

(05-18-2011 07:24 PM)Esenthel Wrote:  it's builtin

I beg to differ. Unfortunately there are no practical and good terrain LOD parameters implemented yet. But it would be great to have it. It would optimize ones game drastically.

Here are couple of examples:
In the first picture is a screen from Esenthel. Notice how dense wireframe in the distance actually are (and thats a half of polygon resolution). The distance is about 1.8Km from the camera to top of the mountain. Black lines is my scribble of how LOD should look like with correct parameters incorporated.
   

In the second picture is example of UDKs (I know, not fair -but it had to be done ) terrain LOD parameters optimization. You can play with parameters, but bottom line is that you need to have freedom to choose your terrain LOD -every game is different and it demands different approach concerning optimization.
   

(05-21-2011 11:37 PM)dominoe Wrote:  but on larger worlds i'd like it to be using even fewer polys at a distance - is this possible?

I agree, viewing even a few-poly moutains far, far away from user (like in WoW) is very desirable and looks awesome.

bump?

I'm absolutely for adding manual terrain LOD settings, bump

added to the roadmap