When is it OK to "zero out"?

[Chic Aeon]

As I was uploading tonight I noted that while I planned or keeping the low and lowest LODs, it became obvious in testing (and the new FS LOD info) that there was no point at all to having the item viewable at 111 meters or whatever.

I am posting here mostly because folks have asked me in IMs about LOD saying "I would NEVER zero out". We have been on a bit of a witch hunt here of late -- not as personal assaults but pointing out that some creators actually CHEAT purposefully with disastrous results. While all that is true, there are some instances IMHO when having long viewable LODs for low and lowest is just -- well useless comes to mind. Here is an example. These are track lights that go on a wall cabinet that will obviously be indoors in a house. I can't imagine any house big enough that the lowest LODs would be used. 

Keeping the low and lowest LODs even at default or minimal rates made this item 6 land impact.  As is, it is 3 and visual testing shows that there is no noticeable change in shape  as you cam out for WAY further than a house interior would be.  

So just something for folks to keep in mind.

 

Edited March 13, 2018 by Chic Aeon

[Zoxin UwU]

Personally I usually reserve zeroing LODs on large stuff like statues or buildings (although I've found stuff at the max 60m are viewable at the highest(?) LOD at each sim corner), because by the time you get to even the second to last LOD setting, it's far out enough in the distance that it's either out of your render distance or you ain't paying attention to it. If I need to create something for an interior or something smaller, I will typically create custom LODs to forcibly keep a respectable shape at all distances, it's really not hard to achieve that low LI this way.

I'm not entirely void of sin in this regard, though, there are simply some things you have to look closely at to notice zeroing and whilst not entirely justified, are not going to cause anyone to stay up at night as they cackle maniacally, plotting some sort of ludicrous plot to get me...

...I hope. 

[ChinRey]

5 hours ago, Zoxin said:

Personally I usually reserve zeroing LODs on large stuff like statues or buildings (although I've found stuff at the max 60m are viewable at the highest(?) LOD at each sim corner), because by the time you get to even the second to last LOD setting, it's far out enough in the distance that it's either out of your render distance or you ain't paying attention to it.

Yes but if it's that big, you won't actually save much land impact by zeroing out the lower models. The LI calculation does take draw distance into account and any LoD level that has a switch point higher than 128 m with RenderVolumeLODFactor set at 1 will not affect the land impact at all no matter how many triangles it has.

 

On 13.3.2018 at 4:02 AM, Chic Aeon said:

These are track lights that go on a wall cabinet that will obviously be indoors in a house. I can't imagine any house big enough that the lowest LODs would be used.

I absolutely agree with you there. If we want to make efficient LoD models we shouldn't only think of view distances but also lines of sight. Indoors items don't need to be visible at large distances. It's the same with builds inside sky globes. I do rent out a few of them and some have houses that have absolutely rubbish LoD models that I would never dream of allowing down on the ground. But inside a globe it's no problem at all since they will never be visible at any distance anyway.

That being said, I would never use "zero models" generated by the uploader. There are two reasons for that. One is that you hardly ever need to go that far. A cube with 12 triangles and a single face has the lowest download weight a LoD model can possibly have and even with multiple faces it's easy enough to make a custom model that is at least as LI efficient and far less of an eyesore than the ones the uploader can cook up. The other reason is that if I want to zero out a model, I want to really hide it. Those track lights for example: one triangle for each face, all flush with the roof and pointing upwards, and a loose vertice below them to define the lower boundary. It only takes a minute to make and it will hide the object completely which is always a better option than those disjointed triangles the uploader seems to love.

[Chaser Zaks]

In my opinion, production models(Stuff intended to be sold or permanent structures in a sim where residents will see it), should *never* zero out the LODs unless there is a VERY  GOOD reason to do so, such reasons being stuff that won't generally be visible from that distance such as grass.

If you have already made a mesh with the lowest detail you can(My preferred preference is the lowest detail will have less than 16 polygons for small models, 32 for medium, and 64 for large), use the "Use above" option. This will reuse the mesh model and reduce streaming cost.(If I recall correctly)

If you are just uploading a joke model(EG: Giant text, memes, 65536 polygon sphere, etc), by all means, feel free to zero out stuff to reduce the upload cost if you do not intend on using it in a production environment.