LoD-System for Cycles/Internal

  • December 11, 2013
  • 149 Downloads
  • 0 Likes
  • Blender 2.6x
  • Render: Blender Internal
  • Creator: formfollowsfunction
  • License: CC-0
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Description:

What is LoD / Level-of-Detail, well Wikipedia says: In computer graphics, accounting for level of detail involves decreasing the complexity of a 3D object representation as it moves away from the viewer or according other metrics such as object importance, viewpoint-relative speed or position.

__When/Why to use it? __This technique is usually used in games to increase the performance obviously. However, I was working on an old project where I had a particle system with millions of objects, though it rendered quite well I wanted to keep the render time low and inspired by this video I made a simple system.

__How does it work? __The target object gets a Decimate-modifier. The ratio of that modifier is triggered with a driver related to the camera distance. The actual minimum/maximum-distance [(10/(x-1)] can be modified by changing the multiplicator eg. [(25/(x-1)]. Actually it's simply an influence curve like you know it from the Graph-Editor. I wouldn't have figured this out without the help of a good friend, kudos to him! If you want to try it, just press ALT-A to enjoy that cinematic animation I prepared for you! :)

Technical Support If it doesn't work in first place click "Reload trusted" in the info-panel to gain python support.

lod level of detail Performance polycount

Comments:

  • FayZee profile picture
    FayZee

    Thanks for including the animation, that illustrates it nicely.

    Thank you for working this out and sharing.

    Edited December 12, 2013
  • formfollowsfunction profile picture
    formfollowsfunction

    You're welcome - I'm happy if somone finds a use for it =)

    Written December 12, 2013
  • elbrujodelatribu profile picture
    elbrujodelatribu

    Thanks for your materials and node setups. They are very useful

    Edited December 13, 2013
  • RandomModelCreator profile picture
    RandomModelCreator

    Now, is there a way to do this in the game engine?

    Written July 22, 2015
  • formfollowsfunction profile picture
    formfollowsfunction

    As far as I know LOD is implemented internally in the BGE since one or two years, so you don't need any type of driver :)

    Written December 12, 2015