Lowest Level of Detail

[Syle Devin]

I seem to be posting a lot here but I am really testing with mesh and coming across a lot of things. Though others have probably come across this too. 

For anyone who might not know I am noticing that the lowest level of detail seems to weight heaviest on the Land Impact. 

 

I have a model that reads as such with triangles:

High: 188

Medium: 188

Low: 66

Lowest: 15

• Land Impact : .936

 

When I change just the medium the land impact barely is affected.

Medium: 66

• Land Impact: .930

 

Though if I leave medium back to the way it was at 188 and change lowest lod things seem to be drastic.

Lowest: 4

• Land Impact: .5

 

And that is only because of hte server weight. The download weight has gone from .936 to .085 due to 9 faces in the lowest LOD.

 

This is just what I am seeing and if anyone has any insight or comments. I am debating on whether or not I will get rid of my lowest LOD because what I am making is furniture that doesn't need to be seen far away and it will keep my Land Impact super low.

 Any advice or thoughts?

[Chic Aeon]

Yep. I most often set the lowest and even next to lowest if there is an issue to zero and can still see my builds perfectly from way across the sim. This may be the "low poly" way that I have come to do things. So you are indeed correct. Not a secret but always good to figure things out for yourself.  Note that tiny and thin things fall apart faster than big blocky things so keep that in mind. It won't take long to figure it out .

Now and then you might make something that you can only set SO LOW on the LOD scale. Most likely  you could make your own LOD file to get around this if it is important.

Presumably people don't need to see the dresser from all the way across the sim. If you are working with houses, then the rules kind of change. Some folks want to be able to see the house from two sims away. I so don't care .  It's all a point of view.

 

TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST   

 

See you on Aditi.

[Rya Nitely]

---

Chic Aeon wrote:

. If you are working with houses, then the rules kind of change. Some folks want to be able to see the house from two sims away. I so don't care

.  It's all a point of view.

 

TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST

  

 

See you on Aditi.

---

I make outdoor stuff, like castle ruins, and using a generated lowest LOD of 5 ( not made myself) I still see the full shape from a sim away. I do concentrate a lot on the medium LOD and get it to look as much like the original yet as basic as possible - usually end up with LI of 1 or 2.

But it does take a lot of testing testing testing :smileyvery-happy:

[Drongle McMahon]

Well done. The effect you discovered is the most important principle of mesh optmisation. If you make bigger things, you also need to know that it depends on the object size.

[Syle Devin]

Yea I figured it wouldn't be a secret I am quiet late actually to working with mesh in SL. I've always worked with mesh outside of SL but haven't started learning optimization for SL until recently. I always create my own LODs which is why it was hard to get low LI. I was trying to make that LOW lod have such a good look that I didn't realize that the object really didn't need to show up if your that far away. So I basically got rid of it. 

 

Thanks for the advice all.

[Kwakkelde Kwak]

Using Drongle's experiments as a guide you could estimate how large your object appears on screen at a certain distance. You could also do this by testing inworld with the help of a couple of simple tools.

If your object is, let's say, half an inch high, or 50 pixels or something, it's no surprise that using 50 triangles is not needed to represent the shape of the object.

[angels Kristan]

ii have the same problem too.. i been working on the faces and polys but nothing see to be working.. so some times i choose medium level and the problem get fix..i repeat..some times.