LODranges
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I thought I understood how the LODranges parameter works, but now I’m not sure anymore.
I thought that every number in the LODranges specified the distance at which a smaller level of the DDS was used. So
LODranges = 0, 4000, 16000, 64000, 256000
would mean that the largest bitmap would be used at a distance from 0 to 4000, the second largest from 4000 to 16000, the third from 16000 to 64000 etc.
But while setting up my large Space_Habitat_Wide_x25, I found that it doesn’t work this way. The largest bitmap of the thing is no less than 2048x2048, and thus it has 11 successive bitmaps.
Yet, it only seems work if I specify about 3 LODranges. When I use the above (LODranges = 0, 4000, 16000, 64000, 256000) the whole thing disappears when it’s more than 12K away from the player.
So, how do the LODranges really work??
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RimShot wrote:
these LODranges are related to the VMeshLibrary of the object model, not to the materials.Thanks for the reply!
Your answer gives rise to two more questions:
1. How, then, can I decide upon the optimal values for the LODranges of a given object?
2. How does the game use the bitmaps in the DSS? I presume the smaller bitmaps of the cascading DDS are used when the player is farther away from the object. Does this happen at fixed distances?
Thanks.
PS @ Rimshot: I really like the online system resizer!! Plz do not take it off; I used to do that kinda thing ‘manually’ (meaning, using the Windows calculator and Wordpad and doing it one-by-one). Btw does it work with negative values?
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1. assuming the model has multiple vms lods, i guess it depends on complexity and size of the object. or you can lay them out like original fl models of a similar type, best to try in game wether the switches are noticable or not.
2. i believe the material lods are only affected by the graphical settings in the game options.
PS. glad you like it, its been some time, without checking the code im not 100% sure but i think negative values wouldnt be a problem.
there is an executable program floating around, which should do the same, but i never tried it.
no intention of taking it down, id rather think about making an executable now that my c-skills are better, thats if the other program isnt doing the job. -
RimShot wrote:
1. assuming the model has multiple vms lods, i guess it depends on complexity and size of the object. or you can lay them out like original fl models of a similar type, best to try in game wether the switches are noticable or not.2. i believe the material lods are only affected by the graphical settings in the game options.
PS. glad you like it, its been some time, without checking the code im not 100% sure but i think negative values wouldnt be a problem.
there is an executable program floating around, which should do the same, but i never tried it.
no intention of taking it down, id rather think about making an executable now that my c-skills are better, thats if the other program isnt doing the job.1. Thanks, clear. Actually it isn’t much of a problem now I know it’s not related to the texture bitmaps
2. Thanks, also clear
3. Thanks, cool! An executable might be nice (provided it has an interface, don’t like command line utilis) because during the nightshifts I can bring my laptop but not connect to my employer’s network. What’s the name of that prog? And if ya like to write one, I’d love to test it
Btw it is also possible to mirror (X to -X or Y to -Y) a system, but it takes some contemplation (and a bit of trial-and-error) to calculate the angles, especially of paths. It might be nice to automate that too. (It has been seem time since i did that (using the calculator and wordpad), so it’s a memory rather than an actual skill for me at the moment.) Would that feature be hard to implement?
(What makes that especially hard, is the satellites. if an outpost is mirrored, its rotation will also change - but the ‘child’ satellites will remain relatively the same to the outpost. i have no clue about how writing utilities works, but I figure that this would be the most complex part. If you could write such a utility without this feature, I’d still like it.)
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