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Oh, Here we go...

S

sc7500

SOH-CM-2013
I am intrigued by the whole LOD and MIP "thing"... researched it a little tonite and found some decent discussions on the Flanders Field group....

Does a detailed tute exist to explain the ins and outs of this subject ?

SC
:kilroy:
 
Hi SC.

Level of Detail and Mipping concerning ( gmaxed ) objects?

First, the viewport is what you see in the flight simulator window.

Mipping is for textures. An object's texture usually has sub-textures nested in it to allow simplification of the texturing due to the relative size of the object in the viewport. These textures are stepped in size from largest to smallest. MS' imagetool ( available in its many SDKs for FS ) will create them automatically on exporting. Mips are displayed automatically in the sim.

LOD is nested modeling, with simpler models ( less polygons ) being used as the object takes up less percentage of the viewport. These nested objects are not made automatically, but must be made within the modeling program ( gmax ), and attached to the main model as per the SDK instructions. While mipping is automatic, LODs are not created automatically, but will be displayed automatically. You can make LODs greater than 100, but it is usually not practical.

LOD and MIP have nothing to do with distance, but is dependant upon the percentage size of the object in the viewport... so zooming will affect the objects look, as the object takes up more of the screen.

All object textures should be mipped. The format of textures is usually spelled out in the SDKs, but examining the defaults in the sim will guide you to the right format for the texture, and imagetool should make the correct mips.

Objects can be LOD'd, but it isn't required. Simple objects with few vertices wouldn't benefit from LODing... that would include most objects that are not airplanes. ( they shouldn't be complex models as that simply burns framerates ).

Airplanes do need LODing... especially AI aircraft, because when the sky fills with these planes, framerates drop drastically.

Endusers need not worry about mipping, as the process is fairly automatic. If you think you need to alter the sims default textures to change their size or mipping, you are probably going to harm your sim's display. What you really need in that case is to get a newer computer, or learn to live with what you have.

LODs are the concern of the designer... you can't alter the LOD's of a model as an enduser. Aircraft designers should be concerned with making LODs within their planes. Object designers should not be concerned, as their models should be simple... if they are not simple, then make them so. There's no need for complex static objects in a flight simulator... the illusion of complexity can be done through textures.


Dick
 
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