Higher + lower geometry mesh

[Pamela Galli]

Is this a principle?

If a small high geometry mesh (eg fancy handle) is joined to a larger lower geometry one (eg window) the smaller one's geomtery is calculated as if it is as large as the window?  (I can't think how to say what it is I mean.)

 

But if the high geometry thing is uploaded separately from the lower geometry one, then the combined LI of the two meshes will be lower than if joined?

 

I have seen this at work on drawer pulls on large furniture, and it just occured to me that if I detach the handles from the windows the combined LI might be lower. I was wondering why I could not get them lower LI. I am going to experiment and see if this happens. 

[Drongle McMahon]

Assuming you mean joining the two objects in Blender, compared with uploading them as two Blender objects, then yes, that is true. The reason is that the LOD switch distance is determined by the size of the whole mesh prim (object in Blender). So the small detailed mesh part will be downloaded and displayed for cameras in a much larger area. The download weight calculator knows this and takes account of it in the calculation. using separate objects is a way of dealing with the mixture of different scales of detail like this. The other thing you can do is make much more drastic reduction of small details than of bigger details in the medium LOD etc. That will be rewarded with  a reduced weight too.