Hi guys !!
In the light of some recent events I think it's time we talk about lods again.
--- What is a lod ? ---
A lod is a very low poly model that the game uses when you zoom out to prevent your gpu from melting or at least having a hard time rendering a whole city.
The lod appears sooner or later dependng on your graphic details setting.
People with fast gpu's will notice them less often, but when you take a general picture of a city there is no way avoiding them.
--- Why do I need to add a lod to my building ? ---
If you don't add a lod the game will try to create one for you.
Sometimes (very very rarely) the automatic lod can be "sort of" ok... but most of the time it looks very bad.
Some people try cheating by adding the main model as a lod. This works but is very bad for the players that use their assets.
--- How to make a lod ? ---
There are several methods.
Some start from their main model and remove everything they can, some create a whole different geometry looking like the main model.
Lod texturing can be done with partially automated methods (mostly texture baking).
We will discuss those methods (maybe some people will come with unusual ways that can be of some use for others).
This thread will be here to regroup any information about lods, but I'd like to do something else... and some might not really like it, be warned.
A few weeks after game release, some people included me have tried to some kind of "seal of approval" for assets that were great looking and had a custom lod and a custom lod texture.
We commented on the workshop asking for creators to add a lod or mention it if there was one.
The amount od creators that answered was... very low !!
So... I think we should post here all examples of bad looking lods that we find, first to warn people who would maybe download those assets that look good in the thumbnail but are actually bad looking, but also to motivate the creators to make a little effort and fix the things they upload to the workshop.
Because, and I hope you'll all agree, we don't need good looking workshop thumbs, we need actual good looking assets... and not only in particular conditions, we need assets that work like they should, ALL THE TIME.
In the light of some recent events I think it's time we talk about lods again.
--- What is a lod ? ---
A lod is a very low poly model that the game uses when you zoom out to prevent your gpu from melting or at least having a hard time rendering a whole city.
The lod appears sooner or later dependng on your graphic details setting.
People with fast gpu's will notice them less often, but when you take a general picture of a city there is no way avoiding them.
--- Why do I need to add a lod to my building ? ---
If you don't add a lod the game will try to create one for you.
Sometimes (very very rarely) the automatic lod can be "sort of" ok... but most of the time it looks very bad.
Some people try cheating by adding the main model as a lod. This works but is very bad for the players that use their assets.
--- How to make a lod ? ---
There are several methods.
Some start from their main model and remove everything they can, some create a whole different geometry looking like the main model.
Lod texturing can be done with partially automated methods (mostly texture baking).
We will discuss those methods (maybe some people will come with unusual ways that can be of some use for others).
This thread will be here to regroup any information about lods, but I'd like to do something else... and some might not really like it, be warned.
A few weeks after game release, some people included me have tried to some kind of "seal of approval" for assets that were great looking and had a custom lod and a custom lod texture.
We commented on the workshop asking for creators to add a lod or mention it if there was one.
The amount od creators that answered was... very low !!
So... I think we should post here all examples of bad looking lods that we find, first to warn people who would maybe download those assets that look good in the thumbnail but are actually bad looking, but also to motivate the creators to make a little effort and fix the things they upload to the workshop.
Because, and I hope you'll all agree, we don't need good looking workshop thumbs, we need actual good looking assets... and not only in particular conditions, we need assets that work like they should, ALL THE TIME.
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