well actually to have LOD
we must modelise the 3D model
and with 3DSMAX or other
take the same model : bring number polys down export again to 3DGS
and save the model with name_1.mdl for example in
same directory as original model !

well it's very very very painfull to use LOD of 3DGS !
and there are not a lot fo people that use it because they don't want to do the very painfull process !
export 6 times (or less : i don't remember) the same model with diffrenet levels of details to game folder !
That's a real painfull work to have LOD !

Could we have a real time function to automatically precalculate LOD during level loading , or ingame for some cases ?
with the percent of detail we want and not the 6 fixed LOD of 3DGS ?
look at Torque Game Engine , it has parametrable LOD for animated models :
we specifie the percent of LOD and we have directly the result in screen(just try their demo) !

So perhaps we could have the same feature for LOD on animated MDLs
and static MDLs ?

Quote:

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look at Torque Game Engine , it has parametrable LOD for animated models :
we specifie the percent of LOD and we have directly the result in screen(just try their demo) !

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actualy torque use the same system as gamestudio
it just compiles all the different files into one file

but its the same, just better thought out by design

torque example:
1.make model in max
2. use multires to generate 4 lod models
3. use max dts exporter to compile into single .dts file
4. engine handle rendering and lod that is compiled into the single file

what you see in the demo is just a gui switching thru the lod models compiled into the .dts file

gs just need to compile all files to 1 .mdl and it will be the same system

all the commercial engine handle lod this way
they just compile the lod files into 1 file
instead of having name_1.mdl name_2.mdl name_3.mdl and so on

good sugestion expert i understand what your saying

i think you are wrong !

i played with torque demo :

you have an animated model :
and with a cursor in a bar you can move in realtime it
and have real time LOD : there aren't any fixed LOD :
the LOD is done in real time according to your cursor position !

Try the demo of Torque !

well ; i maintain it :
a function do precalculate LOD would be cool !

but i don't know how do others engines like Far cry with LOD ?
i think i will try Far Cry LOD to see how it works for them :
-integrated function to precalculate LOD Models ?
-real time LOD ?
-standard way : we have to give ourselves the diffrents LOD ?

i read somewhere that continuous lod is very bad for the vertex caches of modern gpus.

i guess that's one the reasons conitec will implement chunked lod for terrains instead of continuous lod. it's easier to implement and faster.

the current 3dgs model lod solution is ok. it doesn't really matter if there are separate files or all stages in one file.


...
a tool which automatically creates the lod stages would be very cool indeed. i have worked with tools which handle that perfectly. i think they basically work somehow like that:

they render all animation frames of models from several different angles and then a brute force algorithm merges combinations of different vertices.

then they do image comparisons to find out which reductions lead to the least differences.

this can take several minutes per model.

...
but there are a lot of much more important 3dgs features to be done first!

i think you're all right ventilator !

i've checked in other 3D engines and the best performance is not LOD in real time that takes CPU or GPU
but precalculated/stored LODs!

for terrain i know chunks tehnique :
usefull !

Bumpity bump bump bump

I'd like automatic continuous LOD.

No automatic LOD, but should be good enough: http://www.conitec.net/beta/med_manage_lod.htm